First cook on the new kk

[Steve M]

My initial plan today was the burn in but it looked like a rainy day and I didn't think it would be a good idea to vent it in the rain.

So I headed to Costco and picked up some baby back ribs and a couple of chickens. Ribs today and chickens tomorrow.

I had 3 racks and seasoned the first one with slap yo daddy all purpose rub and the other 2 with killer hogs "The BBQ rub". The first rack came off at 5 hours and the rest at 5.5 hours. On all my other grills, I would typically spritz them with apple juice/cider vinegar about every 30 minutes. Sometimes I would wrap for 1.5-2 hours as well. For these, I didn't open the lid until 4 hours to check for doneness which I did every 30 minutes afterwards until done. I was surprised to see they still looked very moist on the surface. On previous grills, they always looked dry. The finished product was really good. Nice and moist as I had hoped and really the best tasting ribs I can remember that I made (and that is quite a few racks). There was also something about the texture that was heads above what I have made before. They had a nice smoky taste but nothing overpowering at all. I think I preferred the slay yo daddy rubbed ribs over the others. Here are a some pics. I also have some questions regarding issues bringing the kk to temp. I know it is user issue but would like to know where I went wrong. Please see below after the pics.

 

 

The above pic as after 4 hours. Looking good.

 

I planned on cooking the ribs at 235-240 as I usually do on my other grills. I loaded a full basket with royal oak and lit it in 3 places. I had the lower damper cracked about 3-4 mm at the widest and the upper vent 1/2 turn. After about 30 minutes, I was only up to about 160. I opened the lower damper about double what it had been and another full turn on the top. After about another 30 minutes, I was up to about 210. I opened the top another half turn and finally after about 1:45 from the beginning, I hit 235. I closed the top down to about half a turn open and it seemed to be staying. About half an hour later, I loaded the ribs and the temp dropped back to 210 again and stayed there. I started going through the process again and got it up to 240 where it seemed like it wanted to stay for about 2 hours. Then it jumped about 15 degrees around 4 hours into the cook. I wasn't too concerned and at this point, I was pretty much back to the settings where I started. It continued to rise a little and was about 270 when I took the last two racks off.

I wanted to take a practice run after I finished to take it up to about 375. I opened the bottom vent fully open and opened the top vent as far as it would go; slightly less than 6 turns. I left it that way for about 45 minutes but 330 was as high as it would go. 

What say you? 

[CeramicChef]

That's a droolicious rib cook.  Beautiful color.  Congrats and kudos on a very fine first cook!  

[bosco]

on my 23, I open the bottom left dial half so a 90 degree open, and the top 3.5 spins and I can be at 350-375 in 10 to 15 min. 

How much lump did you have in there when you cranked it? 

Did you have your deflector stone in?

Did you calibrate you therm to ensure the right temp reading?

RO red bag?

Was it a new bag of lump? 

Was it a lot of smaller pieces, fine dust from the bag?

Also, as for the flux, when you hit your desired temp, and put meat in the temp will drop.  Give a good 30 min to ensure the temp is stable before an adjustment.  Also low and slow I would get in the habit of lighting in one spot only.  The KK requires so little air flow that it can get to temp and more before you know it.  For a low and slow, I open a quarter turn up top, and bottom about an 1/8 open.  That is it 

The other nice thing is the smoke taste you said was subtle.  But what you are tasting is thin blue smoke.  Due to the limited air required, the dirty smoke doesn't occur.  What you get is just nice tasting wood flavour.  I have learned to use a bit more smoking woods now cooking on a KK because you don't get that gross taste from the white smoke when the chunk catches.

Ribs look great. I too like to spritz on the hour

 

[Aussie Ora]

Those ribs look awesome for sure great first cook can not help you on your settings but for low n slow I just light one spot and control from there

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill♨

[CeramicChef]

@Steve M - one of the things I always do on a low-n-slow is give my KK about an hour to heat soak, i.e. get to the temp I want for the cook and have all the refractory get to the cook temp.  This pretty much negates temperature transients during the cook.  

The other thing I would tell you is don't chase temps by adjusting vents during the cook.  You will get to know your KK and the vent settings that yield what temp.  Just trust your KK to do its job and hold the temp you want.  I'd urge you to get a cheap bag of lump and a case of your favorite cold adult beverage and get to know your KK vent setting on a weekend day. Once you know those vent settings, they don't change except on very windy days.

Enjoy and have fun.

[Steve M]

9 hours ago, bosco said:

on my 23, I open the bottom left dial half so a 90 degree open, and the top 3.5 spins and I can be at 350-375 in 10 to 15 min. 

How much lump did you have in there when you cranked it? 

Did you have your deflector stone in?

Did you calibrate you therm to ensure the right temp reading?

RO red bag?

Was it a new bag of lump? 

Was it a lot of smaller pieces, fine dust from the bag?

Also, as for the flux, when you hit your desired temp, and put meat in the temp will drop.  Give a good 30 min to ensure the temp is stable before an adjustment.  Also low and slow I would get in the habit of lighting in one spot only.  The KK requires so little air flow that it can get to temp and more before you know it.  For a low and slow, I open a quarter turn up top, and bottom about an 1/8 open.  That is it 

The other nice thing is the smoke taste you said was subtle.  But what you are tasting is thin blue smoke.  Due to the limited air required, the dirty smoke doesn't occur.  What you get is just nice tasting wood flavour.  I have learned to use a bit more smoking woods now cooking on a KK because you don't get that gross taste from the white smoke when the chunk catches.

Ribs look great. I too like to spritz on the hour

 

I calibrated the thermometer on the day of delivery. Reads the same as my thermopen.

It was new RO red bag from home depot.

I had the deflector stone in and the drip pan sitting on top. I didn't check the coals before cranking it but I started with a full basket so it had been about 7.5 hours since starting. I'm not used to cooking with lump charcoal but I thought the pieces looked on the small size. do you think they settled in so close to prevent airflow? There was quite a bit of white smoke in the beginning. I threw some chunks of alder on when I started but only one was on the lit part of the coals.

 

9 hours ago, Aussie Ora said:

Those ribs look awesome for sure great first cook can not help you on your settings but for low n slow I just light one spot and control from there

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill♨

Thanks Aussie

 

9 hours ago, CeramicChef said:

@Steve M - one of the things I always do on a low-n-slow is give my KK about an hour to heat soak, i.e. get to the temp I want for the cook and have all the refractory get to the cook temp.  This pretty much negates temperature transients during the cook.  

The other thing I would tell you is don't chase temps by adjusting vents during the cook.  You will get to know your KK and the vent settings that yield what temp.  Just trust your KK to do its job and hold the temp you want.  I'd urge you to get a cheap bag of lump and a case of your favorite cold adult beverage and get to know your KK vent setting on a weekend day. Once you know those vent settings, they don't change except on very windy days.

Enjoy and have fun.

I was just shy of 2 hours when the ribs went on. The temp probably only stabilized for about half an hour though at the temp I wanted. The main problem was trying to reach 235. 

I'm wondering if the lumps were too small. I just poured them in and didn't try to arrange them or anything.

I hope to do a couple of chickens today at 375 but at this point, I'm not sure I can reach it without changing something up. I'm going to check the grill out this morning since it is cooled down.

[5698k]

If you got a lot of smallest, you could certainly blocked airflow enough to keep the temp down. Fuel+airflow=temperature. This could easily be the issue with the time to come to temp. The last bag of RO I used had a good bit of smalls in it, so you might pay attention to what goes into the charcoal basket.

Rob

[Steve M]

I took a look at the basket this morning and was somewhat surprised to see it had burned down so much. Probably explains somewhat why I couldn't get the temp up past 330 at the end. I plan on doing the chickens today and may try the coffee char. Should I load the basket again for a cook around 375? Light in more than one place?

Thanks everyone for the help so far; you make it a lot easier

 

[5698k]

That's a pretty complete burn. How are you defining a full basket? The coal should at least go to the top rung of the basket, or more, as long as you're not interfering with the deflector. Lighting in more than one place isn't necessary, about 3/4" bottom, 2 full turns top should get you there pretty quickly.

Rob

[Steve M]

5 minutes ago, 5698k said:

That's a pretty complete burn. How are you defining a full basket? The coal should at least go to the top rung of the basket, or more, as long as you're not interfering with the deflector. Lighting in more than one place isn't necessary, about 3/4" bottom, 2 full turns top should get you there pretty quickly.

Rob

It was even with the top rung when I started. I snugged the top vent down when I finished; not overly tight but it felt like it had engaged the gasket so I don't think it continued to burn until it was out of charcoal. 

Thanks for the settings. I'll go with that today. 

[MacKenzie]

Steve, those ribs certainly look wonderful.  Personally I would not use the ceramic heat deflector. I think it just slows down the heat sink process and actually I have never used mine for any cook. If you need the drip pan just set it on top of the lump basket of set it on a rack under your cooking rack. 

[xraydoc]

This is a very helpful thread. I'm bookmarking it so I can come back once I have my KK delivered. Steve - you are going to have it dialed in. There's so much knowledge and help on here that you can't go wrong.

[Steve M]

Steve, those ribs certainly look wonderful.  Personally I would not use the ceramic heat deflector. I think it just slows down the heat sink process and actually I have never used mine for any cook. If you need the drip pan just set it on top of the lump basket of set it on a rack under your cooking rack. 

Mackenzie, as good as your cooks look, that's all I need to hear. I was thinking the drip pan would probably serve well enough as a deflector but wasn't sure.

[Steve M]

This is a very helpful thread. I'm bookmarking it so I can come back once I have my KK delivered. Steve - you are going to have it dialed in. There's so much knowledge and help on here that you can't go wrong.

Xraydoc, the kk seems to be perfect so I've ruled that out as an issue. That sort of leaves me as the problem. Thank goodness for the experts here. I'm not concerned

[xraydoc]

That is my fear. I am by no means an excellent cook. I can find my way around a barbecue and I generally manage to grill and smoke things without screwing up too bad, but now, I won't have any excuses to hide behind. If it isn't right, it's because of me.

Once you figure it all out, you can help guide me through it.

[CeramicChef]

I know what you mean guys.  Rest easy!  The KK made me a better cook than I ever was before.  My KKs cover up a multitude of sins every time I light the lump.  

[5698k]

You'll likely have to close the top quite a bit to maintain temp. The initial settings are just to get you there fairly quickly.

Rob

[KevinD]

I would be more than happy to eat those ribs! The end result is all that matters, well, most of the time!

[Steve M]

1 hour ago, KevinD said:

I would be more than happy to eat those ribs! The end result is all that matters, well, most of the time!

Yes Kevin, the ribs were fantastic and that is not to be overlooked.

IMG_2746.MOV

 

IMG_2745.MOV

 

I included a couple of video clips to show some necessary modifications to the rotisserie so I can use it today. I had to shorten the shaft attachment on the right of the basket by about 1/16"+ and it fits perfectly now. A hacksaw went through it fairly quick and I used a file to take down any burs on the edge. I installed it and tried it out with the rotisserie motor and noticed the shaft between the motor and the grill was unwinding. The rotation of the motor tends to loosen the threads. I drilled it out with the smallest bit I had that would drill through stainless and put a paper clip in until I can get a cotter pin. It looks pretty sturdy now.

The motor bracket's thickness is slightly thicker than the slots on the motor housing so the housing needs to be modified slightly. I used a woodworkers card scraper to pry it open just enough so it would slip onto the bracket. It worked very well and it did not damage my scraper. the scraper is basically a heavy duty piece of steel that is about 1-1.5 mm thick. 

 

2 hours ago, xraydoc said:

That is my fear. I am by no means an excellent cook. I can find my way around a barbecue and I generally manage to grill and smoke things without screwing up too bad, but now, I won't have any excuses to hide behind. If it isn't right, it's because of me.

Once you figure it all out, you can help guide me through it.

We'll get through this with all the help here. I plan on doing a wagyu brisket in a couple weeks for a few people, probably overnight, so I hope I can get it figured out quick. I may practice a few low and slow cooks even if I don't have food on the grill.

[Nuprin]

Great first cook.  They look beautiful.

There's a bit of a learning curve if you haven't used lump charcoal in your previous cookers.  I will mention that the newer, red 15.5lb bags of RO seem to have more small pieces than their previous 17.6lb bags from last few years.   From my experience, I get more white smoke if there are some previously used lump still sitting in the basket, even if you add more fresh lump.  If it's all new unused lump, it shouldn't produce that much white smoke when firing up your cooker.   Try some other charcoal brands or if there's a KJ Road Show near you, pick up some of their lump at $30 for 40lbs.  They are big pieces and burn hot and long.  I only find it necessary to light in one place, right in the middle but if you want it to light even faster, you could always pull out the dial plate and that will get you a lot more airflow - just keep an eye or it'll go nuclear after a while.