tony b

Gorgeous hunk of meat, MacKenzie! And, I won't make any comments about the broccoli in the mac & cheese! I know what that got me the last time on the nachos!!

You won't regret it. It's become one of my "bibles" in my cookbook rack!

Great looking spread! Did you bring home any hardware?

Killer looking pie, MacKenzie! I think that we're all as eager for you to get your KK as you are! We can't wait to see all the great cooks that you will being doing on it!

Nice looking cook Wilbur. Yes, timing dinners can be crap shoot on long, lo & slo cooks! Better to start way early and hold it in the cooler than having guests standing around drinking up all your booze waiting to eat!! My theory is the lack of sugar in the rub contributed to the lighter color on the bark, emgiii.

Stunning! Now I see where all the working capital for the KK business comes from!

I have their book - Beginning Sous Vide. It's great! I highly recommend it.

Yeah, right - no pasta, but how many hasslebacks did you eat! Nice cook!! If I had fridge space right now, I'd be all over those Umai bags!! Local corn is starting to show up at the roadside stands. I did ears each day over the weekend, straight onto the grill in the husks. Nothing better!!!

Great pics! My fav was the pooch "guarding" that brisket! Good boy! Hope he got a piece!

The difference between a KK and a BGE is like night and day! After your first cook on the KK, the BGE will be on Craig's List!! Just sayin'!!

I have a Guru with the 10cfm fan. Works great for me. Not familiar with Stoker design, but the Guru fan has an adjustable damper in the outlet, so you can throttle the flow to meet your needs.

Kinda. I used it to season a pan-fried boneless porkchop for breakfast yesterday - tasty! Still haven't put in on any actual Q yet, but on my list of upcoming cooks.

Here's the link that compares all the grills, if you hadn't found it on the main website. http://komodokamado.com/pages/compare-grill-s-features-and-specifications There's only 31 sq in of cooking surface difference between the two, not counting the optional lower grate on the 21". That's about half a sheet of paper! If you add the lower grate option, the total difference is only 54 sq in, or 3/4 of a sheet of paper. The price difference - $580 will buy a lot of meat and charcoal.

Don't forget to post those pics of that virgin cook (and all the others on your list!) Enjoy the ride!

I eat those raw!!! Can't wait to hear how it comes out actually cooked!

I'll ditto MacKenzie and DaveyR. I tried them but wasn't Wow'ed. They didn't last very long/wear down quickly. I'm a Grill Floss guy now.

Cold, MacKenzie, seriously cold!

Syz, that's just too damned funny!

So, MacKenzie, you've moved from Canada, eh, to Wisconsin, you betcha!

You're missing the point. One of the beauties of SV cooking is that it is so forgiving; you don't have to set a timer and wait for the bell to go off to say "Done," then scramble to prevent it from overcooking. You have a range of time, which allows flexibility to plan the dinner on most foods. Some things are a bit more precise, such as seafood and eggs, where the time does matter more, but for almost all meats, you can just set it up and serve it when you're ready. Hence, the ranges given in the book for the Flank Steak. (btw - those are 4 different cooking options - pick 1.) How many BBQ cooks have you done where you think you know how long it will take to get done, work backwards to a "start time," only to get to suppertime and it's not done yet? That's why most of us have learned to start way early and hold food by wrapping in towels and putting it in coolers until serving time. SV cooking is doing the same thing, it's holding the temp for you until you're ready to serve it; +/- an hour or two doesn't usually matter at all. Can you say that about cooking in a conventional oven or BBQ grill? NO, you can't. Why? Because you are cooking the food at 2 to 3 times the temperature that you want the food to finish at, so time is very important, otherwise you severely overcook the food if you don't remove it from the heat source promptly. As far as KK cooking goes, there is a lot of flexibility in cooking temperatures and we don't cook primarily based on time, but final internal temperature of the meat. For example on beef briskets - some folks like lo & slo (which is actually a range of temps and not a precise value), while others do hot & fast, or go Texas Crutch. There's no one "right answer." There are just too many variables involved in BBQing for scientific precision - meat quality (fat and moisture content, toughness), food shape/thickness, environmental conditions (windy, wet, cold), energy content of the charcoal, etc. That's why great BBQ is such an art, not a science. I'm an engineer, and will always think like one, but it's not essential to my being a good cook. At least, in my not so humble opinion!

From my SV cookbook tables for Flank Steak: Medium Rare: 131F for 2 - 12 hours Medium Rare (tender): 131F for 1 - 2 days Medium; 140F for 2 - 12 hours Medium (tender): 140F for 1 - 2 days So, based upon the above, it seems clear that the extra time is to alter texture and not doneness.

Another cookbook quality picture spread, MacKenzie. You have serious photog talents!

Your theory is spot on. That's why it's important to heat soak the KK, especially for cooks on the upper grate, like pizza. Heat Transfer 101: Conduction is the most efficient means of heat transfer. Occurs when an object (food in our case) is placed in physical contact with a hot solid object (grates) (or a water bath in Sous Vide). Next comes convection, the heat transfer to the food from the flowing hot gases (or steam). Finally, is radiative heat transfer. Least efficient of the three. Requires a very large temperature differential between heat source and object (food). Think the broiler in your oven. Believe it or not, color/reflectivitiy is important here, too. Shiny and/or light colored surfaces reflect heat, conversely, dark/dull surfaces absorb heat. No suprises there, we wear light colored clothes in the summer, and darker colors in the winter. Works exactly the same for cooking. That's why aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side.

Yummy looking salmon and I'm a sucker for crispy salmon skin! I'll give the coal stirring thing a try on my next high temp cook.