First cook on my new Ranch Kettle.


 
Well done sir, well done!
I've done a few cooks on mine that included so much direct that it took 2 of the 18# bags of KBB. Didn't have any hair on my arms when I was done but the food was great :rolleyes:
 
Thanks guys. It was a best and was a blast cooking on it. Ken, it definitely was a fire breathing dragon, especially with those fatty ribeyes directly over the coals. I lost quite a bit of arm hair during the cook. I'm definitely going to need to get some more cooks under my belt to figure things out. My thought was that I wanted direct heat for the ribeyes, so, I had a nice single layer of lit coals. Perhaps they didn't need to be packed so closely together ? Thinking about it more, radiant heat doesn't just go straight up, does it ?
 
It really looks like it was a blast of a cook. I've lost so much arm hair using my RK, I'm surprised it still grows back. Personally, I would have begun with two lit chimneys of kbb spread over half the grill. Then started another one on the side to add later and maybe started a second chimney if needed. The RK is a lot more resourceful with fuel than I ever imagined. Thank you for posting the pictures. I love seeing the RK in action. It is a very impressive beast!
 
It really looks like it was a blast of a cook. I've lost so much arm hair using my RK, I'm surprised it still grows back. Personally, I would have begun with two lit chimneys of kbb spread over half the grill. Then started another one on the side to add later and maybe started a second chimney if needed. The RK is a lot more resourceful with fuel than I ever imagined. Thank you for posting the pictures. I love seeing the RK in action. It is a very impressive beast!

Thanks for the advice Ken! My thought was that the ribeyes were going to take up 1/2 the grill space, that I wanted to do the ribeyes over direct heat. Therefore, I would need a single layer of closely packed lit coals. Basically, this:

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But lit instead of unlit. My thought process was that having spaces between the coals (even just 1 or 2 inches) would lead to hot/cold spots. This goes back to the question of how radiant heat works. I'm kind of thinking that I was wrong about this. That fewer coals, like 2 chimneys you mentioned, spread around a bit on 1/2 of the grate would have been fine.
 
My thought process was that having spaces between the coals (even just 1 or 2 inches) would lead to hot/cold spots. This goes back to the question of how radiant heat works. I'm kind of thinking that I was wrong about this. That fewer coals, like 2 chimneys you mentioned, spread around a bit on 1/2 of the grate would have been fine.

The best thing about it is now you have to try again. :cool::ranchkettle: Practicing on ribeyes ...mmmmmmm the tastiest practice there is!
 
I think I would have done it pretty much the way you did it, every cook is different (I don't care what anyone says) it's cooking, not science. With the exception of the "Science of Webering" it's all simply playing with your food, I enjoy playing with my food with these tools! You are now armed with the knowledge from the last cook. Every time you work on each grill you will exercise the knowledge gleaned from each previous cook. Ain't life grand?

You know what. I think I need some ribeye practice pretty soon!
 
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