It's coming tomorrow!

[Andrew]

Re: oh boy

I might have been tempted to keep it! That is a seriously disappointing situation. Hopefully you have some sort of grill around so you can cook something' date=' have an adult beverage, enjoy the weekend, and hope for the best next week![/quote']

That what I did with last week's chicken --- it went on the Weber.

This week I asked my wife to cook something. No heart for the weber

today. As I said, I had planned to do ribs for the second first cook.

A fine craft beer or two will most definitely be on the evening's menu.

Perhaps a Stone Ruination IPA is in order. Maybe a Dogfish Head

120 Minute IPA (I would want to share that one, it is 20% alcohol). I

have a few fine Belgians around too, but I am in more of a US IPA

mood.

[mguerra]

single bock, double bock?!

I'm not at all beer knowledgable, but had a luscious little brew called a double bock, Celebrator. In fact, it was so good I bought a bunch. And I don't usually drink beer, except Guinness now and then.

[Andrew]

Re: single bock, double bock?!

I'm not at all beer knowledgable' date=' but had a luscious little brew called a double bock, Celebrator. In fact, it was so good I bought a bunch. And I don't usually drink beer, except Guinness now and then.[/quote']

I love the dark beers, but they do not always agree with my

digestive system. I should try a few again to see if that has

changed. Red wines started me a bad headache after just half a

glass (which is a syndrome that is still a medical mystery IIRC),

so I switched to craft beers a few years ago.

I just heard from Dennis. Unfortunately he did not get up until

the trucking company closed. I guess it will be the Weber for

our guests on the 4th.

Life goes on.

[mguerra]

Ouch!

Sorry to hear about the red wine problem, that is a serious blow to your gastronomic possibilities! We drink a fair bit of Bordeaux weekly, and it is a sublime pleasure. Probably you have already tried this, but pop some ibuprofen and drink some water and see if that allows you to enjoy the vino sans headache.

[primeats]

Keep cooking on the Weber, it's a great grill,when the KK comes you'll wonder how you ever got along without it! We just added a Weber Ranch to the collection,(for grilling hot dogs and brats in front of the store...it's too wide to fit between the buildings!)big and bad, might make a nice fire pit on the patio next to my KK! Gotta love a girl who wants to buy me another cooking implement!

[Andrew]

Re: Ouch!

Sorry to hear about the red wine problem' date=' that is a serious blow to your gastronomic possibilities! We drink a fair bit of Bordeaux weekly, and it is a sublime pleasure. Probably you have already tried this, but pop some ibuprofen and drink some water and see if that allows you to enjoy the vino sans headache.[/quote']

Indeed I have tried it. No go.

The Science Times (in Tuesday's NY TImes) had an article about

Red Wine Syndrome a few years ago. Researchers had tested a

number of theories about the cause, but none of the research panned

out. As of that writing, they had no idea what caused it.

Meanwhile I learned to love the huge variety of fine craft beers. If

we eat in a restaurant without craft beers I just drink seltzer. I could

not stand any mainstream US beer.

[Andrew]

Keep cooking on the Weber' date=' it's a great grill,when the KK comes you'll wonder how you ever got along without it! We just added a Weber Ranch to the collection,(for grilling hot dogs and brats in front of the store...it's too wide to fit between the buildings!)big and bad, might make a nice fire pit on the patio next to my KK! Gotta love a girl who wants to buy me another cooking implement![/quote']

Oh I will keep it for now. It is a perfectly good grill. In fact when I

started looking for a replacement for my rusted out New Braunfels

offset smoker I was expecting to buy a similar rig and do all the

grilling on the Weber. (The NB was only OK as a grill). But when I

started reading up on the ceramic cookers, and discovered the KK,

all bets were off. The Weber may end up going to the first kid that

has a place to put it.

[Amphoran]

I keep an old weber kettle around for things I might not be willing to put into the kk...

[Andrew]

I keep an old weber kettle around for things I might not be willing to put into the kk...

You pique my curiosity. What would you not like to

put in your KK?

I will use my Weber to teach my son to grill and barbecue, and also

for excess capacity --- to have extra space at a different temp.

I do not know how long I will keep it...

Dennis just told me he has found my cooker, that the mix up

was from cut-and-paste that left my cooker, #666 (whoa, I just

noticed the beastliness of the number), assigned #664 which was

a KF cooker.

It might make it here for the 4th yet!

[mguerra]

secondary

It's good to have something to grill on while a low and low is in progress. The metal grills are a little easier to grill with than the KK, but I noticed that since I started grilling on my KK, I don't mind the slight inconvenience. In fact, I have not grilled on my Meco since starting grilling on the KK, unless the KK is in use for a L&S. Then it's great resource to have on hand, esp. for a party. I was bugging Dennis to make a cooker that is analagous to the Primo Junior, 100 lbs. max weight, to use as a travel/ secondary. Something smaller than a 19.5. He said don't hold your breath! But if a whole gang of us want something like this...

[jdbower]

You pique my curiosity. What would you not like to

put in your KK?

Mostly stinky stuff like strong-smelling fish. And vegetables - only heathens eat or prepare vegetables!

[Andrew]

Re: secondary

It's good to have something to grill on while a low and low is in progress. The metal grills are a little easier to grill with than the KK' date=' but I noticed that since I started grilling on my KK, I don't mind the slight inconvenience. In fact, I have not grilled on my Meco since starting grilling on the KK, unless the KK is in use for a L&S. Then it's great resource to have on hand, esp. for a party. I was bugging Dennis to make a cooker that is analagous to the Primo Junior, 100 lbs. max weight, to use as a travel/ secondary. Something smaller than a 19.5. He said don't hold your breath! But if a whole gang of us want something like this...[/quote']

That would imply about a 13" grill (assuming weight scales like the

cube of the grill diameter, a good first order approximation).

It might be a good addition.

I do not think I am going to order the 32" or 48" versions

[mguerra]

convergence

My thought was to scale everything down, wall thickness, stainless rod, everything smaller, thinner, lighter but still KK quality. Only one or two grill levels. Not a long tall egg, but more like a Primo shaped like an OTB or similar. I wanted a Primo Oval Jr. as a secondary but then thought I would much rather have a KK! But something just small enough to be barely portable. Which the 19.5 is not. Funny thing too, they have a thread going over there about a guy who is having replacement parts made up one-off in stainless. So they are thinking about modding their grills to be more like KK, while I am thinking about having a KK sort of like their Junior!

[DennisLinkletter]

Re: convergence

My thought was to scale everything down' date=' wall thickness, stainless rod, everything smaller, thinner, lighter but still KK quality. Only one or two grill levels. Not a long tall egg, but more like a Primo shaped like an OTB or similar. [/quote']

Maybe I'll make up a foam mock up and run it by the forum...

[mguerra]

effective dimeter

The Primo Oval Junior weighs 95 lbs and has 210 sq. inches of grill on the main grill. 210 sq. in. equals just over a 16" effective grill diameter for a round grill. A 13" round grill would be 132 sq. inches. So it should be possible to design an OTB or variant that comes in at, or just under, 100 lbs., yet larger than 13" effective grill diameter. A required feature would be to include carrying handles, or attachment points for detachable handles, so as to make it portable. Can you imagine being able to haul a KK around to cook at parties and other gatherings away from your house? That would be way cool!

[Amphoran]

"what wouldn't you put in the KK?"

I do an annual oyster roast for a large group of people - large pacific oysters, high heat direct. When they open up, they gush a considerable amount of salt water. You need a very thick bed of charcoal so it won't go out.

I won't risk salt water wetting the refractory, because as the water evaporates, the salt remains behind. Multiple insults will lead to growing salt crystals in the pores, and will ultimately destroy the material.

Anything and everything else I cook in the KK, and don't worry about flavor transfer - ten to fifteen minutes at 600 deg cleans everything out pretty nicely!

Mike

[mguerra]

what do you use?

What do you then cook the oysters in? Something cheap and sacrificial? A really cheap Wal-Mart steel grill could be considered almost throw away.

[Amphoran]

When this annual party started, I was clearing 50 years of woody debris from the site of a defunct cabinet shop, and periodically having 8 foot diameter three foot deep bonfires. Made one HELL of a bed of coals.

A friend came by on a bonfire day, took one look, and said "I'll be back".

Returned a half hour later with a sack (at that time, 12 dozen) large pacific oysters. We dumped them (a few at a time) directly on the coals, and fished them out/off with a pitchfork and a spade.

They cooked VERY rapidly, and took on a nice smoky aspect if you left them on a few extra seconds.

When we ran out of woody debris, I split a 55 gallon barrel in half, and put forty pounds of charcoal briquettes in it, and a sheet of hardware cloth over the open side. The barrel got red hot, but the coals were deep enough to withstand the gushes. We did it this way for a few years, but then we, and most of our friends acquired toddlers, and what had bee fun suddenly seemd unsafe.

I tried doing them in a Weber gasser the next year - disaster! Took way too long to cook, ending up steamed rather than roasted, and all the salt water/sand/bits of shell totally destroyed the gasser.

Since then, I've been acquiring used weber kettles at garage sales, etc., and filling them with charcoal. Yes the get red hot, but the toddlers are all now college graduates, and don't have toddlers of their own yet. Even so, it is a lot harder to take a header into a kettle up three feet in the air than into a half barrel lying on the ground.

The used webers stand up to the abuse surprisingly well, though I do consider them sacrificial.

I've also started doing about half the oysters South Carolina Oyster Bar style - cooked with live steam. When my parents shut down their dairy farm, I made off with some stainless tubing and fittings, and built a steam generator. Steam is piped into a wooden box with a hole in the top, just the right size to hold a large bucket. The bucket has a hundred half inch holes drilled in it, and holds a peck of oysters. You drop the bucket into the hole, the steam condenses on the oysters, and cooks them to perfection (except for the lack of smoky flavor) in a few minutes. More controlled than the extreme charcoal method, not quite as exciting. Opinion among attendees is split pretty evenly as to which they prefer.

Mike

[mguerra]

more useful than a big one

OK, we are ready to see the mock-up of the KK OTB Junior....

[JeffB]

I am sorry to hear about your delivery woes Andrew. Hopefully it will all get resolved soon. Waiting can be painful, even more so with all the difficulty you have been having.

Agree with Doc. A second smaller KK (even smaller than a Lil Isla) would be nice. Having two grills going makes a reverse sear more than just a big pain in the butt.