I had the first Chernobyl incident in my Komodo Saturday evening. It was really self inflicted, but it's a good cautionary tale.
After spending most of the prior three weeks away from my 'permanent' home, I had a lot of cotton to chop on the chore front and some errands to run. Sunday was going to be a day on the boat with a drive back to my work location last night. So I had to condense. My typical routine with the Komodo has been to start early, get the coals and temp right put the protein source in the thing and monitor as needed (typically while enjoying a beverage or three) and it's always been with spectacular results. I rushed the charcoal/wood startup, put the ribs on before the heat had really stabilized and went to work on my list. Bad idea. Initially I could smell the hickory chunks and the cooking ribs and it was a pleasant smell. A little later (an hour and half later truth be told) and I smelled a LOT of hickory and a less pleasant meat smell. Walked into the back yard and witnessed the column of smoke coming out of the top and knew my goose was cooked. Temp on the unit was over 600 and even with water the flareup when I opened the lid was horrific. Did what I could to save the day, but it amounted to a plateful of partially charred rib meat.
Moral of the story: Don't trust your adult children to do what you ask them to do around the house when you're gone...and when you're busy picking up the pieces, don't put something on the grill and forget it. Bad form.
After spending most of the prior three weeks away from my 'permanent' home, I had a lot of cotton to chop on the chore front and some errands to run. Sunday was going to be a day on the boat with a drive back to my work location last night. So I had to condense. My typical routine with the Komodo has been to start early, get the coals and temp right put the protein source in the thing and monitor as needed (typically while enjoying a beverage or three) and it's always been with spectacular results. I rushed the charcoal/wood startup, put the ribs on before the heat had really stabilized and went to work on my list. Bad idea. Initially I could smell the hickory chunks and the cooking ribs and it was a pleasant smell. A little later (an hour and half later truth be told) and I smelled a LOT of hickory and a less pleasant meat smell. Walked into the back yard and witnessed the column of smoke coming out of the top and knew my goose was cooked. Temp on the unit was over 600 and even with water the flareup when I opened the lid was horrific. Did what I could to save the day, but it amounted to a plateful of partially charred rib meat.
Moral of the story: Don't trust your adult children to do what you ask them to do around the house when you're gone...and when you're busy picking up the pieces, don't put something on the grill and forget it. Bad form.
