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Hey everyone I did my first KK cook tonight. Overall, it went very well. I do have one question: Do you close your bottom vent when you open the lid to check the food, baste, or whatever? My temps soared when I opened the lid. It didn't affect this cook at all, just wondered for future cooks. I soaked the planks for 2 days. That wasn't my plan, I just didn't get home in time last night to use them. Worked out fine. They didn't char much, so next time I might toast them for a few minutes on each side before placing the fish. That, or put them on the lower grate. My wife made the glaze, not sure what all went into it - apricot preserves, some whole grain mustard, a few pieces of diced up jalapenos, not sure what else. Sweet and spicy. Very good. My controller info is posted below - sorry, an over temp error popped up at the end when I was taking the fish out and I didn't clear it in time, so the screen is a bit washed out. Ignore the light blue areas, that's the fan speed, but I didn't have the fan connected for this cook. I don't have my dome thermo yet, so I used my HeaterMeter to monitor the grate temp (indicated by the orange line). The dip at 18:35 was just me opening the lid to peek at the coals. Probably shouldn't have done it, but I was curious. I was shooting for 350 and ended up around 360 and very slowly climbing when I put the fish on around 19:15. I made very few adjustments to get there. It took me a bit to get the fish on as I had to also snake the food probe through the grommet and get it placed. It's a bent probe and I didn't straighten it quite enough. It goes in, but you have to get the angle right. I'll fix that before the next cook. You can see my temp spiked to over 400 degrees after that - because I had the lid open too long. That's where I a m wondering if you would have temporarily shut the bottom vent. The remaining dips are when I opened the lid to glaze the salmon. I should have started that a bit earlier to really get the glaze to set better, but it still worked out. On the planks: (No plated shot) ETA: They came out perfect. The most juicy salmon I've ever had. First cook impressions: Startup was really fast. I lit using 1 Rutland starter cut in half. In about 6 minutes, I had 2 areas of lump well lit with flames a few inches high. I'll need some practice with that top vent. I probably twisted that thing 30 times trying to remember which way was open and which was closed... and how far open was I??? The probe port also has a learning curve. And speaking of curve, straightening my food probe more will help. I really need my side tables. Can't wait till they get here Amazed at how (relatively) cool the outside of the grill stayed. It was the hottest around the "waistline", but I could still hold my hand there for 5 - 8 seconds without any discomfort. Heat soaking will take a long time - longer than I will have available most nights. I think that's alright though, I'll mostly be using it to grill during the week with the more elaborate cooks on the weekend. The coals shut down very fast.