AdamG

So tonight I made a curry. I was just about to turn the gas hob on and thought....any excuse to cook in the sun!😎 

 ingredients.

spices.

 coconut sauce.

 roasting ground almonds and coconut...this smell🤤drool🤤 

 chicken, bay leaf and cardamon pods.

 Neighbours are sniffin😋 

 sauce thickened and ready to serve.

yummy!😁 

thanks for looking!👍

Rump steak tomorrow for me, Im going to attempt a texas beef brisket next weekend though😁

29 minutes ago, davew said:

Adam, can you post a picture please or a link 

This is the official page for the Monolighter...

https://monolith-grill.eu/en/zubehoer/monolighter/

Only downer is it needs to be plugged in.

There is also an alternative aswell, Looftlighter if I remember correctly🤔

1 hour ago, davew said:

Must try this chimney as see how it goes, sounds quicker

hair dryer that will do it!

sounds like a hair dryer aswell haha😆 

It could quite easily be one of those "should have gone to specsavers" moments 🤔😂

I use a Monolighter....basically a hair dryer that blasts the coals with extremely hot air. Glowing coals in about 2 mins. (only got it because it was bundled in at the time of buying my kamado)

Although I used to use a chimney starter with firelighters and newspaper👍

i once did an overnight cook with pulled pork, temp was fine all night. It finished for dinner time and I wanted to do some burgers, jackets and sausages at a higher temp. So I added some more coal and cranked open the vents....1 hour later it was still at 90C, so i lit the coals on top....1 hour later it was still 90C.

I ended up taking out the basket and could see most of the holes blocked so I emptied it out...and 15 mins after putting it back in it was at 200C.

Thats how I learnt haha.

I would only resort to swapping baskets mid cook as an absolute last resort though, my old grill never had an ashtray of any sort and was virtually impossible to empty while it was hot (due to space limitations).

Some people have success with stirring the coals but I find using a pair of welding gauntlets and just lift the basket slightly and give it a good shake works nicely👍

I find adding coals to a cook (with my grill and the old grill) I have to clean out the ash before adding the new ones due to the airflow being suffocated (spelt wrong?) by the ash. The vibration of the new ones landing on top cause the ash to drop to the bottom and block airflow, resulting in your temps not getting back up again.

With my old Grill I used 2 stainless trays that i made so I could just swap the old coal out with the new one wearing welding gauntlets (although dangerous).

My new one has an ashtray that I can empty with ease.

Give the coal a good shake/stir first before adding the coals and then clean out the excess ash into something that aint gonna burn. then just add your new ones to the existing ones....it seems like you will lose precious time while doing this but it works out for the better in the long run. Just have a methodical plan ready so you can do it all quickly and as easily as possible.

As to the rest of your temp controlling, you will get better with more cooks and learning your grill's behavior👍

i think mine were about 8 pound?

my last ones would move out of alignment really easy....resulting in sausages flinging up in the air as im about to put them in the bread rolls lol.

another pair required excessive force to pick things up due to them bending....felt like you was using those teddy cranes you see at the arcades lol

I am after one of these aswell. Used to use a cheap small brush until the bristles got knackered

I have always dropped burgers and sausages with different tongs...I always put it down to being clumsy.

Until I got a set of the round clamshell ones (look like slightly big metal salad tongs), now i very rarely drop anything with them👍😁 

https://www.bbqworld.co.uk/m/monolith-kamado/monolith-kamado-grill-tongs.asp

Like these but cheaper, I picked them up in Lidl last year😁

28 minutes ago, hoogl said:

 😁

It was originally Two fillets, I cut so they would fit better and to keep the small bits protected. 

I would say thats 'thinking outside the box' but I think 'thinking inside the kamado' would be more suited👍😋

looks great! and a good way to protect those small ends👍😁

On 5/31/2020 at 6:43 PM, duggyfresh said:

Thanks, not bad for a first attempt. Used the last bits on pizza tonight with a south carolina bbq sauce drizzle. Brisket next weekend.

I wish my pizza's looked like this😋

29 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

Superb. Armed for attempt #2 tomorrow. Thank you!

good luck and welcome to the forum! 👍

yeah, it evenly spreads throughout the cook. the more that is lit, the more heat you get. your vents will starve the charcoal of oxygen and it wont be able to increase in size, so your temp stays the same. The lit part just ends up moving around to unlit charcoal as it goes....I think thats basically about right lol🤔

i fill it up to the top, with lumpwood charcoal make a small hotspot right in the middle (for indirect) and once i get a glow i shut the lid with both vents fully open. about 70C below my target temp I close the vents to my desired setting and wait about 15 to 20 mins for it to stop rising. If its below then i open top for a small rise, or the bottom for a bigger rise in temp. But only 1 at a time.

after a cook i snuff the fire out by closing both vents and leaving it alone to go cool. shake the basket next time to get rid of the ash and just top it back up again since there is almost no waste😁😁

2 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

That’s interesting. I used the top grid slot (and still managed to char them  ). If you are cooking chicken pieces (thighs legs etc) do you use direct grilling?

 

 

good question🤔

I have not done chicken legs yet but when I have done chicken breast I did them indirect....i would probs do legs indirect with it being chicken. i do get a little paranoid with chicken lol

My first cook took 2 hours to do the jackets and the burgers dried out....temp to low so i opened the vents and ended up with burnt sausages that were blacker than the charcoal.....garlic bread was fine though😁

3 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

Nope, first timer

You will get the hang of it in no time👍

Try to aim below your desired temp and once it goes stable then raise it from that point.

I find if im direct grilling, a dome temp around 180C to 200C seems to be a good ballpark, with the stainless grids at the 2nd highest level (standard level?🤔 , the level where the grid lifter jams on😆)

14 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

Great! Glad it’s not just me.

 

Did my first BBQ, chicken thighs, somehow managed to nuke the skin black :(. Guess I need more practice

have you used a Kamado before?

28 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

Ah brilliant, thank you.

One more question - the 4 leg’ed lifting device for the smart grid system seems like it needs to be ‘bent’ or something. If the grill is on the top notch, the handle for the device is flat against the grill and almost impossible to lift. Did yours have the same issue?

yes it did! I thought it might have just been mine.

I bent mine just enough so i could carry it properly without using the tips of my fingers and thumb. I made sure all legs where bent the same to keep the balance right and gradually did all 4 until there was just enough room for my knuckles.

We decided this morning that chicken kebabs is gonna be on the menu...

My wife will normally only eat chicken breast but this meal seems to have her converted (thigh's)😋

34 minutes ago, MattG156 said:

Hi @AdamG

I just bought a Monolith Pro. I’m must say, the marketing/ polish of the product has a lot to be desired. The manual seems to be for the Classic, and there are some pretty big differences in the setup that left me very confused until I found a weird video on YouTube that helped with assembly. The Monolith website is also pretty useless, with empty pages and generally not much value.

 

Anyway, I think I’ve figured out most of it except for the ash collector shovel-thing. Can you tell me if this is meant to be left inside the Monolith during cooking? I’m worried it will burn the handle, but I can’t figure out how else you would collect ash with it (the manual/ previous model had a scraper for after the fire was out). 

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Thank you

the marketing is horrendous lol.

they dont seem to have realised that they have developed a 'pro' variant based on the manual.

The ash shovel is left out during use so you can control the temp. To collect the ash you just simply slide it in and the back of the ashtray acts as a stop so your ash transfers onto your ash shovel....I have never had to empty the ashtray during a cook since its so deep, I usually just clean it out before my next cook👍

Any help or questions then just ask👍👍

32 minutes ago, ChickenNBeer said:

Yes I know of course.. just firing it up for the first time tonight with an easy cook 👍🏻

enjoy your steak😋

welcome to the forum!

both ribs and brisket look good!

Im going to attempt my 1st brisket this weekend 🙂