MadMedik Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 Hello All KK members... MadMedik here....Hello everyone. I am glad to finally be here and able to post. I have been reading alot of your posts here on the KK forum. What a great site, and a great Cooker to be sure. I live in Central California, Madera to be exact, and had the occasion to be in Canada back in the beginning of February. My Cousin, known as Hephaestus here on the Forum, showed me his Komodo and I immediately fell in love...gotta have it. He then cooked an awesome Filet Mignon, potatoes, and great wine...and the deal was done. I read everything I could, watched all the videos, researched other cookers to be sure, then made the deal with Dennis when I got back home. After a long and agonizing wait, I got my KK on Wednesday morning of this week. Unboxed it...with help of friends that I now owe a BBQ dinner to, and proceeded that night to "season" it as Dennis has suggested. Here she is I easily got it to 600+ degrees over a very long, slow process and got some of moisture out of it as is recommended. I could not cook Thursday, but Friday night it was on. Cousin Hephaestus suggested spatchcock chicken as a first, easy cook. 350 degrees for about an hour our more was what I was going for. My hunting around on forums lead me to the idea of layering bacon over the breast meat, which I did, then decided to do only half with bacon. I want to have the bacon, but also wanted to see what the skin would look like not covered with something. Here are the results of my first cook: Using a wireless meat thermometer, I watched until breast was 180 and I took it off. This was about 1 hour, 5 minutes cook time. The meat was so tender, never had such tender and moist chicken breast before. The texture seemed foreign in my mouth. It was almost like it was not even cooked...raw feeling...but obviously it was done. It was a different BBQ chicken experience for sure. I found it extremely easy to control the heat. Easy to light with my newly acquired "weed burner," and shut down was simple. I gave my self a 10 on texture and moisture of the meat, however only a 7 on taste ...no fault of the KK. The rub I used was not good, and I will not use it again. Next time I do this chicken I will turn up the heat a bit and go for a more cooked, darker skin. The skin on this was not that dark. The underside did not char/burn at all. I am thinking I need to go a bit hotter??? My next cook is Sunday and I am going all out...3 slabs of St Louis style ribs, 1 rack of Beef Ribs, and just for the heck of it will throw on 1 tri-tip. Not sure how I am going to do this yet, but a little more research here and I will do it... ! Here she is in her resting place on the patio: Thanks for reading my long first post. Thanks to Cousin H for showing me the way, the light, and the truth of BBQing.... Oh yeah, my wife says I spent more time and took more pictures of my KK when it got home than I did when my child was brought home from the hospital....I can't believe that...!!!! Happy queing... MadMedik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hephaestus Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Hello cousin, Welcome to the forum. Your kk looks amazing, just like mine. Your bbq obsession has just begun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primeats Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook "Oh yeah, my wife says I spent more time and took more pictures of my KK when it got home than I did when my child was brought home from the hospital....I can't believe that...!!!! " I CAN believe it! congrats on your newest addition! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook I have had the same experience with chicken. You cook it to a safe finish temp, but it feels underdone in your mouth. Especially if you cook it indirect. My thought is that this occurs because of the moisture retention in a KK vs. the dehydration that occurs on most other grills. We get used to that dried out texture of grilled chicken on other cookers. Experiment with your finish temp on chicken by bumping it up a little over the next few cooks. You will hit on a good finish temp that gives you the texture you want. Not rubbery, but not dried out either. You can get a perfect texture that is between rubbery and overly dry. One way I do this is to cook direct on the top grill. It takes longer because it is so far from the fire, but you end up with a perfect balance of doneness to the meat, and the skin if you leave that on. Don't cook chicken indirect, it comes out rubbery for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMedik Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Thanks for the replies and checking my first cook out. You hit on the spot, rubbering skin, not 'cooked' or dry like i am used to. When you say "finish temperature", i assume you mean to turn up the heat at the end, perhaps turn it skin side down for 5 or 10 minutes??? My cousin suggested turning it at the end? Seems to make sense I have NEVER cooked indirect before. What meats do you suggest using indirect? Thanks a lot. This is going to very fun...once it get it all figured out... MadMedik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Thanks for the replies and checking my first cook out. You hit on the spot, rubbering skin, not 'cooked' or dry like i am used to. When you say "finish temperature", i assume you mean to turn up the heat at the end, perhaps turn it skin side down for 5 or 10 minutes??? My cousin suggested turning it at the end? Seems to make sense I have NEVER cooked indirect before. What meats do you suggest using indirect? Thanks a lot. This is going to very fun...once it get it all figured out... MadMedik I've got a 26 oz rib eye dry aging in the refer right now. It's turning to that deep maroon color. Tomorrow I will grill it indirect at 275 until 120 degrees. Then switch to direct heat and sear it at high heat for a couple of minutes. This is the reverse sear method much discussed elsewhere on this forum. You can do a variation of this with chicken as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Finish temp means the finish temp of the meat, not the fire. A safe finish temp for poultry is 170. I have found that cooking chicken by my technique a good finish temp is about 180ish for a nice texture, juicy, not dry, and not rubbery. I finish all my meats by temperature, except brisket. To do this you will be best served by using a Thermapen if you don't have a remote thermometer. For grilling, I turn meats once. I cook them for a short time one side, long enough to get a nice surface texture, then flip them and cook until done by temperature. Cooking to a finish temp will get you reproducible results every time. Here is a quick rule of thumb for initial cooking experiments. Cook poultry to 170, beef to 140 and pork to 150. Not pork butts, other pork. Not briskets, other beef. Now see how done that is and if you need it more or less done, adjust your finish temps a little. You will quickly hit on your perfect finish this way. Pork butts go to 185 to 200. Briskets are not finished by temperature, but by feel. We have a sticky, and whole threads on this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyboy Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Great first start MadMedik!!! Sounds like this is going to be second nature for you. Beautiful cooker too I might add!! Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMedik Posted April 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Thanks again guys. i have seen the Thermapen adds and threads around. Sounds good, but have not gotten one yet. I do have a remote , dual probe, thermometer. I noticed on Sunday the transmitter ready 152 at one point, and the receiver in the house was 139.... i was a bit concerned. Ran to the store, came back, and they had synchronized at the higher temps and i was ok. Not sure why they go so 'unsynced". I did my chicken to 180 and it was very good...probably safer to go with the higher range of 180. I most likely will get the Thermapen. Tonight i will do 2 porterhouse steaks, about 1 1/4 inch thickness. Plan to cook around 600, 5 minutes on 1 side, 5 on the other and hope done at medium. I guess i can use remote sensor, but with such a quick and hot cook the Thermapen would probably be better. My KK is the Harverst Gold color. Fell in love with it while in Canada at cousins. Very pleased with it. People are surprised by it and the look. My initial thoughts were "it looks like a big turtle", and i have since heard that a few times. The delivery truck driver said all the guys in receiving saw it and all decided it must be a big "yard turtle", which of course i told him it was a BBQ. He laughed, said he would look it up. Have a good day. MadMedik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyboy Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Re: Intro, My KK, and My first Cook Ha! That's a really tall turtle! hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
