tony b

Very kewl - personalized, signed copy.

Insane, but I'm not ready, just yet, to convert my hot tub into a giant sous vide bath!

As long as you don't open them, the coolers should hold. Do you have a remote thermometer that you could put inside and monitor the temps without having to open the lid?

Great. I'll look next time I'm in PetSmart.

Thanks, Dennis. I'll experiment with the different tube positions and see how much variation I get.

No, I didn't get the adjustable one. Mine is 3 L/min, about midway through the range that Dennis recommended. I will see how much variation I get by adjusting the tube insertion inside the gun. I can also cut the flowrate roughly in half by disconnecting one of the pump outputs (it has 2 that I've tee'd together).

Well, fired mine up for the 1st time last night. Had been brining a piece of Alaskan salmon for 2 days. Rinsed and air dried in refrigerator for several hours. Filled the smoker gun with alder chips (from Fruita). First tried to light it by dropping in a small lit piece of charcoal. It kept going out. So, out came the MAPP torch and I lit'er up through the side hole. Then, turned on the pump and boy did the smoke come out!!! Plugged into the guru port in the KK and smoked poured out of everywhere - out the top vent (just cracked open), out the front and back doors, out the temperature probe port. Crazy! Oh, I had the air tube about 1/2 way in on the screw threads. Made a guess that this was a "medium" setting, with fully inserted is "low" and almost out is "high???" Since it's been seriously hot and humid here, I wanted to do this as an overnight smoke, as the overnight lows were supposed to be in the low 70sF. So I started this at 10:30pm. I woke up about 4am and went out to check on it. All the wood chips had burned up and the gun was stone cold. Have no idea how long it lasted. So, I reloaded and fired it up again. Went back to bed. Got up around 7am and checked it. It had gone out after burning about a handful of the chips. Stone cold again. So, I called it good and wrapped up the salmon in pink butcher paper. Plan is for bagels and cream cheese Saturday morning. I still have no idea how long a tube of chips will burn. So, lesson learned, this thing needs to be baby sat, unlike doing a low & slow cook on the regular KK setup. Next attempt will be during the day when I can watch it more closely. Thinking smoked pork chops.

@ckreef - good one, Charles. I feel your pain. Back when I was still working, there were plenty of days (especially winters) where I didn't see the sun all day - at work before sunup and leave after sunset. Suck butt is the right name for it! @MacKenzie - I will always be a kid at heart!

Nope! Not this kid! That "w" word is no longer in my vocabulary. But, very nice picture, nonetheless, Aussie!

For shorter cooks (under an hour), I don't use the smoker pot. It barely has time to come up to temperature and start smoke production before the foods ready to come off. For these cooks, I just judiciously place the chunks of wood around the burning lump to stagger them catching fire.

Not only have I not used it before, I've never even heard of it before?

Chips work fine in the smoker pot and definitely better than just tossing them onto the coals or wrapping in aluminum foil. But you should load'er up if using small chips to make sure you have plenty of smoke for longer cooks. If using chunks, 3 or 4 are plenty. I like to mix woods in mine usually - one chunk basic hardwood (oak, hickory, maple, mesquite, pecan) and 2 or 3 chunks of fruit wood (apple, cherry or peach).

I'll say!

Tasty, for sure!

Major calzone there, man!

Rocked it, dude!

Tomato looks awesome. I had my first off my plants tonight with my dinner salad. OK, a bit watery, but lots of others in various stages on the plants to look forward to! You put that broccolini in there just to mess with me, didn't you, MacKenzie! Has anyone done a true shawarma on their KK - stacked the chicken pieces onto a vertical rod??

@Steve M - I've never had an interference problem with my smoking pot and using the lower grate for my drip pan as the heat deflector. If you seriously overfill the charcoal basket, you might (I say MIGHT) create an interference problem, but the solution is simple, move charcoal around until the smoking pot fits. You definitely won't be able to use a smoking pot and put the ceramic heat deflector (or drip pan) on the handles of the charcoal basket.

Where else - Amazon! https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008ZA0F And here's the blower. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5FS7HA

I'm sitting here dying looking at that salmon and reading about all these amazing restaurants. Several are on my Bucket List. My stomach won't stop growling!

Wow. Good to know there were no bad outcomes. Yeah Harbor Freight can be OK for some stuff (like a special tool that you only need once for a project), but their stuff is very cheaply made, so I'm not surprised by this episode. I'm in the Bernzomatic camp with MAPP gas. On my 2nd one and love it. I broke the trigger mechanism on the first one. Now with the neat new battery-powered blower, I'm all set for how I start my fires.

@MacKenzie - Smooches!

What stove? After I remodeled my kitchen, there's no classic oven, just a cook top, a counter top convection oven (which is used mostly for heating up breads), and the microwave above the cook-top. @dstr8 - thanks for several good tips. I've never seen the white vinegar bath to purge the mixing bowl. I knew about the need to remove the fats and soap, but no one ever said how? And I've never seen the tip about tracing the ring in the top before. And lastly, you had me with this little tidbit! Oh, hea-yall Yeah!