Kamado Grills

[Jason Perlow]

My brother in law in Atlanta has one of these, its a really cool unit. These can be dual fuel, gas ignited with charcoals.

http://www.kamado.com/

anyone have experience with these? I've been considering getting one to supplement my Weber to do some real smoking.

AlanZ, one of our new members, maintains a FAQ page:

http://www.zenreich.com/zenweb/kamadofaq.htm

Lots of nice pics on his site.

[MatthewB]

Jason,

Have you checked out the Big Green Egg?

I'd be interested in hearing about this in relation to Kamado.

(Someday I'd like to replace my Weber Smokey Mountain with one of these two.)

[Jason Perlow]

This must be the actual brand my brother in law uses, cause they have a store in Atlanta. I didnt realize there was more than one producer of kamados.

[alanz]

Jason,

Nice meeting you last night.

The Kamado.com cookers are made in Sacramento Ca as well as in Indonesia (depending on the style and work loads).

The cookers are quite remarkable, and lets me cook everything from beef jerky to prime steaks.

I'm a volunteer administrator on the Kamado discussion forum, and have attended (and demonstrated at ) the last two Kamado Picnic-Cookoffs in CA (next one coming up in August)

It would be my pleasure to chat with folk about cooking in ceramics. I've had great fun with it over the past several years and have met many wonderful people in the community.

As mentioned last night... you are more than welcome to taste some pulled pork... I'm going to put three butts on the cooker this evening and they'll be ready tomorrow. I'm going to vacuum seal two of them for a dinner next week. The third one doesn't have a chance of getting near a freezer < s >

Edited June 24, 2003 by alanz (log)

[Jason Perlow]

That Kamado 7 dual fuel unit is really slick looking, the one in red. Thats the one I would probably get.

[LEdlund]

I am the lucky reciepient of my Grandmothers Kamado. It was given to her in the 50's from a merchant marine neighbor of hers. He brought a container full of them for everyone on our beach.

I use mine all year long whenever we want to "roast" over charcoal. Some of the better things we have done are duck and a standing rib roast for Christmas.

BTW, did anyone see Alton Browns show on pork shoulder? He basically built a Kamado using terracotta planters and a hot plate.

[Schielke]

I wonder how possible tandoori cooking would be in one of those... particularly naan. I would imagine you could get an insert or something to slap the bread against.

Ben

[alanz]

I got a kick out of the Alton Brown show... very inventive.

I'm not sure what the longevity of flower pots would be, but it was certainly a clever way of doing things. And of course, high temperature cooking is out with that approach.

[alanz]

I think some of the folk on the Kamado forum have used the "K" for naan, and perhaps some other tandoori style cooking. The walls of the cooker accumulate charcoal deposits, so I'd probably suggest leaning a pizza stone against the wall for a clean surface.

That said, the K is one of the great pizza cookers out there. Because the dome has a lot of mass, you can think of it as a coal fired brick oven, where much of the heat actually comes from the dome.

[CathyL]

I've had a BGE for 6 years and wouldn't be without it. Alan's web site is an excellent resource on ceramics in general.

I have a pal in Atlanta who makes naan on his Egg's interior walls (well-scrubbed).

There's a newish company called Primo whose cookers are reportedly well-made, and somewhat less expensive than a BGE.

[Stone]

Mmmm, Korean BBQ:

[fifi]

Oh WOW!!! I was thinking of getting a new and bigger smoker for the new house. You know... maybe one from Kruse. Now I am beginning to wonder. Not only are those things gorgeous but I'll bet that big hunk of ceramic can really hold a steady temperature. I think I am in love. I couldn't find a list of dealers, though. (Maybe I was too busy gawking to take a good look.)

The nagging problem... Why haven't I seen these before?

[alanz]

Dinner tonight was chicken wings done on the #7 cooker.

My bride brined the wings and then coated them with a dusting of CharCrust Cajun spices. My job was what I call "heating up things on the K"

At dinner, my older son (18) held up a wing and said "this wing... this particular wing, is the best wing I have ever eaten".

I'm putting up three pork butts on my #7 Kamado tonight before I head to bed.

Pulled pork for dinner tomorrow, with special mystery guests. The remaining butts will be vacuum sealed for a party this weekend.

[alanz]

fifi,

Dealers for the Kamados are scarce. The company would rather keep their prices down by selling directly to the customers.

Yes, it's an odd ts hing to order such a cooker sight unseen via the internet, but no one I know has been disappointed. Also, there are K owners all over the country so finding one locally to visit is usually just a matter of asking on the K forum. People are really nice about that kind of thing. If you appear undecided, some of us will even cook for you < s >

[Stone]

I'm putting up three pork butts on my #7 Kamado tonight before I head to bed. 

Pulled pork for dinner tomorrow, with special mystery guests.  The remaining butts will be vacuum sealed for a party this weekend.

Tell me you live in San Francisco. Please, tell me you live in San Francisco.

[Jason Perlow]

I'm putting up three pork butts on my #7 Kamado tonight before I head to bed. 

Pulled pork for dinner tomorrow, with special mystery guests.  The remaining butts will be vacuum sealed for a party this weekend.

Tell me you live in San Francisco. Please, tell me you live in San Francisco.

Jersey. In fact he's feeding me some of his pork soon.

[fifi]

Oooooo... cook for me... That is almost too good to believe. I will be lurking on the site. It is now in my list of favorites for the house. I can see it now on my patio under the pecan and oak tree. The property is on Galveston Bay. Smoke a trout anyone???

[willow]

Good morning from hot and steamy New York City, from a Brooklyn back yard. After what seemed to be 40 days and 40 nights of continual rain, this week's heat and sun seem dowright thrilling; and a chance to get back to the ceramic cooker.

It's interesting to read the comments on Kamado cookers--and to know that there is both interest and ownership out there--despite their expense and weight. Both as a food writer and as a backyard cooker, I've been trying out ceramic cookers for several years now , and I'll briefly pass along some thoughts:

The Big Green Egg, with its wonderful name and fetching looks, has become the iconic ceramic cooker. It's been around the longest and is relatively widely available.They're made in Mexico, and they're just fine but now have some serious competition (see below). .

The Kamado cookers, the dramatically tiled ones that could have belonged to one of Saddam Hussein's boys, are relatively new but , possibly because of their looks, have become fairly high profile. The distributor is on the West Coast. I have never owned one but have two friends who do; they were initailly please but not so happy when the exterior tiles started to fall off and/or crack.

Primo Grills, a couple of years old company in Atlanta, make a range of ceramic grill sizes--most in the familiar egg shape--including the newest, the Primo Oval grill, which has a larger cooking capacity than any other ceramic grills on the market, and is extremely handsome: it's a dark black-green with a dimpled enamel exterior; it could be a giant Haas avocado. (see www.primogrill.com). It is also literally thrilling to use. All ceramic grills are great; once you've used one you'll never go back to anything else. Because of the ceramic interior, their tight seals and their high heat (up to 700 degrees) capapcity, both the moisture and flavor of any food is intensified. Succulent is too mild a word to use for the reults. (They also keep a steady heat, even a very low heat, for long periods of time and are incredibly fuel efficient.) But the Primo, produced in this country, is made of finer and heavier ceramic than the others. Price wise, Primos are about the same as the other ceramic cookers none of which , at $600 to $800 plus shipping, is a casual purchase.

I've had a Primo Oval grill for about four months and it has changed my cooking life. It's also a continual learning experience; although Steve Raichlen's books offer some guidelines, a worthy ceramic grill cookbooks has yet to be published. If anyone has questions about ceramic grills, based on what I've figured out so far, I'd be happy to answer here.

And if you want to buy one, please see once in action before you do--either via a friend or at a dealer's. They're really heavy--about 190 pounds--and big. It's not something you can easily return. (although, if your experience is like mine, you wouldn't give it up for anything).

[fifi]

Thanks, willow. I was wondering about the tiles. But they really do look cool. I was thinking purple. The Primo looks interesting but it is butt ugly. Also, those metal stands look a little flimsy to me. The wooden mounts in some of the pictures look better. There is actually a dealer in my "back yard" so I may check them out.

[alanz]

There were some tile adhesive issues with some of the early tiled Kamados, but those issues seem to have been resolved in the current product.

I recently got a second dual-fuel #7 Kamado (3,000 1" cobalt blue mosaic tiles) and it's quite a piece of yard art, in addtion to being a great cooker.

There have been several incremental engineering advances since I bought my first one 4 years ago, and I appreciate the effort the K company puts into improving its products.

The Kamado company's cookers are, in my personal opinion, the next generation of ceramic cookers.

In any case, anyone who has had a chance to cook on ceramics (BGE, Primo, or Kamado) usually sits smiling quietly to themselves. We know that we have the ability to cook anything from jerky to steaks, and because the cookers are so forgiving, they make us look good

[alanz]

Willow,

I thought you'd be entertained to know that a #7 Kamado weighs in at just under 400 lbs

[Nick]

The Kamado cookers.......  I have never owned one but have two friends who do; they were initailly please but not so happy when the exterior tiles started to fall off and/or crack.

Last night I went to the Kamado link given by Jason and noticed this under the history section at the site -

"A major component of the U.S. made Kamado was a ceramic mineral that contracted with heat, allowing for a zero coefficient of expansion. The mineral came from Rhodesia; however, in the early 1970’s the U.S. put an embargo on all imports from Rhodesia. Efforts to find a substitute formula failed, and production of the Kamado was discontinued." Underlining mine.

Perhaps they have still not found another ceramic material with a zero coefficient of expansion. With a significant differential in expansion between the foundation ceramic and the tiles, it would take an amazing joining compound to keep the tiles in place.

Just my .02.

[alanz]

Nick,

Actually they did find another substance that makes the ceramic dimensionally stable. However, it wasn't expansion causing the tile issues.

The problem with the earlier tiled K's is that the adhesive/thinset used wan't cured properly and at high temperatures would bubble out through the grout cracks.

The new design uses an improved adhesive, and now the K company recommends an initial low temperature firing schedule for the first few uses to cure the tile bonding and drive out any remaining moisture from the castings.

For anyone who thinks tiles are a potential problem, Kamado also makes textured cookers in terracotta and black colors. Very nice too

[fifi]

Interesting materials issues. I have been out of the materials biz for a couple of years so my memory is a bit rusty but if the problem wasn't solved with the adjusting of the thin set, why didn't they look into some of the silicone or fluorosilicone adhesives. Some of those approach a useful temp of 500F. (Think Shuttle tiles here.) I don't know what kind of skin temperature the cookers reach but it seems that that would have been an approach. Being an elastomer, stresses of differential expansion would be accomodated. Maybe the cost of the stuff was prohibitive or the skin temperature was too high?.

[Nick]

.... and now the K company recommends an initial low temperature firing schedule for the first few uses to cure the tile bonding and drive out any remaining moisture from the castings.

Good info, Alan.

If the castings are now now stable through a range of temperature change (700F), then that could well be the problem - people high-firing right away with no break-in. My experience is with masonry heaters/ovens and they have to be broken-in with several low firings to get rid of moisture.

If I were to get one I'd probably skip the tiles as they could always be a future source of problems, particularly if they're out in the open exposed to the elements.

Edit: Fifi mentions silicone as a bonding material, but I'm not sure there are any that can take the temps these cookers can reach. The soapstone heaters and ovens my customers build use water glass (sodium silicate) as the bonding agent between the stones. I'm not sure if this would work with tiles though.

Edited June 28, 2003 by Nickn (log)