For some time, I've been whining about the fact that although my beautiful 15-year-old giant Kamado #9 (it's over five feet tall!) is rock-solid for smoking, its large size means that it's nearly impossible to get a good sear. Even with all the vents open and running close to 500 degrees, searing is minimal because the lump charcoal sits a good 12 inches below the grill surface.
I finally had an idea of a hack I could try to achieve a good sear, and since my wife just left town, tonight was the night to try. I used a 1.37 pound bone-in ribeye she bought me and left behind (it has a twin in the freezer, too--it's a ten day trip!).
First, here's a shot looking into the cooker toward the the fire grate with the grill lifted out:
The key is that steel set of crossbars. Normally, the heat deflector sits on it. I had the brilliant idea that the shallow charcoal pan that came with my Big Horn fire pit might fit. And it does:
There is still lots of room for air to be drawn in around the edges from the lower vent, so this is great. So, how close does that put the lump charcoal to the grill?
Here it is all loaded up and ready to go. The lump is only 2-4 inches below the grill surface, so it seems perfect.
It's hard to describe just how happy I was during this cook:
I went with the Mosca Just Keep Flipping strategy, and it produced a beautiful, delicious steak. More pics of that will go up at SUWYC.
I finally had an idea of a hack I could try to achieve a good sear, and since my wife just left town, tonight was the night to try. I used a 1.37 pound bone-in ribeye she bought me and left behind (it has a twin in the freezer, too--it's a ten day trip!).
First, here's a shot looking into the cooker toward the the fire grate with the grill lifted out:
The key is that steel set of crossbars. Normally, the heat deflector sits on it. I had the brilliant idea that the shallow charcoal pan that came with my Big Horn fire pit might fit. And it does:
There is still lots of room for air to be drawn in around the edges from the lower vent, so this is great. So, how close does that put the lump charcoal to the grill?
Here it is all loaded up and ready to go. The lump is only 2-4 inches below the grill surface, so it seems perfect.
It's hard to describe just how happy I was during this cook:
I went with the Mosca Just Keep Flipping strategy, and it produced a beautiful, delicious steak. More pics of that will go up at SUWYC.
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