SnSK MCS

[klflowers]

I didn't even get a chance to chime in and enable. Congrats!

[KabBBQ]

Congrats! Lots of great videos and content out there on the SNSK, plus a FB page if you're into that sort of thing.

[58limited]

Its Here!! FEDEX, after sending e-mails and making a big deal about scheduling a delivery time, naturally delivered several hours early. The problem is: I'm having two of my techs (two big strong young guys, one has a truck) unload this at my house. My plan was to have FEDEX slide this into the bed of the tech's pickup. He only works 1-5pm. Delivery occurred at 9:45am so the techs will have to pick it up off the ground to get it into the truck. I pretty much unpacked and unloaded all of the weight that I could so it won't be as heavy to lift. Basically it will be the heavy duty cardboard shipping box and the SnS Kamado body. I took out the fire box, the SnS Deluxe set up, shelves, and the stainless cradle.

There was damage to the crate so I opened and inspected everything before FEDEX left - no damage.



I took several short vids of the unboxing process and the assembly of the cradle. I used my cell phone so I'm sure the vids will be low quality but if I can splice together a nice vid showing the unboxing and set up of the kamado I'll post it on youtube. Most "unboxing" vids I've seen show a picture of the boxed SnSK and then an after picture of the SnSK already set up.

[Panhead John]

Congratulations! Can’t wait to see the first cook.

[58limited]

I've got the SnSK set up in the back yard now. I took advantage of the labor to move my old Bayou Classic Cypress Grill kamado to a new spot as well. Wow, I didn't realize how rusty and decrepit the cart for the Bayou Classic has become. I'm surprised it didn't fall apart when the guys set the kamado back onto it. I'm going to try and find a new cart but that might be hard since they are discontinued. A large BGE cart will work but they are pretty pricey.

Anyways, the SnSK looks great, the lid is easier to lift than the Bayou Classic, everything about it is high quality. I can't wait for the first cook. I made a half-assed video of the unboxing and set up of the SnSK and posted it to youtube.

SnSK in its new home



The old Bayou Classic Cypress Grill in its new place



A video of the unboxing and set up of the SnSK.

[STEbbq]

Great video! I can see why you made the upgrade as that Cypress is on its last legs.

[58limited]

The Cypress has been used a lot over the past decade. I've had to replace the fire bowl and the lid gasket (needs it again) and the fire ring is cracked but still works so I'm holding off on replacing it. I also replaced the bottom and top vents with better ones. I'm doing the burn-in of the SnSK right now with my morning coffee.

[58limited]

SnSK first impression: Initial Burn in.

Note: Temperature readings are from the dome thermometer.

So I decided to do the initial burn in on the SnSK this morning before work. I had some charcoal sitting in the KickAsh basket from the Cypress Grill. The basket is too small for the SnSK so I put the cast iron bottom grill into the SnSK, dumped the charcoal into it, and lit 'er up with two tumbleweeds. The fire box was about 1/2 full. I opened both vents all the way but left the lid up the first 15 minutes. When I closed the lid the temperature went up to 350, then down to 325, then back up so I closed the vents to the #2 setting. This thing rocked along at steadily 350 until I left for work. I turned the dampers down to #1 instead of closing it down and left for work. Just got home and it is sitting at 285 with clear to light blue smoke. Most of the charcoal is still there. Dropped the top and bottom vents to 0.75 open, we'll see what happens this afternoon.

This is only the first time I've fired up the SnSK but already it is much easier to use, quicker to come to temperature than the Cypress Grill, and seems to hold the temperature at a steady level better.

I found a new base cart for the Cypress Grill and ordered it, should be here next week.

[jhapka]

Nice it sounds like your temperatures match pretty closely with the vent number recommendations in the manual. I had a heck of a time at first because if I set the lower vent at one or two it won’t break 200 F. Must be something with my environment

[58limited]

Well, I did start with it wide open and then brought the temperature down from 350 degrees. Next time I will try to start low and work the vents up to 225-250 without going higher first. With my other kamado, if i overshoot it is hard as heck to get the temperature back down. This morning the temperature started dropping within a few minutes of my closing the vents down to #1.

[58limited]

Got home from work and the kamado had dropped to about 120 degrees - almost out of charcoal. There were several pieces scattered around in the ashes so I scraped them into a pile to see if temps come back up.

The temperature came up to 225 and held for a few hours before the charcoal finally burned out. I was impressed - you could just about loosely place both open hands around this pile of charcoal and it held at 225.

[58limited]

Forgot to mention: I bought an SnSK Rotisserie today. I saw them on youtube but SnSGrills.com doesn't have them on their site so I contacted them and they had one or two left so I bought one. Not sure if it is coming back in stock or being discontinued - I didn't ask.

However, I asked about a rotisserie for the SnS Kettle and they are working on it, hopefully it will be released in 2022. I think Panhead John already posted about it.

[Panhead John]

SnS is saying early 2022.

[58limited]

Hopefully my MCS has been satisfied finally. After the initial burn in I decided I needed to go ahead and get the Kick Ash basket for the SnSK - the bottom cast iron grate tends to clog with ashes and the KickAsh can makes clean up easier. Buying the bundle (basket, can, divider) saved me $31.00. The divider will be nice to use with the rotisserie.

I really like my Maverick XR-50 thermometer but I decided to hand it down to my college buddy's sons (I'm giving them the 22" Weber kettle that I bought fromPanhead John plus a new SnS original and EasySpin grate. They are both in college (junior and freshman) and need a better grill than the square Walmart special that they have. So, I just bought the SnS PLatinum Thermometer package which has the 4 probe SnS-500 thermometer, SnS-100 Instant Read Digital Thermometer, and the storage case. Bundle savings of $20.00.

David Parrish of SnS Grills had a hand in designing the Maverick XR-50 and it is a great thermometer. The SnS-500 looks to be mostly the same thermometer but with SnS badging and it is $10.00 cheaper than the Maverick XR-50.

So, this week I have satisfied my MCS with:

SnS Deluxe Kamado
SnS Kamado Rotisserie accessory
SnS Kick Ash Basket bundle
SnS Thermometer bundle

Plus a new cradle stand for the old Cypress Grill.

Who needs to pay bills anyway??

[David Parrish]

A LOT of nice kit you got there!

[58limited]

Not really an SnS update but I mentioned it above. The new Cypress Grill stand arrived today:

[David Parrish]

David Parrish of SnS Grills had a hand in designing the Maverick XR-50 and it is a great thermometer. The SnS-500 looks to be mostly the same thermometer but with SnS badging and it is $10.00 cheaper than the Maverick XR-50.

Regarding the SNS-500. It's more than a rebadged XR-50. I took the design back to the drawing table. We've killed a couple of bugs the XR-50 had and improved the performance. We lowered the price because there's no middle man.

Improvements include:
Dual color backlight that won't fade when the alarms go off
Volume control for the alarms
Truly waterproof probes.
Consistent operation of both power buttons. Quick press to turn each unit on. Long press to turn each unit off.
Alarms are even easier to program.
The Receiver has a built in dual LED light so you can use it as a flashlight
There's probably more. That's just off the top of my head. We're pretty proud of this one!

[58limited]

David Parrish Awesome! Thanks for the info/clarification/education!

[58limited]

My next SnSK cook: roasted some turkey parts to make gravy. The recipe called for skillet or oven roasted but I said to myself: "Self, whats better than that? Fire Roasting of course!" So I took the KickAsh basket from the Cypress Grill and loaded it with B&B lump charcoal. Top vent open all the way, bottom outer slid all the way, inner closed. Later I opened the inner to half way. I kept the temp at 450-500 and, since I'm lazy and just ran the EasySpin grate through the dishwasher, I took the grate off of the Weber that I bought from Panhead John and cooked on that - about 10" above the coals. Turned out great!

I'm using Chef Jean-Pierre's gravy recipe: https://youtu.be/DcC2e-q5_-Y

I did the necks, wings, gizzards, and heart on the grill - I didn't grill the liver - was afraid it would fall through the grate.

Here's the last few parts to brown:



Done, now simmering in the pot. Tastes amazing!