Modern Pitmaster

Quick update - a killer deal on a weber smokey mountain popped up on my facebook feed. $50 for an 18", practically brand new, I went ahead and bought new grates so I'm $75 all-in. I doubt I'll use it more than a couple times a year, but it's nice to have two full racks for these large cooks. I used some HD aluminum foil to match up my pitmaster iq120 and it's chugging along with 36lbs of pork butt

Hey folks, I'm cooking up pulled pork for 40 people this weekend, 4 butts at least, preferably 5.. I was initially planning on either using the weber kettle as a backup to my large egg, or possibly doing 2 batches and reheating. Instead, I think I'm going to explore the raised grate options for my large egg. Is there anything new out there? I have a pswoo2 from ceramicgrillstore and have been super happy with their products, but their pswoo2 extender only gives me 3.5" of space between the grids - not enough for 2 layers of butts. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated - I'm going to stop by a kamadojoe dealer tomorrow and check out their expander. It looks promising but I couldn't find any reviews for it. Thx all!

Nice!! Love using an iron skillet

There are a lot of variables - how hot you're cooking, how heat soaked your kamado is, the airflow being interrupted by the meat, whether or not you're using a diffuser, how long the probe is on the dome thermometer, even ambient temps can be a factor. Overall I wouldn't stress too much as long as your thermometers are calibrated. It's not totally abnormal to see a 50f difference between grate and probe early in the cook. I generally go by grate temp for low and slow and dome temp for hot and fast

NM

I would also suggest doing some practice runs at home by yourself. Send the wife out shopping while you try out recipes. Things are twice as likely to go wrong on a new cook if it's being made for company!!

Also a big fan of fogo. Quality is similar to rockwood or wicked good ww. Fogo lump tends to be a bit larger, I actually have to break up the pieces. I won't buy royal oak. The quality is nowhere near what it was years ago.

:-( good to know, thanks LRJ

Mapp works better and should be fine upside down. Most compressed fuel is more expensive on Amazon than locally. Check ace or a big box in the plumbing supply area. All of that being said, lighting with gas creates a lot of sparks. If you're looking for getting to temp quickly (and limiting the smoky phase...) you're better off with a fan. I rarely use my torch for charcoal, the Rutland cubes work better in my personal opinion.

My split firebox in the egg cracked on a pizza cook. As long as it fits together and is stable it will be fine. I have a new one in the box but haven't cared enough to swap it out.

Yup, runnin wild is local as well. I've read about people buying from them direct north of Atlanta OTP. I got mine at patton's. There's also a place called American backyard, they have the Uncle Henry's peach which a lot of people like.

I wish my pictures wouldn't flip when uploading via mobile. I'll fix it later.

Cute little fella! We have a 10 month old as well.

Nevermind! Wife threw it out, problem solved. It really was too dry anyway.

I buy chickens in cryovac, this had a sell-by of the 19th. I usually spatchcock them, pat dry, and leave uncovered in fridge for 24 hours to promote crispy skin. Family life has been a bit frantic and I wasn't able to cook the chicken on Monday, or Tuesday. It's now Wednesday... What do you think.. Is it worth firing up the kamado here at 7:30? I know it's not spoiled, but it does look dry compared to a 24 hour rest.