Kamado Style Grill Recommendations

Congrats on the new cooker! I’ve had my summit Kamado since September and have loved it. Very versatile cooker and holds temps very well.

One tip that worked for me when I cook in Kamado mode is to light the charcoal in the cooker with a fire starter (or small paper towel with the vegetable oil) and let that little pocket of charcoal ash over before you spread it a little and put the heat diffuser in. I found this is an easier way to get to and maintain that 225-250 temp without overshooting. I initially tried to light a bit of charcoal in a chimney first and dump it on the unlit charcoals but had trouble keeping my temps below 260 when I did that. Enjoy!!
 
Meatsweat Mike said:
Congrats on the new cooker! I’ve had my summit Kamado since September and have loved it. Very versatile cooker and holds temps very well.

One tip that worked for me when I cook in Kamado mode is to light the charcoal in the cooker with a fire starter (or small paper towel with the vegetable oil) and let that little pocket of charcoal ash over before you spread it a little and put the heat diffuser in. I found this is an easier way to get to and maintain that 225-250 temp without overshooting. I initially tried to light a bit of charcoal in a chimney first and dump it on the unlit charcoals but had trouble keeping my temps below 260 when I did that. Enjoy!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! I lit the far left side of a mostly full load of coal with a fair amount of wood chunks scattered on top. I’ve been playing a bit to get to the 225 area. 250-275 is a cake walk it seems but this also is my first cook.

I did a bread test and understandably the left side was a touch hotter as that’s where the main coals are. I said screw if and threw on a butt.
 

Attachments

  • 74793BE6-8471-4C90-900F-FB2905C6F9DE.jpg
    74793BE6-8471-4C90-900F-FB2905C6F9DE.jpg
    108.6 KB · Views: 89
  • 5B21F9E8-A75A-4BC6-975E-65D6B921A844.jpg
    5B21F9E8-A75A-4BC6-975E-65D6B921A844.jpg
    85.4 KB · Views: 88
Just rotate the meat during the cook if you’re lighting from one side. I’ve done it both ways, now I prefer to light the charcoal in the center but I still rotate the met through the cook to get even cooking.
 
Fishwater2002 said:
Just rotate the meat during the cook if you’re lighting from one side. I’ve done it both ways, now I prefer to light the charcoal in the center but I still rotate the met through the cook to get even cooking.
Click to expand...

That's the plan, going to spin the grate 90deg every hour or so when I spritz with apple cider vinegar/water.
 
Turned out to be the best pulled pork I’ve made. If this is how my first cook comes out with nothing but an instant read thermometer I am INSANELY impressed. The smoke level with just those few pieces of apple wood was just about right.
 

Attachments

  • 200C1B6C-D0DF-47EC-9CFE-6F2AF798A129.jpg
    200C1B6C-D0DF-47EC-9CFE-6F2AF798A129.jpg
    99.4 KB · Views: 72
  • 37C0A178-DE46-4DA5-B919-F43132012F60.jpg
    37C0A178-DE46-4DA5-B919-F43132012F60.jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 70
Little update, I did another pork butt cook that was ~14.5hrs excluding shutdown time. I loaded it with probably ~12-14lbs of B&B briquettes and still had around 40-50% left whereas the same cook with old Kingsford blue bag I had ~25-30% left.

My temps did start to climb on the grate according to my Fireboard but the dome temp gauge stayed pretty consistent so I don't know which to trust. The Firebord pit probe was telling me ~300-320f when the winds really picked up whereas the dome temp in the Weber was telling me 250-260f. When the winds died down the two temps came back within 5f of each other.

The flavor of B&B is pretty good and after seeing the burn time/low ash I will likely be sticking to their briquettes for quite some time. I just picked up 3 bags as a local hardware store had them cheaper than Kingsford blue bag.
 
I go off of my Fireboard instead of the dome gauge & I usually run around 275 or so with the bottom damper set to the smoke setting & top about 1/4". I also recently switched to B&B Post Oak lump & love it.
 
Fishwater2002 said:
I go off of my Fireboard instead of the dome gauge & I usually run around 275 or so with the bottom damper set to the smoke setting & top about 1/4". I also recently switched to B&B Post Oak lump & love it.
Click to expand...

That's where mine was running to maintain ~240-250 grate temps but you can see where it started to run away when the winds stayed elevated at the 8-12mph range (normal at our house). I think the pit viper setup may alleviate quite a bit of that simply because the orifice for air is so much smaller and has less of a chance to have air gust in.

https://share.fireboard.io/EFDE51
 
Bdsankey said:
Well went and picked it up tonight. Paid less than the current model and got the first gen which makes me much happier as I believe this heat diffuser is superior to the current gen.

Did some bbq chicken breasts tonight. They turned out good but I certainly used too little of charcoal. I was going to cook them indirect until the end then glaze but couldn’t as I was having a hard time breaking 325f due to lack of fuel.

I’ll be doing a butt this weekend as a long test cook. Tomorrow I’ll have it running most of the day just to try and get a feel for damper settings to get to 225-250 which is where I like to do my low-n-slows.
Click to expand...

The good thing about a kamado and lump is you can shut down the vents and reuse the remaining charcoal if you have too much. I usually er on the side of having more than I need, knowing that I can always use it again later.
 
sudsandswine said:
The good thing about a kamado and lump is you can shut down the vents and reuse the remaining charcoal if you have too much. I usually er on the side of having more than I need, knowing that I can always use it again later.
Click to expand...

I do the same with briquettes, hasn't given me an issue yet. Once I burn through these 3 bags of B&B briquettes I'll try some jealous devil or similar lump but after trying these briquettes it'll be tough to leave em haha.
 
Only thing I don't like about briquettes vs lump is all the ash to clean out. I can go months with lump before I have to clean out the minimal ash.
 
SonVolt said:
Only thing I don't like about briquettes vs lump is all the ash to clean out. I can go months with lump before I have to clean out the minimal ash.
Click to expand...

I certainly agree to that. That is certainly one area where the Summit excels is in ash cleanup with the one touch system.
 
I would have just recommended the 26" Weber.....

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
 
Late to the party, but this is what I would have recommended. I absolutely love my WSK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Cheap mini kamado (or...?) for cabin weekend?
Replies
16
Views
1K
Maylar
Maylar
mcyork28
Grilling On A Pellet Grill
2
Replies
20
Views
3K
Robert
R
J
Long Post of Disappointing Rants and Dreaming of a LSG Pellet Grill
Replies
4
Views
1K
jrTheSmoker
J
TheHojo
Direct Heat Cooker
2
Replies
23
Views
3K
ssv3
ssv3
J
What should my next grill be for grilling?
Replies
18
Views
1K
SmittyJonz
S
Back
Top