New member and green as a pea

[Yam the Bomb]

Hello everyone. I'm Scott from Indiana. I just got my Terra Blue KK 22" this week. Love the design and quality of this thing. 

I am green as they come when it comes to grilling (or cooking anything for that matter. ) We put a new swimming pool in recently so I googled the best grills and started researching. Never expected to spend thousands but once I read about the kk I came around and figured I would just go for it. My next door neighbor has a BGE and he loves it. 

My only experience with any form of grilling is from using a cheap hardware store gas grill and just going with krispy or extra krispy as options. I was grilling some burgers recently and my niece said "I want mine medium-rare."  I said What do you think I am? A psychic? I haven't cooked them yet. How would I know what they are going to be?

Can you guys fix me. I just want to be able to grill simple stuff.

The name Yam the Bomb comes from the name I gave one of my motorcycles many years ago (a Yamaha) and I use that name on motorcycle forums. Got to keep it simple since we all have way too many usernames and passwords to remember these days. 

I'm not sure if this is even the right section for intros. But there it is.

 

[Pequod]

Cool! And welcome! Well, you certainly started out right by buying the best. Now where to begin... 

1. Buy and use lump charcoal. You're about to be swamped with people telling you which brands are good and which are not. You're doing well to start with plain old Royal Oak lump and navigating from there. Somebody will call me a heretic in a moment. 

2. You need to start your charcoal with something. You can buy starters (look up Rutland starter squares on Amazon) or buy a MAPP torch. 

3. Plan to spend a day learning temp settings on your KK. Start low -- top vent open about 1/4 turn -- and gradually step up to high. 

4. Buy an instant read thermometer. It's pricey, but the ThermoWorks Thermapen is hard to beat. 

5. Learn when different cuts are done and by what method. Chicken and steaks are usually done by temp. 130-135 for a medium rare steak, 160 in the breast for chicken (usually). Pork butts, briskets, and ribs are best done by feel. 

 

I'd suggest start learning your KK by cooking some chicken pieces at 425 on the dome thermometer. Breasts are done at 160-165 and thighs closer to 175. 

[Yam the Bomb]

Thanks Halfsmoke. I did play around with just heating the grill up yesterday. Grilled a few burgers for my introductory voyage. Came out good for a beginner. I have a digital thermometer I'm using but it's a cheapie. Seems accurate. But I'm going to get one of the nice ones I see you guys talking about. 

I think I'll cook a filet tonight since that's what I usually grill. Plus I love them. What temp would be ideal to get the grill up to for that? Also if I want to bake a potatoe how would I go about that? These questions are probably easily searchable. I'm still getting used to the forum layout. 

[5698k]

You've gotten excellent advice from Halfsmoke. The only thing I'll add is to always keep it simple, don't overthink things, at least until you've mastered things. Congrats, you've picked a helluva first grill!


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[Jeff]

I totally agree with lump or high-quality extruded charcoal. No grocery store or big box store briquettes. No briquettes, period!

I personally prefer torch or newspaper/chimney for lighting over even the best of the squares. No lighter fluid, period! Especially in something that seals up as well as a kamado, you'll never get the chemical scent out.

Get a good butcher. A real butcher, if possible. No matter how good your technique, you'll never get outstanding results from warehouse or grocery store meat. Good and very tasty, yes, but outstanding, nope, not even their "Prime"

While a chef that grills a dozen or more steaks a night can easily know the difference between medium rare and medium just by how the meat feels, most of us can only get sort of close "by feel" Cook to temperature and you'll be much more consistent. Who cares if it's called "medium rare" or "rare" -- I know from my sous vide experience that my wife and I like our meat at 52° C. Remember that there will be carry-over cooking fro the residual heat, perhaps up to 5-10° F. 

Grilling burgers to a specific doneness is difficult even for professional chefs. Best I can do is three levels, not done yet, done, and "why would anyone want meat cooked more than medium?" (with exceptions certainly given for reasons of religion)

Always let your meat rest for 5 minutes or so after it comes off the grill, before cutting, so the juices and heat come to more of an equilibrium

Searing doesn't "seal in the juices" as many claim, it's long been debunked as false. It does make the outside of the meat taste magical, but you can do it at the start or the end of the cook. As it is harder to get a kamado to cool down than to heat up, I personally sear at the end of the cook.

Agree, can't beat the ThermoWorks Thermapen. I've had them for years and wouldn't use anything else. If that's beyond your remaining budget, the CDN Pro quick-read thermometer at around $15 (Last one I ordered for a friend was a DTQ450X, they change the model numbers a bit from time to time)

You might want to consider a year's membership to America's Test Kitchen, watching some old Good Eats episodes, or both. The basic cooking techniques for meat, poultry, and fish are dependent on heat and time, wherever the heat comes from.

Edit: On the baked potato, easiest in the oven or toaster oven rather than the grill, with or without the time-saving shortcut of a brief bit in the microwave first.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Jeff

[MacKenzie]

Welcome and you have lots of good advice above.:) Maybe you will be ready to take pixs tonight when you do your filet.  I usually do mine the reverse sear method. Heat the grill to about 275F let it cook until you are maybe 10F or so below the desired finish temp. remove from grill cover and open the vents to get a good bed of flames put the grate low to the fire and sear for just a minute or so. You do not need to get the whole grill up to searing temps just get the burning lump and put the meat near it.  

[bosco]

Wow this is jumping in the deep end with both feet.  At least you have no need to upgrade ever!

great advice above.  The best advice is to stick around and read read read.  Tons of info here.  

I would say to avoid super crazy high heat cooks.  I like to cook everything under 600.  Pizza and steak is 500-550.  Anything hotter is just adding unnecessary stress.  

Dennis makes excellent charcoal so I would recommend that.  If you are looking for store bought I like the royal oak red from the depot.   Some love fogo but agreed with the comments of charcoal only.  

Before you purchase BBQ gadgets I would learn the grill and invest in only a thermapen by thermaworks.  I prefer simple and learning what meat should look and feel like.  Probes and all that stuff was not for me.  

Not sure if you gots accessories yet but the rotisserie, pizza stone and drip pan were great investments for me. 

Take your time and learn the vent settings.  Being able to remember turns and openings will teach you how to set it for future use.   Keep a journal ie. half open bottoms vent and two turns upper vent for 350 etc. 

We are all here to help you become the backyard grill master!!

Congrats 

 

[Steve M]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new grill. Lots of good advice already. I expect with the new grill, you're already motivated to read up on this style of cooking. You really can cook just about anything well on the kk. 

Most of the typical grill fare can be cooked over direct heat (nothing between the meat and the flames), lots of bbq responds well to indirect heat (some sort of deflector between the flames and the meat) and some things are great using a combination of both at different stages of the cook. If you want to spend a day on a nice slow indirect cook, pulled pork with a boston butt or pork shoulder is very forgiving. It isn't easy to screw it up and the results are amazing.

Throw out a couple ideas for a cook and I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses.

[Yam the Bomb]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm real disappointed that a baked potato isn't going to go well on the grill. I'm a meat and potatoes only kind of guy.

Believe me, I will keep it very simple. If I can cook simple stuff that tastes good then I will love my grill.

I was looking at it this morning and trying to see what name came to me and the obvious one came to mind. It's terra blue and I kind of have a bomb theme going with my Yam the Bomb so...The Crusty Blue Bomber seems so obvious. My wife was underwhelmed.

[Stile88]

Congrats on your new grill if you havent already i usually put my potatos near the coals or on the lower grate

Lots of great advice in above posts but trial and error is the best teacher  

[5698k]

I don't see why potatos won't work....


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[ckreef]

Welcome to the forum.  Baked potatoes on a KK work fine. All sorts of other potato dishes too. Since owning a KK almost all my potato cooks have been done on a KK. Even boxed type of scalloped potatoes taste better cooked on a grill. 

There is rarely a right or wrong way to cook a particular food on a KK. As the saying goes "More than one way to skin a cat."  Post an idea of what you want to cook and within a day or two you'll have a couple of different ideas to choose from. 

[billg71]

Welcome and congratulations on your new cooker! If you haven't found it yet I suggest going over to amazingribs.com, it's the best resource on cooking over fire I've run across. Recipes, reviews, cooking science, it's all there.  They also have a forum but it's a pay-to-play thing, quite reasonable.

Enjoy your new grill!

[Aussie Ora]

Welcome mate looks like everyone has covered it for you I will just add take a day to play with your new KK and learn the settings. For pizza you want the grill to be heat soaked so starting it up and getting to temp a couple of hours before is good. Most other cooks don't require this. Please do not try pizza before doing your burn in

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[ckreef]

3 hours ago, billg71 said:

Welcome and congratulations on your new cooker! If you haven't found it yet I suggest going over to amazingribs.com, it's the best resource on cooking over fire I've run across. Recipes, reviews, cooking science, it's all there.  They also have a forum but it's a pay-to-play thing, quite reasonable.

Enjoy your new grill!

Amazingribs might be a great forum but other than this forum the  kamadoguru forum is hands down the best forum for kamado cooking. 95% of the posts are about kamado cooking and it's free. 

Edited October 16, 2016 by ckreef

[Aussie Ora]

Totally agree with ckreef if you want to understand a Kamado. Guru is the site some really great advise on there specific to your needs. When I got my Kj classic I found that site knowing bugger all I had a basic understanding but nothing 2 years latter I have learned so much and have cooked some great food and have progessed to a KK. Which is great beacuse I found this site alot of talented cooks willing to impart their knowledge on the best Kamado going

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

[Pequod]

Agree with the above recommendations with regard to forums. I think I'm on five or six BBQ related forums, but use three regularly for different reasons:

KK Forum (this one) -- to get the most out of your KK, and to keep an eye on what @MacKenzie is up to.

Kamado Guru -- All other things Kamado, which is a LOT.

Amazing RIbs -- There are two parts to this site. Much of the free part has been organized in a book you can buy off Amazon: Meathead

• The Free Part:
  • Technique -- Presented as "science". Based on your first post, you probably want to review this part the most.
  • Product Reviews and Recommendations -- Kind of like a Consumer Reports for outdoor cooking gear. This is useful, although there is a bit of an anti-Kamado bias (they love the KK, though).
  • Recipes -- Most are pretty basic, but some are very good (try the Hamburger Buns recipe).
• The Pay Part: The Pit -- the online forum for discussion. I don't use this part as much, but CeramicChef (also a member here and at the Guru, although haven't seen him in awhile) posted a Kamado 101 series there that would likely be of great value to you.

[Sharon]

On 10/15/2016 at 9:42 AM, bosco said:

Wow this is jumping in the deep end with both feet.  At least you have no need to upgrade ever!

great advice above.  The best advice is to stick around and read read read.  Tons of info here.  

I would say to avoid super crazy high heat cooks.  I like to cook everything under 600.  Pizza and steak is 500-550.  Anything hotter is just adding unnecessary stress.  

Dennis makes excellent charcoal so I would recommend that.  If you are looking for store bought I like the royal oak red from the depot.   Some love fogo but agreed with the comments of charcoal only.  

Brfore you purchase BBQ gadgets I would learn the grill and invest in only a thermapen by thermaworks.  I prefer simple and learning what meat should look and feel like.  Probes and all that stuff was not for me.  

Not sure if you gots accessories yet but the rotisserie, pizza stone and drip pan were great investments for me. 

Take your time and learn the vent settings.  Being able to remember turns and openings will teach you how to set it for future use.   Keep a journal ie. half open bottoms vent and two turns upper vent for 350 etc. 

We are all here to help you become the backyard grill master!!

Congrats 

 

You are so kind!  I'm going to love this forum!

Sharon

[tony b]

A bit late to the party (I was out of town for about a week). 

Congrats on the KK purchase. You will never regret it. 

Like others have said, just be a bit patient and learn your grill. Set up a chair with your favorite adult beverage, light a basket of lump charcoal (I'm a MAPP torch guy), and slowly open the top and bottom vents to learn how your KK responds to different settings. Keep good notes (depends on how many adult beverages you have!) And, most importantly, don't be afraid/embarrassed to ask questions here!!! We all had to learn this stuff at one time or another. Take advantage of the years of experience here to guide you along the way. Lots of great advice in the archives of the Forum, too. Use the search engine - it's a great tool. 

Happy trails, YTB. 

[mguerra]

If you only grill on your KK you will miss out on most of what you paid for. It's a fine grill but you can grill on a cheap metal thing. Be sure to smoke some things, bake, roast, do pizza and so on. Your KK is a fantastic and versatile tool. The gang here is probably sick of hearing me say it, but to me the highest purpose of your KK is to smoke a pork shoulder. It's easy, hard to screw up, some of the best tasting meat you can prep.

As far as grilling goes, you don't need a specific grilling temperature. You just need a good hot fire and you can see that with your eyes. Finish your meat by temperature. Your neighbor with the BGE can probably give you a lot of tips also.