29" kamado

[homeruk]

Ordered a 29" kamado with all the accessories you can imagine, once it arrives and I have figured out the logistics involved in getting it home and through the front door then the 28" wide :( back door unpacked and setup ill write up my findings and post photos,hopefully not from my hospital bed :p due for delivery mid august:)

 

[gmc2003]

Good luck, you don't have any other way to get it back there? Maybe through a neighbors yard?

Chris

 

[lemans]

What exactly did you buy

 

[homeruk]

no neighbors back yards sadly, not going to worry about the movement yet will cross that bridge when required, worse ways remove the door frame
i ordered 29 kamado with stainless steel stand/table, pizza stones, half pizza stones, divide and conquer rack, grid ex pander, rib racks, joint racks, lava stones, ash tool, ash catching tray, cast iron grid, divided coal basket,
the stainless parts and grid one of each, a few of the rib and joint racks and and a few of the "breakable" stone/ceramic parts just in case, photo attached is red one ordered is green

 

[homeruk]

well it arrived in two huge crates, sadly i missed the getting it off the lorry and into the workshop as i was on holiday in sunny spain ;)
opened up one of the crates which had the main unit in so far and plan to move it to its new home and setup over the weekend so not much to show at this stage sadly, looking forward to moving it:rolleyes:

 

[homeruk]

well got it home over the weekend, had to separate the top and bottom of the kamado..got that home and just went through the door frames on its side on a trolley..goodf 2mm clearance ;)
so thought thats it hard part over..went back to unpack the stand/table and the accessories that were stuffed in it only to find the huge crate was the stand minus the clip on side shelfs..one piece welded stainless no takey apart :eek:
bit of head scratching and a few coffees later there was three options..option 1 crane it into back garden, option two cut it in half with a grinder and get some stainless plates made up to bolt the two pieces back together, option 3 get it onto roof of garage and then down into garden..one of those old asbestos tip toe roofs and hope not to fall through it!
we went for option 3!, got it onto the roof of the hire van:cool: then managed to get it across onto the garage roof then down into garden still in one piece and assembly started
had a burn off with it up to 700f then chucked on some chicken wings and a chunk of oak..had lots of other stuff to do so no real temperature holding just all over the place
more pics to follow next weekend when i can give it some more time and get to grips with it better
in the photo that is a 9ft wall..the step ladder is one of those big industrial ones

 

[homeruk]

pic of 2kg of chicken wings loaded up, the pizza fat catching pan is too small as it is off the 21" kamado i have, need to order a bigger one and didnt bother cutting up the wings..again pushed for time but we were going to eat something off it that same day:D

 

[Hank R]

Like your thinking outside of the box. Always thought about one but want to see one in cooking mode before spending major coin on one.

 

[homeruk]

well its only my personal opinion but i have had a 21" kamado..still got, offset starter smoker, weber smokey mountain57cm and a lousiana lg900 pellet grill with side smoker attachment and out of all of the them the kamado does it for me, the pellet grill it real easy to use but eats through pellets and does not give off good smoke..im guessing the pellets are a lot cheaper over the pond so may be more economical to run, but so far other half has given the nod to keeping the new kamado and the pellet grill so all bases covered, the other thing i like about this is everything apart from the top vent is stainless so no problems leaving it out over winter with just a cover where the pellet grill needs to go to sleep in the garage away from tin worm
and i couldn't find a bbq cover big enough for it so have ordered a ride on lawn mower cover ;)

 

[homeruk]

Rigged up the temp controller at the weekend and done an al pastor mex kebab after viewing a thread on the american side on here
a heavy stainless steel cooling rack and got a couple of stainless steel skewers tack welded to it which seemed to work well total cost of £31 and skewers left over
bought 2 x 3kg pork shoulders from costco and decided to use just one of them as it seemed plenty for just the second cook on the kamado and first time using the controller and a possible bin job at the end
fitted a speed control to the side of the blower before fitting it for fine adjustments
lots of air leaks around the door and more so around the blower fitting but was ok for the first go, will sort it more this weekend
Used a couple of apple wood chunks for the smoke
set the control temp to 135c and found it running a little high so needs an offset put into it but for now just ran it at 131 to compensate
managed to hold temps betweeen +/-5c but guess a lot of this was due to the air leaks at the inlet
pastor took about 6 hours to get up to 72c measured at two points in the meat, turned out lovely and all the chills and paste needed were available off fleabay
my only gripe tho is i would try cooking it next time to maybe 68c as i found as there is a fair bit of cider vinegar and pineapple juice in the marinade the pork seemed very tender so maybe not necessary to go for a higher temperature as no need for tenderising
so far the kamado seems to be working well!
excuse the pineapple ears..just wanted to cover the tips of the skewers
we tucked into it with some homemade salsa, guacamole and salad
deffo a good one for having friends over
going to try greek spatchcock chickens using the cast iron hellfire this weekend