tony b

There's always Dizzy Pig's Red Eye Express, if you're looking for a good coffee based rub. I've never thought about using garam masala as a BBQ rub, but it makes good sense. I have done Sate seasoning from Penzeys before. Love it as a chicken and pork rub. Just discovered their Berbere rub - nice Moroccan flavors (sort of like a Ras El Hanout) with a nice heat to it. Huge Penzeys fan - most of my spices in the pantry, outside of my BBQ rubs, come from them.

Good Luck, Susan. I know how lucky I am to have a great butcher at my Farmers' Market. I just tell him what I need and he gets it. Sure, I'm paying more than at the local supermarket, but it's better quality and I get exactly what I want. So worth it!

Blasphemy! There's ALWAYS room for good Q. But that picture doesn't look AWESOME! Serious Q going on there. I saw Bobby Flay do a show from the Salt Lick. He says it's his favorite Q spot in the whole country. High praise indeed.

I have a second fridge in the garage (mostly for beer!), but I've been putting my fruit woods in the veggie bins. Fruita doesn't say to cold store the hard woods (oak, hickory, etc.), just the fruit woods. Thanks for the tip, Normstar. Will do my next one direct on the middle/lower grate. What temp? Somewhere in the 350-400F range?

My bad, it's actually referred to as "Santa Maria" style. It's tri-tip steak, rubbed with a nice garlic, lemon pepper rub, roasted and quick seared over red oak. There is even a specific Santa Maria style grill - with a chain drive to raise/lower the cast iron grate to control the cooking temperature. The KK does as good, if not better job, using the main grill and lower sear grill on a reverse sear cook. Look for the recipe at amazing ribs.com. I'd post the link to it, but can't with the new forum software and it's too long an address to type in manually!

So tempted to make an off-color joke about that last statement, Porkchop, but I'll refrain in the name of Forum Decorum!

Their red oak staves rock for doing steaks "Santa Monica" style. You will be happy with them.

Me, three!

Seeing that rib reminded me of the episode of BBQ Crawl the other night from Black's (near Austin), known for their humongous beef ribs. Check it out if you can while you're there - www.blacksbbq.com.

"Dem Bones" - too demmed funny!!

Yes, welcome! Like dstr8 said, PICTURES - Both food and new grill!

Susan, I share many of the same problems you do with the new Forum - can't copy/paste, can't imbed URLs to websites, or use the "quote" feature. At least the crashes stopped with the last update - HURRAY! So, to quote a previous President - "I feel your pain!" I seem to recall that it was Susan that first suggested to me to get a second charcoal basket to go with the splitter to make things easier to swap out. Good call on that one! Versatility is the name of the game here. So many options for setups and cooking methods, it just makes your head swim. From super high temp grill, to pizza oven, to lo & slo smoker, to rotisserie, it does it all. While I got my KK before Dennis finished designing the Big Azz 32", I doubt that I would have bought one that big anyway, but each to their own need, as they say! Regardless, you won't regret owning one of these beauties. They truly are amazing pieces of functional art!

This is exactly why we've missed you, Porkchop. Welcome back to the Forum!

It sounds like for the amount of cooking that you do at any one time, that the 23" is plenty big enough for you. But, I'm curious, what draws you to the KK (or any ceramic cooker) if almost all of your cooking is direct high temp grilling? While it does a very good job of that, that's not what it's famous for - low and slow smoking (actual barbequing) is what makes the KK stand out in the crowd (plus, how well built and beautiful it is, too!) I recently added the basket splitter and second charcoal basket to my arsenal of toys for my 23" KK. It just gives you more flexibility in cooking arrangements and isn't a necessity - imo. I don't know the date on those YouTube vids from Larry you were watching, but they are probably before the basket splitter was available as an accessory. Larry's vids are great info for how to cook on the KK, but be careful about extrapolating some of your conclusions based on them. Dennis, as well as the Forum members, are ready to answer just about any question you might have about the KK. So don't be shy or embarrassed; fire away!

Butter is great for lo & slo as the temperature is below the smoke point. Margarine, eewww!

I'm partial to apple and cherry, in addition to peach for fruit woods. Hard wood is usually hickory, pecan, or oak, some mesquite, bourbon and alder. Check out Fruita woods.

Great pics!!! Only been 2 years for me, but it seems much longer; my how time flies! Love my KK and can't imagine grilling/smoking on anything else!

Looks tasty, focused or not!

I have a Guru and love it. Like Susan said, "set it and forget it." There's a lot of piece of mind with that, especially if you have lots of other food to prep for, guests to entertain, etc. I only use it on butts and briskets, rarely on ribs (beef ones being the exception), never on chicken.

Welcome! Don't forget to post those pics of the first (virgin) cook. You will find a wealth of information here. If you can't find it in a previous thread, just ask. Forum members are glad to help.

Great pics! Love me some Dizzy Dust!

While I generally stick to the classics - ABTs with cream cheese and pre-cooked breakfast sausage, wrapped in bacon with Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust or chorizo with queso fresco, wrapped in bacon dusted with chili powder; I have experimented with different stuffings, in particular seafood. Try chopped raw oysters with Old Bay and crumbled Ritz crackers, no cheese, but still bacon wrapped dusted with more Old Bay. Chopped raw shrimp, with cocktail sauce, bacon wrapped with Dizzy Pig Tsunami Spin. Langoustine (lobster and crab work, too) with parsley garlic butter, crumbled Ritz crackers, bacon wrapped dusted with lemon pepper (think ABT meets Lobster Roll).

That's what you get for living out in the middle of the desert! So, you can image how much EC I have to go through when mine is sitting at -20F in the winters here in Iowa!! Glad to see that you got your old avatar back, too!

Hey, Porkchop's back!!! Long time indeed, brother! Glad to have you back. Learned a lot from you over the years! Thanks for sharing. I miss a lot of the folks from the old Forum. Let's hope that Dennis can coax them back.

Well, at least your POSK is being useful! Mine was addicted to crack and finally OD (top hat assembly fell off where the bolts entered the lid)! I still get emails from them, hilarious!! But, there were positives - the old Forum (back in the day) was great and I learned tons there (from folks like Porkchop, among others) and it got me started on ceramic cooking. So for all that, I'm grateful. And even though my "lifetime" grill only lasted 7 years, it was a good run compared to many others - and best of all, it lead me here!