tony b

Looks like it, @MacKenzie. I grow them, and in fact, I grilled 5 as my appetizer for dinner last night. (Yeah, no pics, didn't happen! LOL)

I thought the goal was to cook tasty food? 😁

Nice cook. Cute pooch!

These guys have hit the high points of what you were asking. We tell new folks, fill a cooler with your favorite adult beverage and grab a chair. Fill the charcoal basket and light a small spot. Just crack the top vent off the seat, open the bottom vent a 1/4 turn on the full dial side (temperature is not very dependent on bottom vent - just open to get enough airflow for whatever the top vent is set at.) Sit back and let it settle out, take notes of vent settings. Bump it just a bit and let it settle again. Take notes, open another adult beverage. Continue with this process until the KK gets to about 450F, which will cover you for most of your cooks. You might have to adjust the bottom vent a little once you get over 325F or so. Anything beyond 450F, like a pizza cook, you have an idea about how it responds to the vent settings. As others have said, DON'T CHASE THE TEMPERATURES FIDDLING WITH THE VENTS! You will find absolutely no difference in a cook +/- 50F of your "target" temperature. So don't sweat it if your temperature is off a bit. I used to use Fogo, but as noted, the pieces were very large (didn't burn well) and I got tired of breaking them up for cooks. Plus, it sparks when lighting. I'm in the Jealous Devil fan club now. My "go to" charcoal for most cooks. I use a MAPP torch and a FiAir blower to start my fires. Others have different techniques. No right or wrong. YMMV

Same here. A bag goes a long way!

My first thought is that your charcoal has gotten damp somehow and isn't catching except under direct flame. As C6Bill said, don't chase the temps around. The beauty of the KK is the "set it and forget it" nature of the dampers. Fill the basket, light one spot, set your dampers for the target temp and walk away. Your experience with the 50F degree difference between dome and grate initially is true to form, and as you noted, it balances out as the cook progresses. The basket splitter is typically only used when you want two-zone heat, like doing a slow roast on the cooler side, followed by a reverse sear on the direct heat side. Or, using the rotisserie so the meat rotates in/out of the direct heat zone. While you can use the splitter arrangement to do a long low & slow cook (butts, briskets, etc.), I prefer the full basket setup with the foil barrier, as C6Bill described.

I prefer pellets, as I have struggled in the past with keeping chips lit. That said, get good quality pellets that don't have a lot of binders in them. I like Lumberjack. Home of the Real BBQ Wood Pellets - BBQ Lumber Jack – Lumber Jack Grilling Pellets

That sandwich is MONEY! 🤑

Use less fuel. Just a few coals will do for a cold smoke of salmon. Plan B - heat soak the KK at the desired temperature for an hour, kill the fire, then put the salmon on with the smoker going.

On of our IA breweries is named "No Coast"!! LOL I wish that I had a good seafood market here. Some restaurants get decent stuff. We do have a truck that comes up from Galveston every few weeks in the nicer months that has really good, fresh shrimp, crab meat and whole red snapper. They also have oysters and crawfish, but never live/in the shell - too bulky.

Love stuffies, but rarely make them myself. Good job on that turkey boob! 😁

Just don't leave the lid up for too long with that kind of heat; you'll damage the gaskets. Better to just open the top vent all the way and let'er rip that way.

After all, @DennisLinkletter is a genius! (Yes, I know that I'm milking it, but it's fun nonetheless!)

They are also very easy to cleave the longer ones - just hit 2 of them together and one of them will just split in two, very cleanly.

I'm curious, too, Robert? The imbedded link doesn't go anywhere?

Yep, Dennis is a genius! The upper grate has always been dual purpose as the "sear grate."

👍 👍

Can't wait for your review.

Very Cool!

Or build a Syzygies cast iron smoker pot. The wood chunks inside it just smolder and don't catch fire, so there's no noticeable heat increase and the wood smolders for a long time.

Two tips on using the Guru probe to monitor grate temps - first, don't clip the probe directly to the grate - you're getting heat condution from the rods and aren't measuring true air temperature. I use an old wine cork with a screw in it to clip the alligator clip to. I trim the cork on the bottom to snuggly fit between the grate rods. The second tip - akin to what @wrandyr noted, you don't want the probe too close to the meat. A couple of grate rods away (several inches) is sufficient to measure the air temperature around the meat without worrying about being "in the shadow." For the MEATER probe, don't insert it beyond the scribed line on the probe. Again, otherwise the air probe at the tip could be "shadowed" by the meat. Another, unrelated tip about MEATER probes - while they're absolutely perfect for doing rotisserie cooks, be careful to insert the probe as close to parallel to the rotation as you can, preferably in the end of the meat. Why, you might ask? Well, I actually had this happen to me on a rotisserie cook where I stuck the probe in perpendicular to the meat surface. When it rotated, juices ran down the probe shaft and were getting cooked onto the tip of the probe. I only noticed it when the MEATER app warned me of a temperature drop. When I went out to check things, I noticed that there was a big blob of crusted material on the end of the probe, which was effectively insulation. When I wiped that off, the temperature reading went back to "normal."

Definitely a Johnson POSK. With that much damage, especially the broken top vent, I have to 2nd @5698k, it may be beyond repair, I'm afraid.