Sittin’ here with the post-bbq buzz.
It’s all pretty straightforward, there’s no "Where the hell does this go?" about anything. Ring goes on grate, charcoal goes in ring, fire goes on charcoal, plate goes on top, etc.
I used my DigiQ on this cook, mostly because I never do any low and slow on the Kettle and I wanted the extra security. (But also because I drilled the damn holes, and now I’m going to use them.) I set up the minion method, where you light just the center of the coals. I got the charcoal rolling until it didn’t give off that Kingsford smoke, and then I tossed a couple chunks of hickory on top, installed the plate (with foil). The smoke is the hickory igniting.
When everything hit 250°, on went the ribs. Time was 1:06 PM.
The rib cook is a rib cook; I know they’re going to come out fine, but how easy will it be? What will I have to mind? It turns out, not much of nothing! I babysat them for about an hour, then I felt confident enough to go to the supermarket. I came back 90 minutes later, and the Kettle was rock solid at 250°.
For the next hour or so, everything was completely uneventful. I opened the lid to spritz, the temperature dropped, then in about 2-3 minutes it was 250° again.
At about 5 PM I had a minion failure; the pit temp started dropping. I caught it at 237°. I attribute this to my weakness with Kettles and low & slow; this was my first minion cook. It looks like it ran all to one side, and the near side was all unburnt coal.
This was actually a good thing for the test, because I got to find out how easy it would be to fix. And the answer is, eh. Easy enough if you have places to put hot things, and gloves to handle them. I pulled the grate with the ribs, removed the deflector plate, stirred the coals, refilled the water pan, and put it all back together.
For the next 45 minutes I was chasing temperatures. It maxed at 275°, bottomed at 220°. This happened when I was learning the BGE, too. No worries. I made smaller and smaller adjustments, and finally got it settled in. By that time, the cook was almost over, so I sauced up the rack and let it all go another half an hour. I closed all the vents, removed the DigiQ, and let the pit temp fall.
The ribs were what I expected. They’re grocery store ribs, but they were on sale… but look how thick the meat is on that rack. They could have trimmed it some.
Smoke taste is mild. Next time I’ll toss more hickory in.
Tenderness is off the charts. These are done to "just a bit of tug".
All in all, I’m pleased. I was wondering, like jfmorris mentioned, would there be any doneness gradient from edge to center to edge; no, not really. Definitely not as much as there is on the LBGE! I tried a rib from the middle, and one from each end; they were all excellent, nothing dried out. As far as fitting racks, I’d say, 3 without caring how you squeezed them on, and 4 if you arrange them. And more if you stand them on end, or use the Hovergrill that jfmorris mentioned.
If you do it, you’re in for $100. But, if you had every Kettle accessory you really wanted, you could buy a Komodo Kamado… or at least a WSCGC. This purchase fit ME. I needed a way to create a second low & slow station that could do a large capacity. This does that. If you see yourself needing the same, this works.
I like it. I’ll keep using it.
It’s all pretty straightforward, there’s no "Where the hell does this go?" about anything. Ring goes on grate, charcoal goes in ring, fire goes on charcoal, plate goes on top, etc.
I used my DigiQ on this cook, mostly because I never do any low and slow on the Kettle and I wanted the extra security. (But also because I drilled the damn holes, and now I’m going to use them.) I set up the minion method, where you light just the center of the coals. I got the charcoal rolling until it didn’t give off that Kingsford smoke, and then I tossed a couple chunks of hickory on top, installed the plate (with foil). The smoke is the hickory igniting.
When everything hit 250°, on went the ribs. Time was 1:06 PM.
The rib cook is a rib cook; I know they’re going to come out fine, but how easy will it be? What will I have to mind? It turns out, not much of nothing! I babysat them for about an hour, then I felt confident enough to go to the supermarket. I came back 90 minutes later, and the Kettle was rock solid at 250°.
For the next hour or so, everything was completely uneventful. I opened the lid to spritz, the temperature dropped, then in about 2-3 minutes it was 250° again.
At about 5 PM I had a minion failure; the pit temp started dropping. I caught it at 237°. I attribute this to my weakness with Kettles and low & slow; this was my first minion cook. It looks like it ran all to one side, and the near side was all unburnt coal.
This was actually a good thing for the test, because I got to find out how easy it would be to fix. And the answer is, eh. Easy enough if you have places to put hot things, and gloves to handle them. I pulled the grate with the ribs, removed the deflector plate, stirred the coals, refilled the water pan, and put it all back together.
For the next 45 minutes I was chasing temperatures. It maxed at 275°, bottomed at 220°. This happened when I was learning the BGE, too. No worries. I made smaller and smaller adjustments, and finally got it settled in. By that time, the cook was almost over, so I sauced up the rack and let it all go another half an hour. I closed all the vents, removed the DigiQ, and let the pit temp fall.
The ribs were what I expected. They’re grocery store ribs, but they were on sale… but look how thick the meat is on that rack. They could have trimmed it some.
Smoke taste is mild. Next time I’ll toss more hickory in.
Tenderness is off the charts. These are done to "just a bit of tug".
All in all, I’m pleased. I was wondering, like jfmorris mentioned, would there be any doneness gradient from edge to center to edge; no, not really. Definitely not as much as there is on the LBGE! I tried a rib from the middle, and one from each end; they were all excellent, nothing dried out. As far as fitting racks, I’d say, 3 without caring how you squeezed them on, and 4 if you arrange them. And more if you stand them on end, or use the Hovergrill that jfmorris mentioned.
If you do it, you’re in for $100. But, if you had every Kettle accessory you really wanted, you could buy a Komodo Kamado… or at least a WSCGC. This purchase fit ME. I needed a way to create a second low & slow station that could do a large capacity. This does that. If you see yourself needing the same, this works.
I like it. I’ll keep using it.
- at the time the kettle was my only cooker, so nowhere to put that many hot things; especially a dripping rack of whatever I was cooking at the time!)
).
) of Kettle skills on this cranky old newby! 
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