tony b

Did you ever get that immersion circulator for doing sous vide? That might be the trick to it. 130F bath for 4-6 hours, then a quick sear under the broiler to crisp up the bark and viola! Nearing the "pulling the trigger" point myself. Been reading up on it over the holiday and am eager to experiment with it.

Don't be intimidated. It's not really harder, just different. And once you get the basics of temperature control down (which is actually not that hard), you come to find that it's really easy. Making great BBQ, on the other hand, is an art, regardless of what you're cooking it on. That's where the skill and experience come in. A very good buddy of mine built his own smoker out of an old hot water heater and he cooks some damned good Q on it. It's a real "Rube Goldberg" setup, but he makes it work for him.

Funny, but when I saw the bag logo, it immediately brought to mind another brand that I've used in the past - http://humphrey-charcoal.com/. The Whiz gave it a "Recommended" rating. I liked it when I used it.

Welcome Robalo247 & Sav. If you've never cooked on a ceramic grill before, prepared to be WOW'ed! Seriously. I've cooked on 4 different manufacturers of "kamado" style grills. The common denominator - great food! Probably the best roasted chicken you can find anywhere. And we won't even begin to talk about the Q! Like the others have said, don't be afraid to ask tons of questions and don't worry if you mess something up, we've all done it - more than once!

Will definitely give them a try. Here's my favorite source for good chile powder - http://www.penderys.com/ Been buying theirs for at least 20 years, if not longer.

My solution for stable temperature control on long, low & slow cooks - http://www.thebbqguru.com/index.html Owned mine for well over 6 years. Just like buying the KK, never looked back or regretted spending the money. Used it just last night to cook a 7.5lb bone-in, pork butt. Set up the grill/guru @ 3:30pm, butt went on @ 5pm, went to bed @ 10:30pm, KK was rock steady @ 250F, woke up this morning @ 7am, grill still dead on @ 250F and had hit my target meat temperature of 195F. Had a yummy pulled pork omelet for breakfast!! As the English say - "Easy, Peasy!"

If he's like the rest of us, he probably gave up trying to use the new Forum software - ARG!

First off, Welcome to the Club! Is the KK your first ceramic grill/smoker? What size and color is it? Yes, I believe that is the correct orientation. I have the older ash screen. Also, the link to the photo doesn't work anymore - arg! You will find that the extruded coconut charcoal from Dennis is more difficult to light than "regular" charcoal. Some folks use MAPP torches, weed guns, looflighters, etc., to light it directly. I mix it with regular lump charcoal in the basket and use a chimney starter with some lump in it to kick start the process. Good use for the really small pieces of lump in the bottom of the bag. Number One rule of ceramic BBQ grills/smokers - NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use petroleum based lighter fluids to start your fire. It will permeate the ceramic walls and you'll never get rid of that smell! Never tried the coffee wood, but I bet it's terrific for beef brisket! The rules of the Forum are that you have to post pictures of your first (virgin) cook. No pictures, it didn't happen!

Found this old post while searching for another potato recipe. Brought back childhood memories. The South Carolina trapshoot state tournament every year had a big pork BBQ on Saturday night and they always made these pine resin baked potatoes. They were heaven! I've never seen them anywhere else. They didn't cook them in pots of the resin though. They wrapped theirs in newspaper and tossed them in the resin to coat them and just threw them into the BBQ pit. Fished them out of the coals with a pitchfork. You broke them open and they were just so fluffy inside. I've never been able to duplicate that with aluminum foil.

Sorry, but the pictures aren't showing up - just black boxes with x in them. Don't we all just luuuv this new software!!!

Thanks for the Japanese knife web tip. I will definitely be checking them out!

Second what others have posted. It's as simple as it sounds and works great. Keeps meat hot for hours! I use an old beach towel, just in case of a leak. I wrap the meat in double foil, then wrap in the towel. Only used this technique with briskets, butts, and ribs, never chicken - although I don't see why it wouldn't work with poultry, too.

I own 3 Shuns and love them!! Just wish that they weren't so expensive; but just like a KK, you pay for superior quality!!!

Sorry Larry, but it's still not there. I just added some pictures of mine to the post.

I don't know if you searched the forum first, but there are a lot of posts about bending probes to fit through the port hole in the KK. Folks are always initially apprehensive, but if you take it slow and easy, it works about 100% of the time, regardless of the manufacturer. I don't ever recall anyone posting that they broke a probe bending it to fit through the port. First rule of the KK forum - when in doubt ASK; there are no dumb questions on here. We've all been there at one time or another and have probably made every mistake that you can possibly make!

Nice observation, Susan!

Thanks for the tip, Susan! The Anova is now in my "wish list" in Amazon.

Hey, if David Chang is promoting it, it must be a good idea. I'm just looking into doing sous vide cooking, so this looks like it has merit for me.

Works now. Just posted my review.

Sorry Dennis, tried to find it, but it's not showing up?? Tried several variations of searches (departments, keywords, etc.) - nada!

For your smoking wood, consider using a converted dutch oven as a smoker box. It will prolong your smoke over just tossing chunks on top of the fire. Here's another thread about that: http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/vi...ven+smoker+box I like to use a combination of a hard smoking wood (oak, maple, or hickory) and a fruit wood (apple, peach, or cherry) in the dutch oven for lo & slo cooks. 2 parts hard wood to 1 part fruit. If it's chicken or steaks, I just toss the chunks onto the fire to get smoke generation right away, as they are much shorter cooks than butts, ribs or briskets. I like to use mesquite or red oak for steaks - bolder smoke flavor. YMMV

Nice! Details on the prep and the cook, please!

Saaaweeet!

See my earlier post and you'll see why I got a cover for mine! You might want to ask others who live near saltwater whether there's an issue with corrosion of the stainless steel parts? Despite the name, stainless steel will corrode (aka, rust) in the right environment.

Elitists? No, just really smart people who know a great product when they see one and are willing to spend the extra money for the higher quality!! A KIA will get you from point A to B, but wouldn't you rather be driving a Lexus?