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Agreed. Especially if your family only wants white meat...

It's not. There are two consistent hot spots, even cooking low-n-slow. - perimeter of the heat deflectors, where hot air from the fire is rising - area of heat deflector that's right above a hot spot in the fire. The former can be mitigated by awareness, and regular re-arrangement of food so everything cooks equally. I always cut rib racks in half because it's the only way to get the ends away from the perimeter. The latter can be mitigated by putting a water pan over the hot spot. Without water in your drip pan, there's still a hot spot. Frank

This is the important lesson: it's hard to screw up the flavor. Keep trying things! There's very little downside. Frank, who pasteurized 2 slabs of bacon and cooked 2 racks of ribs this afternoon. Great tool, these.

First off, I misspoke; I'm not "dry aging" so much as I'm "dry brining." I currently have a pair of sirloin cap roasts, aka culotte, salted and drying in the fridge for ~27 hrs. now. This had s become tender cut SOP.... I traditionally had seasoned brisket the day before, and bagged it air tight. Last time, I salted it a day early and let it sit open in the fridge for a couple days. Came out great, and cooked fast. Second time, I used too much salt and gave it too much time and got something more like pastrami than brisket... but it cooked fast. Next time.... it's just

And I wasn't trying to put you in that position... my apologies. Like any tool Teflon has its place, and can be used safely... or not. Frankly, I was unaware of the issue before running across the grease MSDS. Frank

But it's easier if you only go to 850F. Remember, this is a target temp you're going to try and hold while the stone and lid warm up. Be happy if it recovers to 800F between pies. And you really need to do this to get the proper balance of top-to-bottom browning. Otherwise, a pizza oven may serve you better. Frank

Size matters.... KJ Biog Block is a little too big in my opinion. I break the largest down to fist-sized. At this size, it's ideal for all but the hottest fire. Whenever setting up a long cook, I try to start with a layer of larger pieces on the bottom, to insure good fire ventilation as it burns down. I then use smaller-sized brands above it without noticing. And yes, vent settings can change, especially if you have a lot of big pieces, with low surface area, so they burn slowly. One of the truisms of Kamado cooking. The food usually turns out better th

Use more fuel, but also get briquettes going quick because the ash will eventually get in the way. I used them in the 2-barrel and it would clog with ash by the time I'd finished a ~20lb. bag. Had I only known then, what Kamados have taught about fire. Frank

Several ways.... Dry aging is my preference. Leave the brisket on a grate, uncovered, in the refrigerator for a day or two. Stall-causing moisture evaporates before you start cooking. Comments to the contrary, this isn't a bad plan, as long as you're ready to keep one warm, or process it early. Pork butt is ready at 195F internal, brisket really needs 205F and a long slow rest. I'd use a thermometer alarm to wake up. Foil them when they hit target temps, if you haven't already, and into the cooler until you're ready to eat, or process for later. Normally, I'd sugges

It's lethal. This from a Dow Corning safety data sheet for a chlorinated fluorocarbon grease. "At temperatures above 482F/250C this material may produce highly toxic gaseous compounds such as hydrogen fluoride and perfluorohydrocarbons. Provide adequate ventilation or use the appropriate respiratory protection if the possibility of exceeding 482F/250C exists. Avoid contamination of tobacco products. Fluoropolymers on tobacco goods may cause adverse health effects by inhalation of the decomposition products. ..." Frank

You can't see the firebox underneath it, and I've removed the grate above the soapstone for searing at the end. While the meat was smoking on the back, I put baked potatoes on the front where radiated heat from the soapstone cooks them faster than the meat in back. No problem getting 200F internal when the grate probe in the rear is at 225F. Frank

Indeed! Unless you're running at-or-below 250F, as in the example, the lower setting is too hot, and can start cracks. The point was you can still sear meat when running in low-n-slow mode. I use a "cookie" spatula with a perfectly square, straight edge to scrape it down. Use if vertically, like a wood scraper, not horizontally, like a kitchen spatula. Soapstone has no grain; it's perfectly flat when clean, so this works really well. Just be careful to keep the corners from digging in. For spot cleaning, I use Kosher salt, just like CI. Stay well, Frank,

In fairness to KJ, heat always wins over paint. Given high-temp paint is rated to 1,200F, I suspect if you've run 800-900F on the dome thermometer, you'll have some peeling. Mine's peeling only in the hottest spots; I hardly notice when it's closed. I also store indoors, so no rust issues. Frank

1) That depends on the fire. I use an IR thermometer. Don't rush it for best results; hot spots suck. 2) KJ's stone is grate-sized, so I use it like a grate. Deflectors and spacers go with pizza stone set-up. 3) Consider KJ's semi-circular stone, as you can get a killer 2-zone set-up for reverse sear cooking (more below). 4) They are FRAGILE. No need to drop it, heat will crack them. You don't need a searing-hot fire to sear on these. I have a second in a box, waiting for the first one to break. I treat it like the ceramic deflectors and pizza stone.

Mine's iron, and the paint's peeling. I'm surprised I don't see rust.... Frank