Perhaps you could articulate what is to be gained from learning the application of heat to food via a kamado oven. What’s the payoff? What does it do that nothing else will do? If it’s a cheap substitute for a wood-fired pizza oven that’s fine. Just say so. Maybe it’s a better charcoal grill. Or something in-between. Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Seems like if I bought one, I’ve spent too much for a charcoal grill and too little for a pizza oven.
I for one look forward to grilling, roasting, and smoking all kindsa meats n fish as well as baking pizza in my kamado. That’s a charcoal grill, an oven, a smoker & a pizza oven all in one. Where’s the downside?
And I got mine for free, too 
I’ve answered your question, but let me put it a different way: Incuriosity 》 complacency 》culinary stasis 》 the end.
Kamados offer incredible versatility. And so far, mine has done a good-to-great job with all of grilling, barbecue, roasting and baking I’ve tried. And snide on this: They can do more than one thing at a time, on very little fuel, and in a compact footprint.
What’ve you cooked in a kamado that’s disappointed you, Charlie?
1/3 pound cheeseburgers grilled last night for dinner using the cast iron grates. Grates were set low, “cowboy” style, with the dome temp steady at 450F. One small chunk of apple wood for a touch of smoke. These burgers were better than anything coming off my Weber Summit and better than anything I remember cooking on a steel kettle.
Tonight’s dinner will be stuffed peppers.
I read last night that in long cooks in a kamado, e.g., a Boston butt, the meat will lose about 20% of its water, whereas the same cook in an offset will shed about 30%. Any opinions whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing?
Just for fun, and as a dedicated user of the BGE for over a decade, I went back and looked at how many times we’ve used it this year. 33 to date (1/1/24 - 6/10/24), and with plans to use it another half-dozen times before the end of the month, making close to 40 grills by the half-way mark through the year.
Just sayin’…
Just do it . One of the fun things to do in cooking . Barbecue. not grilling doesn’t come easy . You have to wait hours for the results.
Ive had more than my share of . I like it , or it just meh . Thats the fun . Offset smoker, pellet smoker. webber kettle .It takes , hours and hours ,hours ,hours , hours , hours , and hours of trial and error . Keep on doing it .
Read all your posts . Liking it . Cheers
Yes. I liken barbecue to making wine, and grilling to making beer.
Thanks for your encouragement.
Well, answering my own ask, I’ve found a wonderful book on kamado cookery: “Hot Coals”, by chefs Jeroen Hazebroek and Leonard Elenbaas.
The book is unusual in that it doesen’t try to sell grills or accessories. In fact, it’s not even about recipes, per se. The first 114 pages are technique-centric, with only a handful of preps used to illustrate the techniques. The rest of the book’s 154 pages IS recipes, and wow, what recipes!
The authors are obviously real chefs. They impart many nuggets of wisdom, such as how many “spots” to light, and that yellow-skinned chicken roasts better than white-. The book is filled with tricks and tips I’ve not seen elsewhere. It’s real beauty, though, inheres in being deep, yet easy to follow.
Of the 3 books on kamado I’ve now read, this is the only one I’m keeping. And it’s the only cookbook I’ve stayed up late reading in a very long time.
Thank you for this recommendation - I’ve ordered a copy.
You’re welcome.
I’ll add, for the good of the order, that this book is ecumenical when it comes to brand of cooker. The authors don’t favor one over another, and tested several brands without picking any winner. However, where they deem it helpful, they point out how to do things differently for different brands. For example, for pizza in the BGE, they recommend placing a wire grid directly (pinched) between the plate setter and the stone.
You can just tell these guys walk the walk.
OK, here’s tonight’s pizza. The BGE didn’t break a sweat getting to 610F per the suggestion in the new book.
The bottom did not leopard spot. I probably should have let it soak longer.
Pizza Saturday. Yes
I’ve got one coming in the mail too. Thank you for this. Perfect Father’s Day gift to me.
Tonight we made duck on the primo xl grill, salt and pepper for seasoning, accompanied by a citron sauce. There was a recipe on the primo site that called for both honey and a full cup of sugar, which is absurd. There’s an excellent sauce in Craig Claiborne’s New New York Times Cookbook, for Canard au Citron, which can be adapted to serve with duck made on the primo grill. Grand Marnier, amontillado, a gastrique, half orange and half lemon juice, butter, a little bitter orange marmalade to liven it up.
Wow, sounds great. I’ll have to try that.
Whole duck or breasts? I have fond memories of hot-smoking whole, fat “flyer” mallards after a day of hunting. The birds’ gullets would be crazily overstuffed with barley. We teenagers would stand around the shop, shooting the shit, and tearing those cooked birds asunder, grease dripping.
Back then, it was a Little Chief electric.
