pmillen

Please report back with your thoughts. I'm surprised that more people aren't making their own.

How hot were the coals? Lid open the whole time? Any other important instructions? I'm going to take a run at this. Thanks for turning me on to it.

I've been using the Rock's Stoker for years on a drum and about a year on my kamado. It's manufacturer discontinued. I've not used any others but I read about all of them. If I had to buy one today, I'd buy the FireBoard.

I read, "A cack on the inside" to mean in the fire box, which may not be significant. If you buy it, be sure to insist they include the bellows.

I bake calzones in my pellet pit for 20 to 25 minutes at 400°F, or until the crusts are golden brown. I also brush them with an egg wash (2 eggs beaten with 2 tablespoons water) to aid with browning. EDIT: In my pit the heat and smoke in the smoking zone comes from the top down. I don't use a stone, nor do I turn them.

I have a KJ Big Joe and a Cookshack Fast Eddy PG500 pellet pit (plus some other stuff). I prefer to smoke on the kamado. I can get more of the smoke taste. I don't want it so strong that I burp it, but the pellet pit is a little too mild for me. Adding an ancillary smoke generating device (like the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER) to the PG500 was a horrible mistake. It made skunky white smoke that never improved. I gave the A-MAZE-N-SMOKERs away (I bought two sizes). I use a stoker to control the kamado temperature. I can get fantastic temperature control and all the thin blue smoke flavor I want by adjusting the weight of the smoke wood chunks I add. My pellet pit has an area where I can grill directly over pellet flames. I don't use it. We prefer to grill over charcoal. Kamado Joe has a rotisserie attachment. It's kinda' impressive (but probably doesn't cook any better than using the grates). I've not seen a pellet pit with a rotisserie from the factory. The heavy ceramic kamado retains heat so opening the unit to spritz or whatever doesn't appreciably affect the temperature. I don't know of a pellet pit that can match that, although the Yoder comes close. Even though the Fast Eddy series of pits incorporates a design that makes grease or hopper fires extremely unlikely, the number of reported pit fires in other brands have made me reluctant to leave my pellet pit unattended for any period. I don't worry about my kamado causing a structure fire. Pellet pits require electricity. Users should be cautions in rain or snow. Not so with the kamados. Many pellet pits blow ash and unburned pellet dust around the cooking area. I don't want that stuff on my food.

Did you lay the wood splits on top of lit briquettes? About how long did it take the splits to burn down to cooking coals? Mine has shipped. Yay!

Yep. There are a zillion recipes on the Internet. Just do an Internet search on brisket flat. Pick the one you like best. I'd smoke the other two pieces that are point and flat in the same way I'd smoke a whole packer.

I need to avoid breakfast wine.

I didn't know that. Again, thanks.

Duh! You're right, of course. Pine has needles. It was a tytpo. Thanks.

We will want to be cautious when dealing with the definition of hardwood. It's any tree that doesn't have needles. So pine is a hardwood and I've been told to not grill or smoke with it. The supplier lists cherry, beech, maple and ash woods. Assuming that's correct, cherry, maple, and ash are fine to cook over or use for smoke. IDK about beech.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Whew! That'll be hard for me to do. So you're suggesting that I cook a little, examine the meat and adjust accordingly?

I see a lot of videos where they're cooking over rather tall flames. So that isn't the authentic Santa Maria grilling?

Thanks for the tips. I've been considering one these things for years and a couple of recent posts here sent me over the edge. I'm really excited to try a few things that aren't quite the same when cooked on my Kamado.

I have a Santa Maria grill on the way. I’ve watched a few video recipes but find them lacking the detail I require for my first few cooks. Where can I find a primer to provide an introduction to Santa Maria grilling? I’m interested in– Do I grill over flame or glowing coals? What should the grate temperature be for searing? (A function of fire size and grate elevation.) What should the grate temperature be for grilling? Anything additional that a novice should know. For me, a non-intuitive cook, ideal instructions would be something like, “To sear your steak, raise or lower the grate until it registers XXX°. After searing, adjust the grate until it registers YYY° for continued grilling.”

I wish you would. Us Moorhead Spuds need to stick together. (Will not be understood by many.) This post has been read a few times but it appears that no one has experimented with it. They're missing a treat.

I bought the Onlyfire charcoal basket for my Kamado Joe Big Joe. I bought it based on price—it was the least costly. It has a divider, fits fine and works fine. I don't know how it compares to other products because it's the only one I've used.

I don't know as much about kamado cooking as John Setzler, so I do what he does. In most of his low/slow videos he lights a rather large pile of charcoal with one Kamado Joe fire starter cube "down here in a hole in the middle of my charcoal" for 250°. See: https://www.kamadojoe.com/getting-started/videos-recipes/. Go to <Pork> <Spare Ribs>.

Yeah, a lot of the money I've earned in my lifetime went to fast cars, booze and women. The rest was spent foolishly. But, sorry, there’s something wrong with my old brain and I don’t watch those 1-second flashing images, interesting though they be. So, I quit watching at the Buick Grand National which is a super-interesting car. The 1986-87 models were turbocharged, intercooled, sequential fuel injected V-6s that were faster than the same vintage Corvette, something that created internal friction at General Motors. That’s pretty unique.

I buy them, freeze them and cook them every couple of months. I just grill them on my gasser cause they're so spiced that smoke or charcoal doesn't add enough flavor to warrant the extra work. BTW, Costco sells the rub if you want to make your own. I can't recall the name.

No offense taken. You may not be aware that many pits relight themselves when falling below a certain threshold. Human intervention isn't always required. Right, I don't but I look out onto the deck or patio every few minutes. People will do whatever they want to do with their pits and homes. I simply point out what I think to be dangerous operations. You'll see periodic fire reports if you peruse pellet pit forums. Most are grease fires.

I periodically read about hopper fires. It makes me wonder why owners are willing to leave their pellet pits unattended for hours. Maybe it’s because the manufacturers advertise Internet connectivity and “Set It and Forget It.” I suppose that’s marginally advisable if the pit is well away from anything else flammable. Otherwise, it seems to me that the catchphrase is, “Set It and Forget It and Set Your Deck on Fire.”

Not Amazon but worth a look. https://sharpegourmet.com