pinkelephant
Full Fledged Farker
I get the grates over 200F after cleaning them and before adding food to steralize them
-
working on DNS.. links may break temporarily.
$299 Char-Griller Kamado First Looks
- Thread starter JMSetzler
- Start date
I get the grates over 200F after cleaning them and before adding food to steralize them
D
Dave99
Guest
Hey JM thanks a lot for the really insightful videos of this grill! Great attention to detail.
You made a great series of reviews and to me the only remaining issue is getting down to a 225F low and slow cook. Some folks can hold lower temps than others presumably due to manufacturing tolerances (lets ignore dome thermometer error for now). At some point would you be able to explain all your sealing mods, how you load the pit, and then demo another 225F low and slow cook?
Dude - thanks again for posting such methodical and informative reviews!
You made a great series of reviews and to me the only remaining issue is getting down to a 225F low and slow cook. Some folks can hold lower temps than others presumably due to manufacturing tolerances (lets ignore dome thermometer error for now). At some point would you be able to explain all your sealing mods, how you load the pit, and then demo another 225F low and slow cook?
Dude - thanks again for posting such methodical and informative reviews!
accuseal
Knows what a fatty is.
Nice video. I'm hungry! Did u control temp strictly by air flow?
Sent from my SCH-I905 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SCH-I905 using Tapatalk
RW
Full Fledged Farker
JM, when is the first edition of your Akorn Cookbook coming out?
Funky D
Knows what a fatty is.
JM, hope you're getting kickbacks... this officially convinced me to go down to Lowe's and pick one up over the WSM. Of course, egg would be fantastic, but at 1/3 the price, this is impossible to pass up.
Echoing the above, I'd like to see a 225 sustained. Maybe use some good ol cheap kingsford charcoal, and see if that helps tame the beast? You're really ratcheting the airflow to almost nothing, and it's still looking like you can't get it down there.
Awesome stuff man. Keep those videos comin!
Echoing the above, I'd like to see a 225 sustained. Maybe use some good ol cheap kingsford charcoal, and see if that helps tame the beast? You're really ratcheting the airflow to almost nothing, and it's still looking like you can't get it down there.
Awesome stuff man. Keep those videos comin!
sandiegobbq
is one Smokin' Farker
Try cooking a duck one day on that Kamado.
darita
is Blowin Smoke!
+1 on the low and slow. If it can do that easily, it's a winner.
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
I'll try to do 225° sometime soon. I typically don't cook that low though. I usually work in the 250° range. After playing with it so far, I don't doubt that I can make it hold 225°. On that initial cook I just lit up a little too much lump to get started. I have also sealed up the air vent a bit and between those two I believe I could get it there.
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
Have you cooked on it yet? I'm working on a 'list' of people who own this Kamado to see if there is enough interest for a 'fan club' of sorts...
Patrick C.
Got Wood.
Sorry if I missed it, but what size is the grate? CharGriller's site doesn't like my ipad.
sandiegobbq
is one Smokin' Farker
I believe it is a 19.5" diameter.
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
Today, I'm hopefully gonna cook a pizza. I'm also going to do the 225° test since I'm getting a lot of questions about cooking at that magic number. The 225 test video will also show most of the mods I did to the air intake and ash pan with some RTV Silicone to help seal up the air leaks.
certified106
Full Fledged Farker
I have 2 5.5 lb chickens on right now and 5 people showing up at my house in 1 hour. Man I am sweating it right now seeing how this is the first time I have cooked whole chickens on the cooker. I just went back and reviewed your vids over and over and I am holding steady at 380 so I here is to hoping they turn out well! Thanks so much for all the videos and help you have provided! :clap2:
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
The 225° isn't going very well. I got up to 250 and got it settled in right there. I have received multiple questions on the videos and via email regarding being able to park this cooker at the magic 225° mark and it's proving to be difficult.
certified106
Full Fledged Farker
How fast did you bring it up to temp? Do you think it is possible with more practice and what kind of mods if any did you do to it? How did you start the smoker, Minion method or fire starter in the cooker? This news is kind of a bummer :eusa_clap
sandiegobbq
is one Smokin' Farker
Honestly why are you cooking at 225?
250 would not be much of a difference at all?
I think most people nowadays are cooking at 250 and higher.
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
I don't cook at 225 anymore but I have gotten a lot of questions about being able to do that after my Boston Butt cook at 270ish. I got it stabilized around 250 but not much lower than that. For a lot of folks, 225 is the holy grail of BBQ so they are probably going to have to spend $800+ to have that on a Kamado rather than the $300 for this one. As far as low and slow is concerned, I have been cooking for the last several months between 250 and 275 with no noticeable difference in results other than a slightly shorter cook time, which is really insignificant as well at those temps.
JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
I brought it up slowly using a minion method startup. I also probably made one mistake in the setup which will be shown in the video. I set my pizza stone on the cast iron grate and then set my temp probe on the pizza stone. I wasn't thinking that the pizza stone would take longer to come to temp than the rest of the pit, so that probably cause me to not slow down the air flow soon enough. I'm not gonna repeat this test though because it's irrelevant to me.
JS-TX
is One Chatty Farker
Each cooker is different, I wouldn't be surprised if another identical cooker could zero in on 225*. But yea, there's nothing magical about 225*, too bad so many books and other references use this # w/out explaining that it's ok go higher like 250-275*.
KingRanch450
is Blowin Smoke!
JM....I've been wanting an egg type cooker but didn't want to spend the big bucks for a BGE since I just bought a Gator. Your recommendation and videos for the Akorn was very appreciated. With all that being said, I went to my local Lowes today and bought the Akorn, put it together and seasoned it this evening.
Last edited:
