Search the Community

Howdy KKers! Here are pics of my smoke pot that I use while smoking in TheBeast. As you'll see, this little 2 qt Lodge Dutch Oven really won't fit well in Beauty!, my 19" Hi-Cap; she is too petite. When it comes to smoking meats, that is strictly within the purview of TheBeast, my KK BB 32". However, when you see the Lodge Dutch Oven smoke pot in the belly of TheBeast, you can see that it fits quite nicely even with a heat deflector in place. So, let's cut to the chase. Here is a bottom view of the drilled bottom. These are 1/8" holes drilled about every 1.25 inches around the perimeter of the DO. Here is the pot flipped over looking down inside the DO. Here is, hopefully, a better view of the hole pattern in the drilled DO. Now here is the DO smoke pot sitting on top of a full fire box in Beauty! As you can see there really isn't any room in Beauty! for the DO smoke pot and a heat deflector. Here is that same DO smoke pot sitting in the belly of TheBeast. Here is a look at the coffee wood i'll be using later today in a cook. This stuff is tremendous in conjunction with a coffee/cardamom rub. Finally, here is the DO smoke pot ready for action later in the day. Here is what you get at the end of every smoke. I just dump the charcoal back into the firebox for the next cook. There are not very many volatiles left so it makes good fuel. Waste not, want not. All I do before I put a cook on to smoke is move half of the heat deflector to one side, put the DO smoke pot directly over the lit charcoal and wiggle it to seat it well in the burning charcoal, move the heat deflector back into place, put the cooking grate back in place, put the cook on the grate and shut the lid. No waiting to thin blue smoke. It happens from the first instant you get smoke as the smoke generated by the DO smoke pot is injected directly down into the charcoal fire thus burning off all the foul tasting volatiles that you see in the initial gray smoke that is produced by laying the smoke wood directly on the coals. Now, what you may need to do is make certain that the cooks you smoke with this DO smoke pot is make certain that your cook, i.e. butt, brisket, ribs, etc., is really cold when you put it on the grate. Because this technique gives you a milder version of smoke at all times, your cook may not have the deep smoke taste many people want. You can combat that by cooling the meat your smoking thus doing a couple of things. First colder meat will condense more smoke on its surface for a longer period of time. Second, you may want to use woods that are not as sublime as alder, fruit woods, etc. Rather, look to hickory or mesquite. The originator of this little DO Smoke Pot runs a bead of flour paste around the rim of the DO and then puts the lid on. It seals the DO and forces all the smoke out the holes drilled in the bottom. I have not found the need to do that with this DO. I'd say about 95%+ of the smoke generated by this incarnation goes straight out through the holes in the bottom. I wasn't worth a damn with paste in the first grade and I haven't gotten any better with age! Finally, a disclaimer here. This IS NOT an idea that is original with me. Rather, I got this from a thread here at the KK Forum. And God help me, I can't find the original post where this smoke pot is described!. It originated with , I believe, @Syzygies, a KK owner and member of our Forum I'm certain most of you don't know that you know. Remember the movie "A Beautiful Mind"? I've been told by a reliable source that all the mathematical notion that you saw on chalk boards, windows, etc. is the work of our very own mathematician, i.e. @Syzygies, who came up with this technique. Who says mathematicians are out of touch and don't live in the real world!? This is about as real world as it gets! Syzygies, I give it up to you for this technique! It's aces. I owe you more than a couple of beers.

Howdy KKers! I've been craving smoked salmon lately, so the last time I was in Sam's Club, I bought a couple of fillets and cooked them last night for my dinner guests. Here is a pic of the fillets fresh from the packaging. I made up a dry brine of brown sugar, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, cinnamon, and all spice. Here are the fillets' covered with the mixture. I covered the dish and put it in the refrigerator for about 15 hours. As you can see a great deal of moisture has been drawn out of the fish fillets. Rinse the fillets and pat them dry. Then set the fillets on a drying rack back in the refrigerator for about 4 - 5 hours. This is what your fillets should look like right before you place them in the cooking grate in your kamado. And it's on to the cooking grate in TheBeast. I smoked these fillets for about 2 hours @ 175F using Alder and Peach chunks. Here is a picture of the fillets right after they were pulled off the cooking grate. You can tell they are dome by the little droplets of the cream colored liquid that you can see on the fillets. Here is a closer picture of the cooked fillets. Finally, here is the plated shot. The fillets were served with KK roasted potatoes and a vinegar based cole slaw, the recipe of which is posted in the recipe section. As you can see, Pete The Salt Pig heartily approves of us eating heart healthy. This is an easy cook and only takes a few minutes prep time in the kitchen. Thanks for looking.

Howdy my KK Friends! I thought for some strange reason that I'd pay homage to my 0.001% Irish Forefathers this evening. Tonight's cook consisted of scooped out baked potatoes, filled with some sort of filling, and the whole thing rebaked on the KK. So, without further ado, here is my homage to Erin. The very first thing to do is have a couple of bakers well slathered with bacon grease. Yes, bacon grease. Yeah, I know, but if you don't use bacon grease, the neo-nazi health police win, and I'm trying to beat the back every day! If you don't have bacon grease in your kitchen, shame on you! Next, I browned up some 90/10 hamburger meat, some red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, and some onion and garlic. Here are the bakers on the main grate of TheBeast. I baked them for about an hour at 400F until a fork went in easily. This is a picture of the browned hamburger, peppers, etc. ready for the potatoes. Here are the spuds. As you can see, slit in half and scoop out most of the interior. I try and leave about 1/4" all the way around. Reserve the scooping for potato salad. Tonight I laid down in the scooped potato a simple ragu as a base layer. Put a heaping amount of the burger mixture in the potato. Sauce again and top with your favorite cheese. For these I use shredded mozzarella cheese. Here are the assembled potatoes. They take about 15 minutes on the grill at 400F. And finally, here is the money shot with Pete The Salt Pig granting approval to chow down! These potatoes are really quite easy to do, especially on a weekday evening. Instead of hamburger, you can use pork sausage (Pete would not be so happy with that cook!), ground turkey or chicken, or chorizo etc. Instead of a ragu, you can use salsas, grilled and pureed fruit such as mangoes, peaches, etc. You can get as creative as you wish. After all, it's your dinner and you can do it any way you and your family desire. From the time I lit the FOGO in the belly of TheBeast until I was 400F it was about 15 minutes. The potatoes took about an hour to bake to fork tender. To assemble it took no more than 15 minutes. Time on the grill for the stuffed potatoes was no more than 15 minutes. All totaled, from start to finish, this simple homage to my Irish roots took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I like this cook because there was lots of time to stay hydrated between the flurries of activity. Thanks for looking. I appreciate it!

Howdy KKers! So as many of you know, I was planning on a Simple 4th of July Cook. I wasn't entertaining a big group of folks as I've done for years. I was just having my brothers over to drink a little beer, grill some dogs, burgers, and sausages, eat a few chips, and watch a little baseball, etc. Well, here is the result of a "Simple 4th of July!" I knew I was in trouble and the best laid plans of mice and CC were shot to hades when I walked out of Sam's Club with over $200 in food and beverage! Here is the table with the appiteasers on it. Here is TheBeast getting loaded up for his time to shine! I spiral cut jalapeño and cheese sausage, and Oscar Mayer hot dogs (what else? ) My brother loves spiral cut ever since I introduced him to them. Next up on the grate was the burgers. Gotta stage this cook ... Here is a money shot that is just a couple of simple dogs, some German potato salad made by my brother who lives just around the corner and an ear of corn. That's all the money shot. However, I guess my house is now known as BBQ Central as all of a sudden, my neighbors show up carrying burgers, buns, and beer, and they just came in and sat down! At the end of it all there were about 30 folks here. It looked like the swarm of locusts of Biblical proportions eating at my table! A great time was had by all. Just a great 4th of July here at ChezChef! I hope your 4th was as much fun as was mine!

Howdy again KKers! I had a couple of pounds of hamburger that needed to be eaten and I had a couple of friends coming over to just hand out, drink some beer, burn a few burgers, nothing big. I thought rather than burgers, I'd do enchiladas. I had one couple bring black beans, another chips and salsa for nachos, and another bring more beer. I called an audible and switched from burgers to enchiladas. Browned up the meat, onions, peppers, etc. and made a quick great sauce. Here are the enchis rolled and in the pan and on the main grate in TheBeast. Here is the pan just prior to the pull. Here is the closeup view that shows the cheese just the right color of brown for my guests and me. Just an ever so slight crunch there that was quite tasty. And finally the money shot. This was just a simple and quick enchi cook that worked out quite well. We all had our fill of food and beer and had a great time shooting the breeze. Good audible at the line. I hope your weekend was as enjoyable as mine. Thanks for looking.

Howdy KKers! So it was a miserable evening to cook last evening. The temperature was only about 95F, but the humidity took the Heat Index to 110F! Just flat dadgummed miserable. It's forecast to be a Heat Index this evening of 115F or better this evening! HOWEVER, ever the trooper, I was not to be deterred (I had a couple or 3 or 4 COLD beers ...). Here is a cook of mini peppers, summer squashes, Vidalia onions, etc. 90/10 hamburger, and cottage cheese. Simple, quick, healthy, and easy! Here are the veggies on the flip side of the Grill Grates. The torpedo burgers on the main grate of TheBeast. And finally a couple of money shots. Here is a money shot with Pete The Salt Pig supervising (as usual!). Thanks for looking! All y'all be safe as temperatures rise. Stay hydrated!

Howdy KKers! Here it is Tuesday evening and I found a package of NY Strips on sale at Sam's Club today. They followed me home! They were so dadgummed cute! Here is a pic of the NY Strip in its natural state ... Here is the NY Strip After the first turn ... Here is the Money Shot complete with Pete the Salt Pig Supervising ... A Money Shot with just a bit tighter view ... And finally, the aftermath ... These were MONSTER strips ... and I had to wave the white napkin. Oh well, lunch tomorrow will be droolicious! Thanks for looking!

Howdy KKers! So I've been neglecting posting cooks as of late and I'm fixing that this evening. This is just a simple little cook of breaded chicken breasts, a nice green salad, and an avocado salad made by a friend. She thinks I need some care taking seeing as how I'm a bachelor. I don't tell her otherwise. She's been her many times for parties that I've thrown and she still brings me food. Here is the Marketing shot: Here is the money shot: The chicken breasts were most and juicy and the avocado salad was wonderful. Pete, my salt pig that was a gift from a dear friend, approves. He's not too happy with me when I do butts or pork ribs! The breading was really simple: I packet of powdered Spicy Ranch Dressing mixed into Panko breadcrumbs that had been salted and peppered. The breasts were soaked for 30 minutes in buttermilk and then dredged in the breadcrumbs. I personally think it needed more salt, but nobody complained.

Howdy KKers! I lost my password and have been absent here. BUT, I have not been idle. Here's a quick little cook from Sunday evening. Nothing big here, just did a reverse sear on a Tri-Tip over FOGO. I marinated it in my FoodSaver marinater. If you don't have one, you should really check it out. You can get one for under $20 at Amazon. I highly recommend it. Here are a couple of pics at the beginning and end of the cook. I just wasn't too ambitious, but all y'all get the idea. Beginning: Ending: So there you have it. I took the Tri-Tip to 120F on the grates, cranked up the volume to about 475F. TheBeast took about 10 minutes to go from 200F to 475F. I pulled at 128F, tented on the carving board for something like 7-10 minutes and then carved and served. Just your typical reverse sear. Thanks for looking.

Dear MacKenzie - you wanted meager, here it is, especially for you! I wouldn't want you to feel cheated! Ok, let's set the record straight. In my previous post, some of you thought I eat like a king or that my definition of "meager" was a little skewed. Yes, I did cook all that food, but I purposefully left out the merely prosaic. Nothing could be further from the truth. How many burger, brats, and dawg cooks can you look at before you doze off. But just to prove a point here are more of the everyday cooks here at ChezChef. So, without further ado, here is my homage to the Merely Meager Cooks here at ChezChef! Some Juicy Lucies Pulled pork on TheBeast Pulled pork It doesn't get any more common that pulled pork and corn chips Here are the burgers, brats, and dawgs Here's something for the waistline More burgers and brats on TheBeast And comfort food ... the humble chicken pot pie Ready to serve See? There really isn't a big production every evening here at ChezChef! Thanks for looking (again).

Howdy KKers - I've seen so many really wonderful cooks documented by Wilbur, MavKenzie, ckreef, and a whole host of others that I've got to post a few of my meager cooks. I've done all these since I returned from my various trips. I'm not much on verbiage, I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. it may take a few posts to get all this in, but ... Quiche Roasted yard Bird and corn FOGO One HUGE pan of lasagna Lasagna plated Smoked & Stuffed pork chops Stuffed Pork Chops plated Grilled salmon Plated Salmon More to follow soon.

Hi Dennis! I just got back in town from an extended trip, first to Houston and then to Australia. Over the course of this trip, I had absolutely no access to my KKs, Beauty! & TheBeast. Talk about going through withdrawal! All I had to cook on we're friends cheap gassers, stick burners, the odd kettle, and a kamado that was a hideous color of green and just another Joe kind of kamado. During my travels (or travails, if you will) I cooked a lot of good food for my hosts, and I did it on their equipment. Dennis, I'd frankly grown complacent cooking on my KKs. Familiarity does tend to breed complacency. Your KKs are just too good and make cooking way too easy and enjoyable. I've always said that the KK experience is very tacit in nature. Everything about the KK is uncompromised. And you get used to that in a big hurry. You get used to uncompromised excellence at every turn. And as the saying goes, "You don't know what you have 'til it's gone!" I certainly didn't realize how deep your design thinking went until I had to use something else to cook. Look, I'm not even going to talk about the differences between gassers, stick burners, kettles etc. those cooks can't haul water for the KK. The differences are stunning. Trying to cook ribs in those cookers is real work! Mopping, spritzing, temp control, having to reload fuels, etc. is just too dadgummed much work! Let's not even talk about the restrictions on the types of cooks you can do. Pizza is generally out of the question and who wants that!? Let's not even talk about breads, deserts, etc. The KKs that you've designed are exceptional in the depth of analysis and attention to detail you've poured into each model. And we who use the KK get so used to so much we take a lot of the whole experience for granted. It might be that our purchase decisions are based on the KK reputation. From the top vent to the casters, the KK never disappoints. In fact it always exceeds expectations. Take the top hat vent on a KK. First, compared to other vents which are monkey see, monkey do, the KK top vent is remarkable. It's gorgeous; the other vents are just butt ugly in comparison. A detail of the KK top vent too often overlooked is the square threads. Those threads solve a host of problems other kamados build in. That square threaded KK top vent doesn't change position when the lid is raised. I've never had a KK top vent jamb shut. Other kamado makers don't even want to go there. Let's not even begin the differences in temperature control because the KK top vent is so good. I also don't have to jury rig something to fit over my top vent so I can cook in a driving Oklahoma thunderstorm! Take the hinge on any KK and compare it to hinges on other kamados. Talk about the difference between chicken salad and chicken crap! Dennis, as you know I've had experience on kamados ranging from the least expensive pos you can buy, to BGEs, KJs, and Primos. The hinge systems on every single one of those kamados isn't even in the same league as the KK hinge. With a KK all you do is pop the front latch and the lid majestically raises to fully open all by itself. That has never happened with those other lids. Never! The KK hinge is rock solid. It's not rickety, it never lets the lid slam shut! OUCH! I know of guys who have owned those other kamados and the lids shattered they slammed shut so hard. The KK hinge system so perfectly balances its heavy lid that every woman who has every been around my 32", TheBeast, was able to open the lid with two fingers and absolutely no effort whatsoever. That never happened on my other kamados. Your gaskets are simply genius. Food grade silicone! Why doesn't any other kamado manufacturer use this type of gasket material! Why do they cheapen their product with those stupid felt gaskets that burn so easily, get grease soaked so readily, that pull apart so readily in cold weather? Why do they build problems into their kamados? Again, your deep thought did away with problems from the onset simply by specifying a better gasket. Again, uncompromised excellence! The firebox on the KK is something special. Refractory. Two piece. No broken fire bowls in a KK as is all too common on every ceramic I know of. As you say, "You can't get away from the physics of it!" but it's absolutely true and you'd think the other manufacturers would take a page from your KK book! Replacement cost have got to be killing them! And speaking of refractory, I've gotta tell you how much I appreciate that choice. I was cooking pizza on a ceramic down in Houston and burned the ever living daylights out of my kneecap when my bare leg hit the side of kamado during a 700° pizza cook. That has never happened with my KKs because of the superior insulating capabilities of your unique refractory. The way the KK handles airflow is something few of us think about. Dennis, you've obviously put an incredible amount of thought into such a subtle process. You've designed the KK to force all airflow through the lump pile. The others haven't. Now that may not sound like much to some, but to me it is the pinnacle of the KK. This simple little fact translates to more advantages than might be readily apparent. First, our KKs get up to temp in a BIG hurry! That means a lot to those of us who want to do a quick cook on a weekday evening. The KK firebox divider works in concert with the airflow capabilities and directs all the air thought the lump pile. Again, it's all about efficiency. Further, the divider allows for a couple of different configurations and again, we're talking about efficiency. The fact that the KK is more efficient in its use of air means less airflow through the cooker and that translates to cooks that are, ceterus paribus, more moist! When you consider the air control dual dial manifold, one really begins to understand how deep your thought processes really are. Those two dials changed the way I looked at airflow, temperature control, and cookin in a kamado. Nobody has anything remotely like it. You couple that air control manifold with the infinitely adjustable top hat vent and you've got a kamado that lends itself to really low temp smoking that even the best conventional kamados can't match. Low air flow equates to longer than normal residence times for the smoke component. Again, the hallmark of the KK, efficiency, come to the forefront. I could rave about your air control system and it's dynamic because I'm an engineer by training, but most folks don't care to get that deep in the weeds! all I'm going to say is that there isn't another kamado on the market as well engineered from an airflow perspective and kamado cooking is all about controlling airflow. That's a simple and undeniable fact. Being away from Beauty! & TheBeast for almost two months was bad enough. Being forced to cook on a host of other cookers compounded the pain. BUT (there is always a but, right?!) cooking on those other kamados again, gave me a real perspective of the KK that I came to take for granted in the year plus that I've had my KKs. Until recently, I was a real fan of the KK for its ease of use and the stunning results it produces. I could go on and on because while you're sitting up tending a fire at 3:00 AM there is a lot to do but think and drink fine bourbon! I examined your designs through an engineer's lens and I came to the conclusion that the KK is the most over engineered Kamado in the world! Now I understand your design so much more. And what amazes me is that you've had not one iota of formal engineering training is some very sublime subject like fluid mechanics and heat transfer! I've rambled on and on here, probably much longer than I should have, but if you're a potential KK customer, what are you waiting for? Nothing comes close to the KK on every dimension you can imagine. The KK is uncompromised excellence in every area. A KK must be experienced because mere words will never do the KK justice. Call Dennis. Get a KK. Enjoy life as never before! Thanks for reading this tome.

I have a buddy in Stavanger, Norway, ask me about the KK line. He wanted to get an idea for the relative sizes of the two KKs I have. I took a few pics to given him an idea of what he cold expect. He's a single man and thinking that the KK BB 32" is what he wants when he throws a party every other month! I had to tell him that to spend that kind of money for a large cook every 6-8 weeks was nonsense. I've tried to steer him to the 23'Ultimate or the 19" Hi-Cap. I've also told him that he may just want to wait for the 21" that's supposed to be out in the next few months. I took a few pics and sent them too him. Many of those shots have been posted here and I don't want to repost them. There are, however, a few new ones that hopefully can give you an idea of the difference in size between the 19" Hi-Cap, Beauty! and the 32" BB, TheBeast. Here is my hand on the Top Hat vent of TheBeast and right nest to it the same shot on Beauty! I find the difference striking. MT hand easily can span the width of the Top hat on Beauty, my 19" Hi-Cap Many people have asked how I clean out the ash from the KKs. Here is a shot of the dust pan and brush I use on TheBeast leaning on the Top Hat vent of TheBeast. Not all that impressive, I know. But to give you some perspective, here is that same dust pan and brush in the belly of TheBeast and loaded in Beauty! There is no way I'm using that dustpan and brush to clean out the ash from Beauty! I use a much smaller dust pan and brush for that. Also notice how small the dust pan and brush look in the picture on the left? That's because it is so much further away from the bottom of the kamado. TheBeast is quite deep! Finally, here is a picture of the difference in size in baking stones between Beauty! and TheBeast. There is a good 6" on either side of the baking stone meant for Beauty! Every time I look at those two cookers, I'm struck by how small Beauty! looks in comparison to TheBeast. But then I have to remember that the KJ Classic, Large BGE, etc. the basic models of just about every line of kamados is 18". Beauty is 19" and she is small in the KK lineup! Heck, ckreef's 16.5" Table Top is only an inch and a half smaller than the basic entry kamado for most manufacturers. And that little Table Top ckreef has weighs just about as much as the larger 18" kamados, if not more!

Howdy KKers! Well, I was sitting around thinking about Wednesday evening's dinner and thought that I haven't used my Anova Sous Vide in q few weeks. Time to get the hot water to meet the NY Strips. The first thing I did was season the NY Strips with S&P, garlic, rosemary and thyme. Then it was time to seal them in a bag using the Food Saver vacuum packer. Here's a closer view hopefully showing the spices on the meat. Prior to seasoning the NY Strips, I got the Sous Vide controller set up and warming the water to 125F. My Sous Vide is set to keep the water at 125F for 4 hours. Here is a picture of the NY Strips cooking away in the water at 125F. Tonight's sides are brussels sprouts seasoned with a kiss of garlic with a lite cheese sauce and sweet potatoes, Here they are in the belly of TheBeast. It's worth noting at this point that sweet potatoes are really a dense food. They need MUCH more time to cook at temp than brussels sprouts. Make certain you take that into account whenever you cook sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes do not bake at the same rate as regular white potatoes. Sweets are really more dense and take quite a bit longer. Our cooking temp this evening is 400F. As you can see my temp control skills are slipping. I just hate it when I do that! LOL!! Next comes the cheese sauce. it's nothing more than a blonde roux (just cook the raw dough taste out of the flour), spices, 1 cup of COLD milk, and a couple of cups of sharp cheddar. No big deal. A roux is a basic sauce and dead simple to make and then it serves as the basis for so many sauces. Dead simple ... that's what I like! Here is a plated shot of the final product when everything came together. I like my cheese sauce spicier than does SWMBOI, so I did the cayenne and black pepper workup on mine. We topped the Strips with a nice goat cheese with basil crumbles and the sweet potatoes just got kissed with butter, salt, and pepper. Couldn't be simpler and couldn't be tastier! In fact, it was so tasty, I almost forgot to show the inside of the steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Sorry I don't have a shot of the steaks searing in TheBeast. As the NY Strips were already at 125F, it was throw the steaks on TheBeast, wait a few seconds, turn, wait a few more, flip, and repeat. The Strips came out at a perfect 135F. Here's a picture of the steak cut open. I hope you can see the color of a perfectly done medium rare. Were it not for SWMBOI, this shot wouldn't have happened. This steak was so delicious, I literally forgot about taking pics! Sous Vide makes cooking steaks so easy. Just set the temp of the water bath just just below where you want to final temp to be (medium rare is 130-135F). The longer you cook at temp, the more tender the cut of meat will generally be. You also want to save the juices in the Sous Vide bag as they are simply wonderful poured over the steak. So this was a quick and simple cook. Steak were just to our liking and couldn't have been better! Thanks for looking in.

I finally got around ordering my rotisserie motor from One Grill a company that specializes in rotisserie equipment and it came in today! I've been looking forward to this day since Beauty! arrived with the rotisserie basket for TheBeast. Here are a few pics of the rotisserie motor and one of the basket. Front view: Notice that this specific motor indicated that it can spin 50 pounds of meet at once! This is no light-weight motor. Of course, nothing about TheBeast is light-weight! Here is a side panel that details a one-year warranty: I would have preferred a larger warranty, but the Customer Service rep assured me that if I take care of the motor, i.e. keep it out of the elements and remove it when not in use (no problem either way) that the motor was almost indestructible. He said you can't believe the number of people who leave their units attached to the cooker, rain, snow, sleet, hail or shine, and then wonder why the motor breaks. I'd believe it! Here is a picture of the other side panel. This company wants you to spin meat, even going do far as to suggest a first cook! Here is the back panel that details some features. Note that while the motor is indeed water resistant, it is not water proof! Here is a front view of the motor itself. Here is a view of the motor from the side that will face TheBeast. Note the slides on each side. And finally, here is a picture of the rotisserie itself! This thing is a beast itself. It's about 26" long and is 10" in diameter. At first glance, you go "WTF?" Then you begin thinking like a KK Owner and Dennis Linkletter. The whole basket and it's "Frankensteinian Claws" are actually designed from its inception to securely hold every cook, no matter how large (a big turkey is very doable) and no matter what shape (I'm thinking of spinning a butt and a brisket. You also notice that there is no central spit to hold the cook. That's because forcing a spit through a cook limits what you can cook and it more importantly lets precious juices find a way out of the cook. That means that the cook could conceivably be less juicy than it need be. Finally, everything is held in place by hex nuts. Nothing is going to fall out of this basket! Finally, here is a view looking at the basket end-on. Those 3 points allow you to adjust the center-point of your basket. At least that is what I's assuming. (Please CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG all you spinning KKers!) That is important because if you have a large cook in the basket, it's center of mass may not coincide with a single spot that normally comes with a rotisserie or most certainly a spit. You can actually adjust the point that connects to the kamado and the motor drive unit to more properly center the cook. Properly centered cooks mean that there is less stress on the motor and thus the motor last longer! In essence, it takes less torque to spin the cook. Okay, that's it for now. I'm thinking of spinning a chicken tomorrow. I'll make sure I take plenty of pics and post it in the appropriate thread. Thanks for taking a look at the KK Rotisserie system. Oh, hey! Anyone know of a thread where it shows where all the springs and doodads are shown as assembled? Thanks in advance!

Howdy Again KKers! Last night SWMBOI and I were tired at the end of the day. I was looking for something quick, easy, and light. We have a favorite restaurant very near our home here in OKC, Charleston's, and they do a killer flat bread pizza. SWMBOI has been after me to duplicate it and I had the materials on hand, so, what the heck, why not? So here we go. Lit a fire in the belly of TheBeast and got him up to about 425. A little corn meal on the pizza peel ... The sweet Italian sausage hand made from the local grocery ... I bought some Momma Mary's thin and crispy pizza flats at the store. Here it is on the peel ... I whipped up some pesto in the food processor and spread it on the pizza flat ... Added some mozzarella cheese and Roma tomatoes sliced so thin they only had one side ... Then the sweet Italian sausage went on top to complete the flat bread pizza pie ... And into the belly of TheBeast who had heat soaked for about an hour ... Total time to cook was only about 9 minutes at 425F and here's the finished pesto flat bread pizza with sweet Italian sausage ... A view of the finished crust ... And a plated shot of a couple of slices sitting on my best china ... And finally the aftermath ... As you can see, this was a very formal dinner where I use my best china and stemware! When all was said and done, this was a wonderful cook. Next time, I think I would add a few sliced ripe olives. You can also use chicken, beef, etc. I'm also going to add a few jalapeños to the next pie. This was a simple, easy and delicious cook that took very little time and was wonderfully tasty without much work at all. Thanks for looking in.

Well, yesterday was supposed to be the day that I spun some meat. However, technical difficulties prevented spinning meat until further notice. Rather than sulk, I decided to make yesterday evening's consolation prize worth truly enjoying. My motto has always been when life gives you lemons, grab a bottle of vodka and make some LeninAde! Tonight's menu consists of NY Strips, Baby Dutch Golden Potatoes, and Fresh Asparagus! SWMBOI and I had bacon and scrambled eggs with sautéed peppers and onion done on the griddle yesterday morning in the belly of TheBeast. So we had bacon grease left over; yes, we collect bacon grease and use it for cooking! Pork fat rules! Thank you Emeril! So I grab the griddle and I use the bacon fat to coat the potatoes. I love rubbing up potatoes with bacon grease. It's one of the small things that takes me back to my youth learn how to cook in my Mother's kitchen. Here are the small baby golds rubbed up, salted, peppered, dusted with granulated garlic, rosemary and thyme, and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese. They are ready for the belly of TheBeast. Next comes the asparagus. It too gets rubbed with s slight coating of bacon grease, salt and pepper. It's in a tray and ready to sit next to the potatoes. TheBeast hit about 375F and it's time for the potatoes to hit the heat. I've got half the heat deflector in the belly of TheBeast; that's just right for roasting potatoes and cooking some asparagus. And dadgummit, I don't have a single pic of the potatoes roasting in TheBeast! The potatoes take about an hour at 375F packed as they are. Here are the NY Strips seasoned with S&P, granulated garlic, and some chipotle pepper. Here is the asparagus on the indirect side and the NY Strips on the direct side. Temp on the direct side for this quick sear was 550F. Here is the end result of the cook before we jumped in with knife and fork. My dear friend, Pete the Salt Pig looks on approvingly as not pigs were involved in dinner tonight! The steaks were seared to a wonderfully delicious medium rare. And here is the end result about 30 minutes later! While I'm disappointed I didn't get to spin some meat yesterday for that evening's dinner, but this was a really nice consolation prize that was quick, easy, and very tasty. I'll spin that meat soon, but as long as I can entertain SWMBOI with a meal this good, I'm doing okay! Thanks for looking in!

Howdy KKers! Well, the Ladies, soon to be granddaughters come over last night and wanted me to cook some Mac-N-Cheese to go with the feta and spinach stuffed chicken breasts I told them I was cooking. I said let's go the the store and get the fixin's for the MNC. So we dash to the store, I'm buying cheese like a madman, and we head to checkout. They ask me about the MNC. I don't get it. Then it dawns on me that they have never had scratch MNC and that the only thing they know if from a blue box! LOL!! So I say "Trust Me" and I get The Look! Evidently it runs in the family ... I get the same look from their grandmother, SWMBOI! Here is a pic of the ingredients right before the cook ... mies en plas. Again, The Look. What, Am I speaking a foreign language here? So I have to teach them how to make a roux, the basis for just about every sauce and all they can say is "This better be good!" They are skeptical especially when I added rosemary, thyme, cayenne, Dijon mustard, and nutmeg to the roux! Here is a pic of the MNC just on the grill. "ON THE GRILL?" they asked even more skeptically! Yes my dears, on the grill. And another. As I mentioned, we had chicken breast stuffed with sautéed spinach and garlic, and feta cheese. The Ladies have never heard of feta! I slit the breasts, put in the stuffing mixture, sealed with toothpicks, did a quick egg wash and then rolled in breadcrumbs seasoned with a package of spicy Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. Simple, easy, and delicious! Here's a pic of the breasts on the grill next to the MNC. Cooked at 375F until the breasts were at 155F internal. And here is the finished product. Sorry, no money shot, but every morsel of chicken was gone, plates licked, and the leftover MNC packed off to their home for lunch today! The girls loved the MNC, but to my mind next time I will use much more sharp cheddar and no mozzarella and no jack cheese. They are just too mild and added nothing to the flavor profile for me. The Ladies raved about the MNC, but I've done much better. Also, I had forgotten how much baby spinach reduces. I only used a 6 ounce bag and that was much too little an amount. Use a full pound of spinach. I used fresh baby spinach this time and frankly, it was a waste of money. Use a box of frozen spinach ... it works out just as well and costs much less! So all in all, an okay cook. The Ladies LOVE really MNC and discovered that feta cheese is really tasty! Tally one up in the Win Column for CC and Score one for The Team! Thanks for looking in. Y'all have a great weekend with the Family and your friends!

Howdy KKers! in a recent conversation with Dennis Linkletter he was extolling the virtues of sous vide cooking. He told me that the ANOVA Sous Vide controller was now under $200 on Amazon. I've never really been interested in sous vide cooking, but for that price, I'll try just about anything. I mean when you're shelling out the money for a KK, what's a couple of Franklins here or there, right?! LOL!! So I get an ANOVA and today I decided to do a Tri Tip I've had in the refrigerator for almost too long. SWMBOI really loves Tri Tip and so I'm bound and determined to baptize this Tri Tip and the ANOVA at the same time. Let's unpack the ANOVA and see what we have. Here it is as it was delivered. The ANOVA unit itself came very well packed. Here is the ANOVA unit out of the box and on the table. This unit is quite substantial and is very solidly built. Good quality. Now on to the Guest of Honor and the means whereby we will stay hydrated for the duration of this cook! Here is the Guest of Honor oiled up with good olive oil and wearing a nice coating of my Embarrassed Zebra all purpose rub. And now it's into the Belly of TheBeast at 500F for about 3 minutes per side. Now we have to pull the Guest of Honor and seal it using the Food Saver. I added a few springs of rosemary. No big deal. The results of that look like this ... Now it's into the Anova Sous Vide Bath. And here is what the ANOVA Sous Vide until looks like as it operates. The temperature of the bath is 111F on its way to 131F (perfect medium rare) and it'll cook for 44 hours. More to come in a couple of days! I think this is going to be the ULTIMATE tease cook!

HOWDY KK GURUS!!! I've seen a lot of meatball cooks lately, so I decided to give mine a little twist that may prove interesting. As many of you know, I LOVE hamburgers, especially the Juicy Lucy. For those of you how may not know, a Juicy Lucy is a hamburger with cheese cooked into the middle. They originated in Minneapolis years ago at one of two places. I find them to be a real treat. I don't have a recipe to give you. At this point in life after cooking for 40+ years, I just put in a touch of this, a dab of that, and a bit of the rest. I apologize in advance for being so lax. So I started with about 2.5 lbs. 90/10 hamburger and about 1 lb. of breakfast sausage with a couple of beaten eggs, some garlic powder, plain Panko, S&P, some creme fraiche, and Italian spice mix that I mix up on occasion. The cheese I'll be using is cubed mild cheddar which SWMBOI likes. Here is a look at the ingredients well mixed : In the upper right hand corner of the picture you can see my little trick for making uniform meatballs ... a nice sized ice cream scoop! Here it is in action: Now we add the cheese. Just press it right in the middle of the raw meatball mixture while it is in the scoop. Meatball mixture will raise up around the edges. That's okay as you'll just close that around the cheese: Squeeze the edges up around the cheese and eject the meatball indoor your other hand and roll it gently to make certain everything is nice and closed up and you have a nice round meatball. It should look something like this: Here is a nice picture of a dozen meatball in a special utensil with holes drilled in the bottom of each cup that allows the grease to drain while cooking. I got this idea from a friend out in Arizona and this pan is available on Amazon. Stupid me I only ordered 1 and I should have gotten two! We're trying to eat healthier you know! Here's a shot of the meatballs going into the Belly of TheBeast! I put a drip pan under the special meatball pan that allows grease to drain. A clean Beast is a happy Beast! Dennis, here is your marketing shot if you like. And here is a shot of the finished product being inspected by Pete The Salt Pig and his minions. Here is a shot of the Juicy Lucy Meatballs on the plate prior to being topped with a simply homemade Sugo. Here is the finished plate. A coleslaw and Cherub Tomato salad, LeSuer Peas, and a couple of Juicy lucy Meatballs topped with Sugo. Pete looks on approvingly. To be continued ...

Howdy KKers! It's finally time to say goodbye to the holidays. The 12 Days of Christmas are about gone and the Holiday Season is over. I figured it was time to move on and I pulled a turkey roast that I cooked for Thanksgiving out of the freezer. Some of you may remember this cook .... here is a picture of a turkey and the turkey roast from that cook. The roast is on the far right of the picture. So I asked SWMBO, my brother the BBQ Mooch, and my neighbors if they would like some smoked turkey enchiladas. The resounding answer: YES! So I'm presenting a dish of the smoked turkey enchies I made this past weekend. Here is a look at the turkey roast in a solo shot. The paring knife is for a size reference. These roasts have elastic netting to keep the preformed turkey roast in its formed shape. Here is a shot of that netting cut off the turkey roast. Here is a shot of the turkey roast right after shredding it. It's really a lot of turkey! For an idea of how much turkey this is, here is a shot with a blue latex glove for a size comparison. The pile of turkey is about 1.5" high.

Well KKers, yesterday I was bored. Stark. Staring. Bored! I had a couple of slabs of St. Louis Style Ribs I picked up at Sams Neighborhood market on deal that I had prepped and rubbed and were in the fridge. I also had 2 pork tenderloins that I dropped in marinade at the same time. Had to get 'em cooked but I was bored. I went out and had a chat with TheBeast. Always cheers me up and it happened again as soon as I lit the lump with the MAPP torch. I'm not so thrilled that I'm doing the Spunky Monkey, AllyCat, but there was a spring in my step. Marinated Pork Loins As you can see, Pete the Pink Salt Pig is nonplussed to see some brethren on the business end of a cook! Here are the rubbed ribs. Notice the "Chef's Portion" separated from the ribs. That's MINE! So let's go get TheBeast ready to do his duty and earn his keep. [Many people have asked how I arrange TheBeast for a cook similar to this, so please bear with me here.] First thing I do is completely fill the basket with lump and light him up. I only lit one spot and you can see it to the right of the picture. I then bring TheBeast up to temp; in this case about 250 since I'm getting a late start. Then its on with the smoke component; in this case hickory. Now let's add the deflector plates ... ... the drip pan is next ... And then the main grate and the ribs. So we button up TheBeast and in 10 minutes, I check the temp. Rock Solid. With about 45 minutes left in the rib cook, it's time for the pork loins to hit the grate for a reverse sear. On they went and I forgot the pic! BUT WAIT! The Chef's Portion is done and Bubba, my BBQ Moochin' Brother, is here and wanting to know "What're we eating!" Bubba declared the ribs Delicious Edible! To be continued ...

So I have new neighbors that moved into the house just east of me. Unpacking is such a pain in the gluteus maximus, Been there and done that. So Pat and her husband Kerwin are directing the unpacking of the moving van and we get to know each other. Lovely couple who are 75 and 79 respectively. I ask if they like BBQ and Kerwin looks at me as if I've lost my mind! He says "Young man, what part of YES, HE!! YES don't you understand!" I know immediately I'm gonna like these folks! So I tell Pat and Kerwin I'm fixing them a pulled pork dinner with all the fixin's. After protesting I tell them I'm bigger than both of them and I don't want to hear any more about it. So I buy a couple of butts and and rub 'em up with olive oil and my Embarrassed Zebra rub and stow 'em in the refrigerator over night for 24 hours. I pull the butts about 6 pm and rub 'em up again and back into the cooler. I fire up TheBeast about 8:00 pm and heat soak him at 225F until 10 pm when the butts go on the grill. We're using apple chunks for our smoke component. Here are the butts just on the main grate. So I shut the lid and it's off to bed. I told TheBeast this was for our new neighbors and to behave himself over night. No shenanigans whatsoever! So I wake up the next morning and this is what greets my eyes ... Here's how my neighbor's butts look about half way through the cook ... So it seems that TheBeast and his guests of honor are playing nice together! Flash forward to about 5:00 pm and I check my neighbor's butts again. Probed like soft butt and the ThermaPen showed and IT of 200F for off the butts came! Here's a pic of one of the butts right before wrapping and being stuck in the cooler for about an hour. At 6:00 pm I started pulling the pork and here is a pic of what went next door. I don't have any pics of the plated sammies, cole slaw, and homemade chips, but let's just say Pat came over about 7:30 pm and told me Kerwin was on his 3rd helping of everything! BINGO! As an aside, Kerwin came over the next day to get a proper introduction to TheBeast. I showed him TheBeast and he started asking questions. Kerwin WAS thinking of buying a BGE but has changed his mind. His family is eaten up with BGEs. Pat told me he's spent the last 2 days reading the Komodo Kamado website and has decided he's going to can his BGE purchase and go with a KK 23" Ultimate! Y'all have the very Merriest and most Blessed of Christmases!

Well, TheBeast finally got his own formal wear and he couldn't be happier! Made by Sunbrella, the workmanship of this cover beats anything I've ever seen on any kind of patio get. Heavy duty treated canvas, all seams are incredibly well sewn. The cover is designed to fit like a glove and it does. And like everything KK, this manufacturer has passed muster with Dennis Linkletter. It's also passed muster with all kinds of KK Owners. All I did was hop on the train as it passed by. Of course, the color is black! After all, this is formal wear for TheBeast!

Howdy KK Kooks! For your consideration, I present a hickory smoked, reverse seared Prime NY Strip. I've been under the weather lately and haven't done a thing with TheBeast. TheBeast was getting a bit antsy, so I went out to the refrigerator and discovered I had 2 Prime NY Strips. More correctly, SWMBOI asked if I intended on letting "... all that meat go to waste"? She also informed me it was taking up needed space in the refrigerator. It wasn't bothering me one little bit in the refrigerator and after all, it IS my refrigerator! But as we all know, happy, ahhhh, happy life! So not feeling too keen about putting' on the dawg, I lit TheBeast and threw in a piece of hickory for smoke. Here he is, getting up to speed: Here are the Prime Strips just on with nothing but salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Just plain simple. And after 30 minutes at 200F, here they are at 120F when I pulled them. Really gorgeous color on that meat. I opened the bottom vent about 3/4ths of the way open and spun the top hat vent 2 full turns. Temps took off like a rocket sled on rails! Here's what 750 looks like in the belly of TheBeast! Here's 2 minutes later at the first turn: Here's another 2 minutes after that first turn: Pulled at 135 internal temp (SWMBOI Likes her steak on the medium side and again, happy, ahhhh, happy life!) I gotta figure out a new saying for SWMBOI! You can't tell it but the pic because the light was so bad and my camera sucks, but it was SWMBOI Medium. Perfect she told me. Whew! Another bullet dodged! And here, finally, is the means whereby I avoided going face down in my cook. HYDRATION! That Shiner Wild Hare died in the service of a great steak and a grateful CC! Pete The Pink Salt Pig gives this cook 4 hooves up! He fell on his a$$ doing so, but Pete liked this cook! Y'all have a great week!