Lannoos Posted August 28, 2018 Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 Hello fellow forum members (and specifically KK owners)!, Dennis sent a note recently about a SBB42 in the Bay Area that needed a new home after a photo shoot. Being a KK owner for 3 years (23" Ultimate) and loving every minute I get to spend with something on the grill, I decided a while back that I would need a 32 Bad Boy. Well as owners on the forum know, occasionally opportunity to purchase a lightly used grill arises. I saw Dennis post the 42 SBB from his recent photo shoot and I thought an extra 10 inches could come in handy. Of course reason eventually overtook emotion and I realized you'd have to be slightly insane to go to San Francisco, a city built on steep hills with ridiculously small streets..... Doesn't that SBB actually weigh in at about 3/4 of a ton? Yea, it does. I passed on the offer. Whew, that was a close one... Well, after sleeping on this idea for a few days, and bidding a catering gig for a Luau near my home, I realized that cooking a whole pig seal the deal. I decided to cook a small 30lb pig on my 23 Ultimate and have some friends over for dinner to do a practice run on a whole animal, albeit a small animal. I cooked the pig in two pieces; even a 30lb Pig was too big for the 23. The cook went perfectly; hindquarters on the lower grill and the head and forequarters above via the top grate with longest legs down. It was delicious! Now I realize that if you were paying me to provide a whole pig, you'd want it presented whole, not cut in half with the drippings from the head basting the hindquarters below. Am I right or am I right? As luck would have it, the 42SBB in SF was still available and the photographer was finished with his work, so the SBB was either going back to Carson, CA or some lucky soul was going to SF to pick it up and take it home. I made a call, discussed the situation with both Dennis. He encouraged me to give it more thought stating that 3 guys moved his across his yard and down 3 steps without issue. Mind you he told me that they were not big guys, just smart…! With Dennis assessment and complete confidence that this was replicable in SF I contacted the photographer and we assessed the location. He seemed bullish on our ability to recover the KK successfully and even offered assistance. (He did mention that his wife was eager to have the beast removed from her backyard) Since everyone thought we could do this, I began designing a transport solution using my 5 x 10 Landscape trailer. Equipped with a few 2x4's and hardware, I constructed a bracing system for the SBB using the 2x4 pockets on the side of my trailer, then purchased a 1-ton Strap 'come-a-long' from Home Depot ($27). I figured that if I could keep the KK trapped in timber and I strapped the feet to the wooden floor of my trailer, I could transport the KK and use my ramp and the come-a-long for loading/unloading. Simple, right? Sorry that I didn't get a shots of loading / Unloading, all hands were required on deck! Every once in a while, everything goes right and this happened to be one of those times! Below are some photos of my trailer, the KK in situ at the photographers home, the KK loaded and braced and finally the successfully unloaded beautiful Cobalt Blue Super Bad Boy at my home. The 23 Ultimate seems a little jealous of his larger sibling, but there are plenty of cooks for all! The moral of this tale is that should you ever need to move a KK, it may seem like you need an army, but a little consultation and the help of a few friends and some mechanical advantage, and you too can do this! I will be cooking on this unit all week and will share some photos of those cooks later on. I think my next purchase will be more Coco char as soon as Dennis figures out how to get it stateside! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted August 28, 2018 Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 What a story and it has a fairy-tale ending. Gorgeous KK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted August 28, 2018 Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 WOW!! I bet you got a lot of stares on the road driving that beast home! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lannoos Posted August 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 I will say that we drove home across the SF Bay Bridge and up to the foothills. No big reactions that I could see, probably because I was so focused on managing the traffic in front of me. Didn't want to be forced to 'test' the integrity of the bracing. I was confident it would hold up, but didn't relish the thought of slamming on my brakes and hearing a 2x4 break with the resulting 3/4 ton passenger attempting to enter my back seat! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckreef Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 WOW!! That is an awesome story. Even though I knew how it was going to end I had to read the whole story. Awesome looking KK. Can't wait to see a whole hog on there. You must be mighty proud because I'm a little jealous, I so want to KK a whole hog even if it's a smaller one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BonFire Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 That is a great colour, looks awesome, congrats..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Pearson Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 Beautiful looking! Can’t wait to see your first cook in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 That is really cool. So glad that this 42 made it to a good home where it has a sibling to keep it company. Soooo looking forward to seeing your cooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 Yeah, I think we're all dying to see a whole piggy on that thing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGSHEP Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 Beautiful KK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stile88 Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 Wow that is a beast congrats what a stunning color Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoo Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 What an effort , I am starting to get a little bit twitchy now because my 42" docks on the 4th Sept ! and I ain't no engineer like you Lannoos ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lannoos Posted September 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 Thank you for all the congratulations and positive comments! I did mention that I would be cooking a pig on the 42 for a wedding reception Luau on Saturday. After recovering from the job I can now share a comments and pictures along with the sequence of my first 4 cooks. I will say that Soy and sugar can make for a very messy cleanup, which I did not enjoy performing. So here goes: Monday: KK retrieved, a very good day! Tuesday: 18 Racks of Baby Backs. No time for pics after I got it started so just 1 below. I shot for the DENNIS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS... mistakenly thinking I could easily cook 18 Racks of Baby Backs simultaneously. I miscalculated and placed the first 9 racks on the lower grate, the additional 9 racks on the Upper Grate (not the main grate). Charcoal basket splitter was at about 20% capacity with Coco Char. I don't recommend this configuration! What I should have done was: Light the coco char in the center of the basket, place a couple of heat deflectors covered with foil with attendant drip pans, then used the main grate and upper grate for the cook. I also would recommend splitting the cook into 2 sessions 4 rack on on grate and 5 on the other. This would improve the airflow and browning/bark on the rib racks. I survived the cook, took almost 8 hours, and I had to add coco char, and rotate the ribs between grates to get the desired results. Lots more work that I wanted to do, and a horrendous amount of cleanup. Wednesday: 40 lbs of Korean Beef Spareribs This was a cook that blew my mind! After I spent a whole work day cooking baby backs, I was afraid I would find myself spending another long night working this ribs through their cooking process. Not so! I received the cross-cut short Ribs (Korean style doesn't separate the individual ribs but rather cross cuts through the bones, my ribs were only 1/4" thick) on Monday and marinated them in traditional Brown Sugar Rub, Soy, garlic, onion, ginger and diced asian pears overnight. I loaded the basket with hardwood lump charcoal and lit in 4 placed across the bottom of the cooker, closed the lid and heat soaked to 325. Took about an hour to get to operating temperature. Then I opened up and started laying on the ribs from left to right. by the time I go the ribs laid out, it was time to flip. So I flipped, then started retrieving. About an hour later, I was done! Great results, but a very crusty set of stainless to deal with, burnt on marinade was a real pain to clean! One note, because the cook went so fast, I had to leave the top open, this allowed tons of airflow to the coals and when I was done and closed the lid, my temp soared to 550 degrees at shut down. This caused the grill to start off-gassing for a short while so I had to babysit the KK for a couple more hours pressing down the tiles as a few started to bubble from beneath. No big deal as the hardwood charcoal was basically consumed during the cook, so I didn't have a long session before cooling took me below the level of gassing off. Thursday: 60 lbs of Teriyaki Chicken thighs Pretty much the same as the Korean ribs. Went quick (less than an hour)! Surface area of the main grate is amazing to work with. Same lengthy cleanup though. Almost 2 hours of scrubbing grates after a full overnight soak. did not get any photos of the chicken cook. Friday: Took the day off, went and got the pig. Not a big pig, just 45 lbs. it was to be more of a center piece than the main course per the client. I had to deliver the pig by 1PM on Saturday and didn't really know what to expect from a heat soak and cook time perspective to on Friday night at about 8pm, I assembled the cook. 16 lbs of coco char in the center of the charcoal basket, no splitter installed, and lit the coals for a low n slow. I then installed supports and 2 center head deflectors covered in foil to keep them clean, placed the two drip pans on top of the deflectors and installed the main grate. I used my digit Wifi to keep the temp at 225 and let her go all night long. I got up a 4:30 AM and prepped the pig with just some salt and pepper in the cavity, a few herbs as well. I foiled the tail and ears to prevent them from over browning and stuff a ball of foil in the pigs mouth to enable placement of garnish after the cook. Put the pig in place on the grate and monitored till internal hindquarter reached 180 degrees, then I cranked up the heat to 325 to finish of the cook! at 1PM I pulled the pig at 192 degrees. That said my 16lbs of coco char burned for 17 hours and still had plenty left! A buddy and I used a couple of pitchforks to lift of the pig and serve at the wedding. Everything went very well and I will remember this week my whole life! What fun cooking with such a great and versatile tool! I was concerned that As Porky Pig would say: "th, th, th, thaat's all Folks.. !!!! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfdrew28 Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 Beautiful on all accounts. I never felt so inadequate w my 32Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 All I can says is - WOW! One tip for cleaning off gunky grates - get some Powdered Brewers Wash (PBW) at any local home brewing supply store. This stuff is amazing. Just soak the grates overnight in a 1 TB/gal of hot water solution. Everything will wipe off easily with a damp sponge. Only way that I'll try and clean my rotisserie baskets. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 Now THAT'S a cook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todc1963 Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 WOW....awesome job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjs Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 WOW, nice job and what a great grill...feeling jealous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted September 8, 2018 Report Share Posted September 8, 2018 Incredible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve M Posted September 9, 2018 Report Share Posted September 9, 2018 Awesome cook. I loved seeing the pig on the grill and the nice spread at the wedding. Great job setting that up. I have hope that Dennis's future grills will come with an optional grate washer built in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
