john noble Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 I agree with the comments here, that one can easily do high temp grilling on a KK. But it does take up a lot of charcoal. Yes, I know we can extinguish a fire, but it's not immediate. If we want to heat up the whole KK, that will use up charcoal, and afterward, even with air vents tightly closed, the residual oxygen and thermal energy will burn up some more charcoal. I have found that using a wire column to hold a tiny pile of charcoal will create plenty of heat, due to the chimney effect. Even a weber chimney is too big. I use one of those open cylinder racks designed to hold tall wooden spoons and spatchulas. Ignite the bottom of the pile and place the sear grill just above it. A couple of steaks can be grilled quickly. I'm sure there are other ways. What do the rest of us do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowyNose Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Re: grilling with minimal lump That's a great idea. I'll have to give it a try. Where did you get the rack? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Re: grilling with minimal lump 90% of my use of my KK is for higher temp grilling and I love the Weber baskets for conserving charcoal. http://www.webergrillaccessories.org/im ... olders.jpg I use one of them or two of them pushed together, depending on how much heat I want or the quantity of food I'm cooking, sitting on a brick in the KK basket so they are close to the sear grill. You can also place them on the sides of the KK for use with the rotisserie. Fill them with lump and light it with a torch - works great!! I just wish I could buy a sturdier, higher quality version of them. I've been expecting to have to replace them since I use them so frequently but they have held up surprisingly well. All I've had to do so far is bend the tab with needle nosed pliers to keep the pieces together. I highly recommend them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribeless Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: grilling with minimal lump I've just been delivered my first KK today (indeed, first ceramic BBQ, ever, though have been cooking with charcoal on just a normal bucket styled BBQ that I couldn't get heat out of for more than an hour Just about related to this thread, I see in the first post that you're using a Weber chimney, which is what I have been using to start my charcoal. However, on the old style bucket BBQ, which is completely inefficient, I have been used to leaving the charcoal in the chimney for about half an hour until the top lumps are white hot ... I suspect this would be wrong with the KK. Should I just be waiting until the bottom layer of coals in the chimney are red before tipping into the KK? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisLinkletter Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: grilling with minimal lump Welcome to the forum, I'm so pleased to have a KK in New Zealand. I'm actually shipping two more there next week. As far as lighting charcoal you only need to light about a tennis ball worth for a low and slow cook. If you are using natural wood lump charcoal you only need to get it lit.. nothing to burn off before you use it. Please feel free to give me a call if you would like me to walk you thru your first cook... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: grilling with minimal lump For a low and slow, don't use the chimney! You should start just a little lump in your, FULL, basket. For high temp grilling, you can start half a chimney, but not a Weber chimney. Those are too big, use a regular, cheap, smaller chimney. A half chimney is enough fuel to get your grilling going, it lights really fast, and you don't have the bottom part raging while the top part hasn't even caught yet. You can have a hot grilling fire ready to cook on in less than 10 minutes! This isn't briquette cooking. Once your half chimney is going, just dump it out on a full basket of lump and spread it around a little. For grilling you don't need to heat soak your KK or try to get a certain dome temp. That's a total waste of fuel. Once you dump your half chimney on top of your basket of lump, put the meat on immediately. Open the daisy wheel all the way and the top vent wide open. Grilling doesn't take long, your meat will be cooking on a fire that is steadily getting hotter with these vent settings. You are using the available heat as it is increasing so as not to waste it. Just use your temperature probe and when the meat is about 30 degrees shy of your finish temp, flip it, once. When it's done, reverse sear it if you like and shut down the KK. This is very quick and doesn't use much fuel. You can grill on the top(main) or the mid level, I like to grill on top because it takes a little longer and spends more time in the smoke, and gets a more even level of doneness from the surface to the inside of the meat. It takes more fuel up there.The closer to the fire you cook, the more the outside will cook faster than the inside, which some people like. It takes less fuel down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribeless Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: grilling with minimal lump Thanks for welcome Dennis ... still trying to figure out how to get my KK from garage to balcony I won't bug you with first cook, but I'll post results. I've got a big learning curve ahead of me. (My first burn will be mainly for the burn-in, per the manual) Mguerra thanks for your useful comments ... I'm printing your post and using them to start my own cooking notebook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribeless Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: grilling with minimal lump Oh by the way Dennis, my wife, Pauline, has emailed our thanks, but a good piece of PR for you, our KK sat in a warehouse in Christchurch, New Zealand - unfortunately previously our home town - for about four days and through at least three major aftershocks (one that took down two further buildings in the CBD), from the Christchurch earthquake sequence that started September 2010 (now over 9,000 aftershocks): yet not a bit of damage to the KK. It came out of the crate in pristine condition - they're built tough I hope the other two just shipped to NZ find and join the forum - it would be good to chat to them about charcoal, etc, available here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
