We BBQ a fair bit - probably twice a week in the winter & almost everyday when the weather is nice. I had a basic roll-lid B&Q gas number for ages & it was actually pretty good for normal BBQ-ing i.e. no slow cooks. But when that literally fell apart i decided to upgrade as we had used it so much. Initially I went for a Barbeskew but was really disappointed. It cooked things on skewers and rotisserie chicken pretty well. But it wasn't very well made (in my opinion - if anyone wants more details on this, let me know & I’ll do a separate post on it) & despite the claims, didn’t live up to being a BBQ as well as a rotisserie. I also didn't know much about slow cooking at that point. Had i researched it a bit more, i probably would have gone for a decent Weber or similar, but i happened to pass a Big Green Egg (BGE) dealer & that got me researching kamado-style grills.
After quite a bit of research into Kamados using US forums, I had made my mind up to buy a BGE. Rationale was that they were more expensive but they have been around much longer than the competition & thus were likely to be able to back up an expensive purchase with the warranty. But in the middle of a recession they wouldn't budge on the price. At all. Even though all-in i was looking at spending £1300! In addition, I was also emailed a document which was their reason to buy a BGE over a KJ. Frankly it did not bare up to scrutiny focusing on the quality & thickness of the ceramics & the guarantees. Rightly or wrongly, these two things really put my back up, so I started looking at others. According to some fairly balanced reviews on USA forums, the Kamado Joe appeared to be as good quality as the BGE but a lot less cash. As importantly I could find them for sale easily in the UK, unlike some of the other kamado makers that are popular in the USA . So i ended up buying one with the cover, grill extender, pizza stone & heat deflector.
Initial impressions were that it wasn't quite as well finished as the BGE - just little things like the edges of the ceramics were not quite as smooth as, frankly, they should be when spending that kind of money. I suspect this may have improved over time, but haven’t seen a newer one to be able to say. But the weight of it was good, the hinge mechanism was re-assuring - pretty hefty lid but easily opened. The top (the bit with the daisy wheel on) was nice & heavy too. The accessories did what they promised - good heavy gauge metal & solid ceramic plates (heat deflector & pizza stone). The only other thing that i noticed was that the metal support for the heat deflector didn't fit onto the firebox surround without a big twist. But again, no real biggy. The cover is really good quality - much better than i expected. Really thick & fleece lined. It has a tie thing at the bottom which i have never used & is really annoying as it catches every time you put it over the grill!
My initial grills were nothing brilliant that could justify the high price of the unit. But after breaking in the gaskets (i.e. not doing really hot grills), the first steaks done at a high temperature were exactly what i wanted & brought a huge smile to my face! It took a good few weeks to be confident & consistent in achieving high temperatures - but once there it was a goooood feeling! Moving from gas to charcoal meant a little learning curve which probably didn't help. Little things such as using different producers of lumpwood charcol can make a big difference to the ease of replicating previous results, as well the speed at which the grill gets up to temperature.
The next trick was trying low and slow - I found this a little easier. Once you get over not being able to control the temperature in an instant (ala cooking on gas), it is surprising just how controllable the temperature is. Little adjustments of the daisy wheel & the bottom vent allow for adjustments of 10 degrees or so. You just have to get a feel for the grill a little bit & that simply comes from experience of using it. The longest grill i've done is 10 hours at around 200 'f (a pork hand / Boston Butt) - so nothing too long compared to some. But the meat that comes off is really moist & succulent, just melting away from the bone.
Hot smoking is not something i have mastered, by a long way. We've done quite a bit of nice fish - especially hot smoked salmon fillets, either on maple planks or with wood chips in an iron pot. Have not managed to replicate the best fish i cooked - which was the first i cooked! But am going to try much more this year. Have also had some nice results from woodchips on the fire for flavouring whole-roast chickens.
My parents then bought me a Pro Q cold smoker to use in the KJ - have not used it a massive amount but cold smoked steaks which are then cooked normally on the grill are fantastic, giving an additional smoky flavour on top of the already great charcoal-grilled flavour from normal cooking on the grill. We smoked a quarter side of salmon for 36 hours in time for Christmas Day. It was amazing. A begger to cut thinly, but the taste was great.
I bought the weather cover, but haven't used it religiously as the literature said it actually wasn't really needed. Quite often in the winter i've found that i've started a grill, only for it to rain. Not a problem for the actual grilling but I would have to leave it to cool in the wet & therefore do not want to put the cover on. What i did find was that the temperature gauge on the outside started to get water on the inside of the dial. A quick email to support found a new one on my door step within days. Great customer service & dead easy to swap over. All parts have held up to being left outside (probably 40% of the time with the cover off), including the wooden shelves. I have cooked high temperature grills (600-900F) in the bitter cold & snow with no issues with the ceramics either.
Using the heat deflector can be a little hit & miss at the moment. Often i find that adding it to the grill really cuts the temperature quickly & it's difficult to get it back. But having re-read the instructions today, i am going to try the way they suggest doing it!
Pizzas come out pretty well, but even with the heat deflector in the top position (giving better oxygen movement) i find that i struggle to cook two in quick succession as the heat drops significantly with the heat deflector & pizza stone in place. Again, more practice needed i think - possibly I am not getting the grill up to high enough temperature to start with.Other niggles
Getting wood chips and / or an iron smoke chip pot or more charcoal into the grill once lit with the grill in place, is a pain. Apparently the US models come with a grill grate tool to ease removal of the grate - but my UK one did not. There is a flap in the grilling grate which levers up to allow the adding of stuff, but again too small to be useful for anything other than adding smoking chips to the part of the grill it covers - which may or may not be where you want them to go.
The KJ comes with an ash removal tool. Actually I tend to use this to 'stir the coals' to get the ash to drop through the grate & then to flatten or move the ash in the bottom chamber. If I want to empty the ash (every 5 to 7 grills) I tend to remove the insides - much easier than trying to scrape out the ash through the small draft door on the bottom.
Whilst it's not the size to be, or sold to be, a cold smoker, the inclusion of a hook or bar to hook things on inside the dome to enable the hanging of small quantities of meat or fish would have been a really good addition. That with a vertical hanger for the meat & a Pro Q cold smoker unit would be ideal.
Pros:
- significantly cheaper than competition, with almost the same level of quality finish;
- hard wearing components;
good customer service so far from the UK distributor;
good online community starting up - posts on the KJ facebook page get same-day responses from the owner as well as a few committed KJ dealers & customers. I contacted the company on the US website (before the UK site was up and running) & he replied quickly & also contacted the UK distributor for me. They were not as quick to reply but even so it was only a couple of days before they did;
- very easy to achieve very high temperatures for steak sears;
- very easy to achieve & sustain lower temperatures for longer grills / hot smokes;
Cons:
- lack of accessories (e.g. just emailed the UK distributor to find out where I can get a new gasket as I will want to replace mine before the summer & can not find them listed anywhere in the UK);
- lack of KJ range choice in the UK - can not see anywhere selling anything but the classic KJ at the moment;
Conclusions
The acid test for me is whether, having spent a reasonable sum of money (i.e. twice the price of any BBQ i had bought before) on one of these with all the extras, would i buy one again? Yes. Without hesitation. Actually i'd probably try & get the Big Joe (a bigger version of the standard size) but not sure they sell them in the UK yet.
Have i used any other BBQ or smoker since buying it? Only once - when I needed more space due to a BBQ party & only really because I could. I was also thinking of adding a dedicated cold smoker to my patio at some point to create larger quantities of cold smoked meats & fish.
Would I go back to cooking on gas? No way. The flavour from charcoal cooking is far superior to any of the gas methods I have tried.
