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There's a great piece on this site about the Kingsford Competition product. You can find it here. I've never thought it was worth the extra price, but that's just me. I definitely notice that it produces less ash. I've seen it the most often at Ace Hardware, if you have one of those around.

Wow! Great looking cook. Am absolutely borrowing that idea for a big family dinner next week. I take it you had some wood chunks in there for some smoke while it was cooking indirect? Or did you reverse sear?

Thanks. The answer to that question is almost always YES. It's May 7th and we're currently under a Winter Storm Warning. Was 72 degrees yesterday. Springtime on the high mountain plains...

Tasty and such a fun cook. I love doing anything where the hotter you can get your grill the better. And there is no better smell on earth than peppers and onions in a little olive oil grilling over a charcoal fire.

Did this a few days ago for Cinco de Mayo. I was actually born in Puebla, Mexico, which is pretty much the only place in Mexico that celebrates the holiday. It commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Enough with the history lesson! I rubbed a skirt...

In my experience Royal Oak lump burns a little more quickly than briquettes and also spikes up a bit hotter from time to time. Briquettes are more consistent in both temps and length of burn, but there's no denying that lump burns a little cleaner and you can't beat how it crackles and pops like...

You just have to live with the fact that the difference between an awesome char and a catastrophic burn is about three seconds. I've learned to embrace some of the burned bits in pursuit of the greater good. I've got a buddy in town who bought one of the new in-home sous vide machines. That's...

When I get my steak up to the temp I want I throw a couple wood chunks on the fire, let them ignite and get them burning hot, and then sear the steak over the flame. My goal has never been grill marks but rather a good, consistent crust all over.

I've been doing lots of experimenting with raising the height of the coals closer to the grill grate. I mostly use bricks, but have also cooked skirt steaks directly on the coals themselves. I'm a sucker for a nice, charred crust on any kind of beef. Getting the meat as close as possible to the...

I tend to laugh at the effort to associate bison with Wyoming. Every time Food Network or some magazine does a "Best Burger in All 50 States" type of deal, it always comes down to a horrible bison burger for Wyoming. You will never see a right minded Wyoming local order a bison burger. Never...

Putting a dimple in the burgers is critical if you don't want them to shrink up. The heat from cooking makes them puff up, sort of like a balloon. Also, the more you cook them the more they will shrink. If you cook to medium rare they will hold their shape. If you cook to well done they are...

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I've done a lot of those. The wife buys them by the grocery cart-ful every time they go on sale. I strongly recommend not trying a low and slow smoke on them. Whenever I've tried to smoke them they've come out kind of mushy. I think it's because they're in that marinade so long. Best way I've...

I have read stories, and understand just as a matter of science, that cheap, red utility bricks like the ones I used could theoretically crack or even burst in a high heat grill. I've never had it happen though. I live in Wyoming where it sometimes feels like we have negative humidity, so that...

I make quite a bit of bacon and use much the same recipe. Only difference is that I don't cure it in a bag. I pack the pork belly in cure and place it on a rack on a cookie sheet, then cover the whole thing in plastic. I think I get better results by letting the moisture drop completely away...

I don't have a laser thermometer so I really don't know the temp of the stone. Any guess I could hazard on that would probably be off by maybe 100 degrees so I won't make one. Also, as was pointed out earlier in the thread the stone was sitting on bricks, so the temp was likely not consistent...

Thanks for the great ideas. I love the idea of setting the stone on foil pans rather than bricks. That makes a lot of sense to me. I could also see putting a few lit coals underneath the pans to even out the heat spread even further. I've done a lot of reading on building brick ovens and some...

That's a good idea. I was thinking about it, too. Will use lump next time. Probably will burn a 10# bag for a pizza cook but if it works it will be worth it. Will probably help with the smoke flavor. I like it, but can't deny that pizza dough really absorbs it.

Thanks, but I'm not super in love with the KettlePizza insert. Job #1 on this effort, at least in my book, is getting heat to work downward on to the pizza as well as radiating up through the stone. The walls on the insert look too high to me and enough mods are necessary on the dome to get heat...

Thanks. I've got enough leftover to feed a small basketball team. Got a little carried away. Made for great lunch today, and will do so again tomorrow!