When I mentioned my Kamado in my introduction post last week, I had at least one request for pics, so here we go with the Kamado itself and Saturday's cook of pork loin.
I found the original invoice this morning. It appears that I bought this beauty in July of 2005, so it's been my trusty companion for a long time. I popped for the accompanying drum table with storage inside. I originally used it to store the propane tank and burner that slides into the lower vent. A few years in, I had an unfortunate incident with the propane hose breaking while I was running the flame to start the charcoal, and I had a very large blowtorch on my hands. I quickly turned off the valve on the propane tank, but that was terrifying enough that I've gone to alternate starting options. I used the electric "cattle prod" starter for a while, but now I'm just lazy and use the grocery store starter pieces. Lately, I've really liked the straw-based ones. No after-taste at all.
Here's the cooker with the top open and from farther out so you can see the lower vent open for starting:
I'll discuss it more when I document a low and slow cook, but you can see my Baking Steel heat radiator I use for indirect cooking propped up on the right side of the cooker. Needless to say, a cooker this large has a huge cooking surface:
I should also point out here that I'm an instant fan of the Grilltastic steam grill cleaner, this pic is after less than a half hour of cleaning 14 years of grime.
The firebox sits really low in the cooker, just above the lower vent. Here it is with the small load of Cowboy lump charcoal I used, with a few hickory chunks scattered and the straw-wax starter lit:
I'm almost embarrassed to show these "pork loins". I had put off buying the pork until late Friday with 35 or so people coming over Saturday. I panicked when the store I used for my last cook was out of loins and then went with these poor little things. Somehow, this store cuts their pork loins in half. My anguish was compounded by finding that my local Publix inexplicably had full sized pork loins--on sale!--when I got there for my final stop on the same trip. Anyway, here they are on the grill. I dry brined for 6 or 7 hours with a heavy coat of Bad Byron's Butt Rub.
I don't wait to get to temperature before loading--I trust my controller to peg the temp and that works out for me most of the time. I just leave things open on the start for varying amounts of time depending on the intended cook temperature. You can see here how far I let the fire spread in the box before closing up when shooting for 350.
The cook took just under an hour since these poor loins were cut in half. That had them ready early, but I was ready for holding them. I put a first layer of plastic wrap and then a couple layers of heavy duty aluminum foil before tossing them in the insulated cooler I call my treasure chest. I think I held these babies about an hour and a half before cutting. Here they are coming off, with a cameo by me. Who wears a banana shirt anyway?.
Sorry I don't have pics after slicing. Things got a bit crazy once folks started arriving. We served with my wife's sweet smoky KC sauce from her family recipe and a sweet peach chili sauce. There were no complaints.
I found the original invoice this morning. It appears that I bought this beauty in July of 2005, so it's been my trusty companion for a long time. I popped for the accompanying drum table with storage inside. I originally used it to store the propane tank and burner that slides into the lower vent. A few years in, I had an unfortunate incident with the propane hose breaking while I was running the flame to start the charcoal, and I had a very large blowtorch on my hands. I quickly turned off the valve on the propane tank, but that was terrifying enough that I've gone to alternate starting options. I used the electric "cattle prod" starter for a while, but now I'm just lazy and use the grocery store starter pieces. Lately, I've really liked the straw-based ones. No after-taste at all.
Here's the cooker with the top open and from farther out so you can see the lower vent open for starting:
I'll discuss it more when I document a low and slow cook, but you can see my Baking Steel heat radiator I use for indirect cooking propped up on the right side of the cooker. Needless to say, a cooker this large has a huge cooking surface:
I should also point out here that I'm an instant fan of the Grilltastic steam grill cleaner, this pic is after less than a half hour of cleaning 14 years of grime.
The firebox sits really low in the cooker, just above the lower vent. Here it is with the small load of Cowboy lump charcoal I used, with a few hickory chunks scattered and the straw-wax starter lit:
I'm almost embarrassed to show these "pork loins". I had put off buying the pork until late Friday with 35 or so people coming over Saturday. I panicked when the store I used for my last cook was out of loins and then went with these poor little things. Somehow, this store cuts their pork loins in half. My anguish was compounded by finding that my local Publix inexplicably had full sized pork loins--on sale!--when I got there for my final stop on the same trip. Anyway, here they are on the grill. I dry brined for 6 or 7 hours with a heavy coat of Bad Byron's Butt Rub.
I don't wait to get to temperature before loading--I trust my controller to peg the temp and that works out for me most of the time. I just leave things open on the start for varying amounts of time depending on the intended cook temperature. You can see here how far I let the fire spread in the box before closing up when shooting for 350.
The cook took just under an hour since these poor loins were cut in half. That had them ready early, but I was ready for holding them. I put a first layer of plastic wrap and then a couple layers of heavy duty aluminum foil before tossing them in the insulated cooler I call my treasure chest. I think I held these babies about an hour and a half before cutting. Here they are coming off, with a cameo by me. Who wears a banana shirt anyway?.
Sorry I don't have pics after slicing. Things got a bit crazy once folks started arriving. We served with my wife's sweet smoky KC sauce from her family recipe and a sweet peach chili sauce. There were no complaints.
)
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