Yesterday I was was way over bogey golf...
I got the Akorn hot and could NOT get the temps down to a manageable range. The little voices started in my head...
Then "Sunshine" called (y'all call him L A) and asked how it went. When I told him, he calmed me down and told me "Don't panic.."
Then he commenced to tellin' me again how to set the vents when starting the fire and change 'em up as you get close to the target temp...THEN he sent pictures of the vents so I couldn't miss it. This is one grasshopper that will listen to advice.
Well I went back to the kamado site and reviewed more videos and came up with a plan.
I played par golf today - maybe one stroke under par for the day.
I set up the Akorn for a fuse burn (you'll see the pics) and lit about 5 or 6 briquettes with a half piece of a Weber wax cube. It took about 15 minutes for the fuse to light, but today I learned patience is the key to the kamado. When I could see they were going to stay lit, I closed the dome and set my vents like LA told me to. Then I had to wait and wait for the temp to begin to rise.
Short version is this - I let the temp s-l-o-w-l-y rise to today's target temp of 225* - I wasn't cookin' anything but a pan of water - but I had to see if I would be able to sustain a long cook at that temp. As the temp got to 200*, I set the vents like LA told me to and "the little Akorn that could" just glided right on into that zone and stayed on 225 for 5 1/2 hours with no diddlin'.
At 5:30 I opened the vents to bring the heat up. Then we grilled some chicken tenderloins and corn on the cob.
Again, a hat tip to L A for his advice.
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