Cooking with a Kamado Joe Ceramic BBQ

Summer is just around the corner and with it comes the joy of outdoor cooking. Having a BBQ or making a pizza brings a holiday feeling to every meal you cook outdoors. Especially with the prolonged Covid 19 lockdown, we are all in need of a bit of escape and feeling carefree!

No more hours of preparation all on your own in a hot kitchen. Friends and family join in the fun and celebration (occasionally the work too) of preparing the fire, the food, the setting.

Centuries of outdoor cooking have helped us to develop highly specialized equipment to heighten the pleasure of outdoor cooking and each of us has become a master-chef in our own right. You don’t believe me? Ask your friends to share their techniques and secrets! (Hmmm, maybe not the secrets?) Anyhow, you have enough of your own “secrets” to prepare a scrumptious meal in your own outdoor kitchen or at the camping grounds.

Everybody has a special preference for the “right way” to cook an outdoor meal. Some will swear by charcoal, others wood, yet others gas. A good fireside topic will be, which is the best equipment to turn your grill corner into the most versatile open-air kitchen?

Now, let me give you some food for thought for your next fireside debate. How about a Kamado Joe to turn your next BBQ, grilling, baking, cooking and pizza making into the perfect memorable event? All in the same “kitchen” too!

What makes a Kamado Joe different?

I guess that top of the list has to be the taste of the food, but let me not get ahead of myself. One of the most distinguishing features of a Kamado Joe grill is the dome shape, manufactured from durable, high-performance ceramics, acting as a “super insulant” to maintain the high heat from just a little charcoal, no matter what the weather.

The dome shape of the kamado ensures you have evenly distributed heat from all sides, for both direct and indirect cooking heat for everything from the perfect grill to baking and pizza making. By adding the half-moon heat deflector stones you will instantly convert your Kamado into a convection oven for the perfect pork pull or bread loaf. The thermometer built into the dome will ensure you cook at exactly the right temperature, with no guessing required.

The Kamado’s indirect heat is ideal for smoking, baking, roasting, braising and smoking, while the direct heat is perfect for grilling, searing, wok-cooking and super-hot griddle, plancha, or fire-plate cooking. The combination of heat from below and from the top is indispensable for the perfect pizza and the rotisserie. By the way, the Kamado has all the accessories to cook food to perfection by each of these cooking methods. What it all means, is that even if you are new to outdoor cooking, you will have to try hard to flop at cooking with a Kamado Joe.

Other features that distinguish a Kamado Joe from the wide array of BBQ and grill choices include the safety aspect. Because the exterior is treated with a baked glaze and super-insulated, the outside does not get hot with normal use, protecting the cook and his guests, especially the little ones, from injury. It also helps that on a hot day you don’t overheat a small space such as your patio or balcony. Because the charcoal is placed in a basket that isolates the fire in a small area from the rest of the kamado griller, it is easier and safer to work while cooking. Of course, that also ensures the maximum cooking space, which is further enhanced by tiered racks.

The heat on the inside of the Kamado burns off the grease to keep it clean for the next use and the glazed exterior surface usually needs little more than a wipe with a soapy cloth and a quick wipe to dry and shine the surface.

What makes the Kamado Joe one of the most versatile grills?

The Kamado Joe comes in different sizes for portability and for the size of your family and circle of friends. It has an incredible range of accessories to turn your BBQ/grill/slow cooker/ rotisserie/oven/smoker into a complete outdoor kitchen with all the bells and whistles.

What is the secret of the scrumptious Kamado food taste?

In a nutshell, perfect design and heat distribution.

Moisture retention and perfect heat-distribution are the key-factors to getting that old-fashioned brick-oven flavour and crispy crust when baking bread and making pizza. The Kamado Joe has no “cold spots.” The conducting heat from below cooks the crust perfectly, while the convection heat swirling around the oven cooks the inside of the dough, and the radiation heat from the dome perfectly grills the topping.

Consistent high radiation heat for grilling and searing meat keeps in all the juices, while the versatile Kamado Joe can also be the perfect slow cooker! Different tiers even make it possible for you to cook different types of food, requiring different amounts of heat, at the same time.

With even a small amount of charcoal, high temperatures can be reached quickly, because the design allows for the perfect oxygen air-flow that feeds the fire while the insulation of the ceramic dome keeps the heat inside.

Now that you have convinced your friends that a Kamado Joe is an excellent choice, put your money where your mouth is and cook them the perfect meal!