I finally broke down, forgive me for I have sinned..sort of..well maybe?


 
Gary S

Gary S

TVWBB Guru
Many of us know it’s been a long, cold, winter. I started out using my kettle but the heat loss was so great I had to build a hotter fire and that changed the whole cooking dynamic for indirect cooking on the big guy.


Next I went to my WSM and put on the winter coat.



It worked for some cooks but not so well for others. The last straw was cooking a simple pork butt. Hard & tuff. I was chasing temps from 250 to 400 degrees. Most of the cook was too hot. If I had an ATC that would have solved the problem but I’m not a fan(pardon the pun)

It was finally time for a Kamado. One can deliberate for days, and weeks over the merits of the various manufacturers, sizes, features and price but there are only two who build them from metal.

Thanks to Weber I’ve had some awesome meals cooked with metal. We have a couple of moves in our future and I did not want to trust a ceramic Kamado in the hands of others nor was I looking forward to maneuvering a ceramic Kamado around the yard so… I pulled the trigger on the Broil King Keg 2000.

Life may never be the same again.

Now that confession is over I can get on with some cookin:)
 
Russell sent you a p/m... here's a couple of cooks I did while getting used to changing temps.

Just in case anybody is wondering, the chicken was not cooked at 700degrees:)

Photobucket is giving me a hard time.

Scott I promise I will work on my penance:p
 
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Gary, seems like I've already told you this before, but you can BET I'd have a ceramic cooker of some sort if we got as much winter as ya'll do way up north! It looks good, and I'm sure you'll have the reverse sear down in no time! ;) Congrats, Dave
 
Gary - as we have discussed off line, your trip to the dark side with kamado is off to a great start. I wish I could get the temps on my CG to behave so well. Guess I am just having a serious case of kamado envy. :)
 
I finally got my 22.5 free from the 6 month icy grip and cooked up some beef tenderloin steaks yesterday (I'm a meat-cutter and I can only afford the "cast-aways" that normally get re-purposed elsewhere). I missed the smokey flavour all winter and am looking forward to better weather so I can use it more frequently.

I was looking at those Broil King Kegs and if I ever was to buy a kamodo, that's exactly the one I would go for. Metal would be alot hardier than ceramic, especially in my backyard. But until then, my "winter outdoor cooking" is limited to the cast iron frying pan inside on my electric stove..
 
Don, nothing will ever replace the 26" Kettle and that's a fact.
Colin FYI the 2000 model is being discontinued. I paid $503.00 for mine. Long story, if you are interested send me a p/m
 
Thanks Gary, however, if I bought any more BBQs/grills/smokers (after buying the Spirit, OTG and other assorted "stuff" in a little over two summers) for the next little while, you would be reading about the enraged homicidal wife BBQing her husband in the national newspaper. Maybe next year...........
 
Gary,

I have the 1st generation of that kamado - the Bubba Keg - and it looks exactly like yours. But the early ones came all inclusive of what they now offer as "upgrades" (side trays, wheel kit, second tier cooking grate, and tow hitch). Paid only $299 closeout for mine back in 2011.

As much as I love each and every Weber I own, none of them - not a single one - can come close to cooking on the steel kamado. Cooking spatchcock chicken at 500 degrees for 35 minutes on Royal Oak lump yields the best roasted chicken we've ever had...........effortlessly - no turning over, fire management, vent fiddling - nothing.

Even my large BGE can't match it for med-high temp cooking. Low n Slow - that's a different story; it's REALLY tough to keep a low temp on the Keg. Below 300 and the fire goes out. Maybe you'll have better results that I do.
 
W Tyler said:
Gary,

I have the 1st generation of that kamado - the Bubba Keg - and it looks exactly like yours. But the early ones came all inclusive of what they now offer as "upgrades" (side trays, wheel kit, second tier cooking grate, and tow hitch). Paid only $299 closeout for mine back in 2011.

As much as I love each and every Weber I own, none of them - not a single one - can come close to cooking on the steel kamado. Cooking spatchcock chicken at 500 degrees for 35 minutes on Royal Oak lump yields the best roasted chicken we've ever had...........effortlessly - no turning over, fire management, vent fiddling - nothing.

Even my large BGE can't match it for med-high temp cooking. Low n Slow - that's a different story; it's REALLY tough to keep a low temp on the Keg. Below 300 and the fire goes out. Maybe you'll have better results that I do.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info good to know. Smokin hot deal you made my friend.
I don't think they are selling certainly not compared to the Akorn and not when they price was what it was before Broil King bought them.
I'm hopeful I can do LNS. I have managed 275 for 3-1/2 hours so maybe.....but... I have not tried to get lower although I have only run it this past weekend and I was content to stay at that temp. They really do hold the heat. I did buy their diffuser and I see they show some pics with water in the diffuser so maybe that's how but there is plenty of moisture inside already during the two cooks I've done.
B/K has a charcoal basket for easier lighting but I've found it a snap to light no issue at all. Maybe a charcoal basket might help or perhaps we might have to resort to burning a candle :)
 
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colin.p said:
Thanks Gary, however, if I bought any more BBQs/grills/smokers (after buying the Spirit, OTG and other assorted "stuff" in a little over two summers) for the next little while, you would be reading about the enraged homicidal wife BBQing her husband in the national newspaper. Maybe next year...........
Click to expand...
:):) I hear you just thought I'd pass it on
 
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Colin, a question for you if I may. You said upthread that you were a meat cutter. Last November I was in Toronto and tried to find a packet-cut brisket. What was sold to me as a full brisket was something entirely different than what we get in the U.S. Solid, lean, no deckle, no point. Shoulder clod maybe? Not sure. Is there a cut in Canada similar to the 120 packer you get south of the border? No butcher shop had ever heard of the supposed NAMP cut numbers when I enquired. The cook didn't turn out well, and a huge, expensive cut went pretty well uneaten and borderline inedible.
 
Brisket is a rarity in these parts (Eastern Ontario) as most people have no idea as to what to do with it. They see this huge big flat thing with big gobs of fat and tough as nails. We sometimes bring it in (on special order or if it's advertised) and it is the full brisket with the point. However, at $11 and up a kilo ($5 a pound) they are pricey and since true BBQ up here is also a rarity, not many are interested in it. But I have seen, especially the last couple of years, that more and more consumers are starting to branch out from burgers and hot-dogs to more esoteric fare. Even the lowly pork butt has started to sell (amazing what the food channel does for unpopular meat cuts).

The Canadian Beef Info site shows the usual cuts we have in most shops (www.beefinfo.org) and the brisket we sell is 120 NAMP.

Another idea is that most of the brisket, in Eastern Canada anyway, is sent to Montreal Quebec for smoked meat, hence - Montreal Smoked Meat.
 
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