Serious Eats reviews kamados

Hans61

I'm not impressed with that article. "Most round-kamado aficionados concede that their best way of creating different heat zones is by moving foods closer to or farther from the fire."

No $h1T!!! Moving food away from the fire is what indirect is...

fljoemon

I love my 2-zone setup with the High-Que fire basket .. simple.

tarheelmatt

Okay, I say lets get a group together and TP their place?  Who's in? 

clemsontyger97

All I know is I never recall getting complimented on my food until I cooked on my KJ.   And now every meal is like "holy crap that was good".  So grilling, smoking, whatever...I'm rolling with a kamado.

Skiddymarker

fljoemon said:

I love my 2-zone setup with the High-Que fire basket .. simple.

The primo Oval set-up is similar with the fire box divider being a large chunk of pig iron that fits into tabs in the CI grate. Good add on products from the folks at High-Que, if they had this when I bought my Oval I might have considered a LBGE. 
@Hans61 - actually you don't have to get food farther from the fire for indirect, you just need some sort of deflector between the burning lump and the food, height of the food is almost irrelevent. Not sure about the HQ set-up as I have never had the pleasure of using one, but in my Primo food on the non-fire side, on a grid as low as you can get it is cooler than if on the non-fire side higher in the dome. In other words the food physically closer to the burning lump is cooler than food raised away from the fire. The heat deflected from the dome is why this works. 

fishlessman

so many things wrong with that article, seems like someone thats never really understood how a kamado works and is way over thinking things. imagine using briquettes for an over night butt cook, i have used briquettes in the egg but its not something to do on an overnighter. oval cookers are more prone to base cracks verse round, not even mentioned

pgprescott

fljoemon said:

I love my 2-zone setup with the High-Que fire basket .. simple.

We just got these in at our place and have yet to mess with them. Cool.

HoustonEgger

My take away is that they never actually used each of the units reviewed - they only referenced websites and other sources. 

Dobie

Fred19Flintstone

Friggin' Maggots!  Oops!  Wrong thread.

HeavyG

HoustonEgger said:

My take away is that they never actually used each of the units reviewed - they only referenced websites and other sources. 

You can go the AmazingRibs website and hit their equipment review section where they tell you which grills they have actually had hands-on experience with. There are even some videos they have made. I have no idea if they have hands-on experience with all the various kamados mentioned in the Serious Eats article but I know for a fact they have actually used a few of them.

northGAcock

tarheelmatt said:

Okay, I say lets get a group together and TP their place?  Who's in? 

When did ya'll get TP up there? I am in.

Carolina Q

@northGAcock said:

tarheelmatt said:

Okay, I say lets get a group together and TP their place?  Who's in? 

When did ya'll get TP up there? I am in.

Careful, bud, that stuff's rough as a cob!

Darby_Crenshaw

Carolina Q said:

@northGAcock said:

tarheelmatt said:

Okay, I say lets get a group together and TP their place?  Who's in? 

When did ya'll get TP up there? I am in.

Careful, bud, that stuff's rough as a cob!

First time i tried using a corncob in an outhouse it hurt like hell. But then i found out you aren't supposed to stick it in all the way.  

HeavyG

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Carolina Q said:

@northGAcock said:

tarheelmatt said:

Okay, I say lets get a group together and TP their place?  Who's in? 

When did ya'll get TP up there? I am in.

Careful, bud, that stuff's rough as a cob!

First time i tried using a corncob in an outhouse it hurt like hell. But then i found out you aren't supposed to stick it in all the way.  

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http://www.badumtss.net

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Ladeback69

I use one of my broken plate setters to do 2 zone cooks on my XL.  Works rather well too.  

Hans61

@fljoemon - in my weber kettle I always considered food not over the hot coals to be indirect. I believe I can get a similar result in my extra large egg by moving food away from the fire without the use of my plate setter, especially at mid roasting temps. I agree with you that there's a good amount of heat coming off the dome in an egg, and I'd venture much more than a kettle lid; that's one of the features that makes a Kamado better than a kettle imo, but kettles don't have plate setters, and I think most agree there are 2 heat zones in them accomplished by coal and meat positioning...regardless, that divider box you posted looks really cool!

SciAggie

clemsontyger97 said:

All I know is I never recall getting complimented on my food until I cooked on my KJ.   And now every meal is like "holy crap that was good".  So grilling, smoking, whatever...I'm rolling with a kamado.

Yeah I've had my bge now for about a year. I now have "groupies" on Facebook - friends that love to see what I cook. My family loves the food. Maybe I work at being a better cook more now, but I never had this success with a gasser. 

YukonRon

Blasphemy. They shall forever be banished. Obviously, they do not even know how to cook, because while in culinary school, they did drugs, and drank a lot.......oh wait....never mind.
They got kicked out for not washing their hands after using the bathroom and after picking their noses. They rode the short bus too.

bgebrent

YukonRon said:

Blasphemy. They shall forever be banished. Obviously, they do not even know how to cook, because while in culinary school, they did drugs, and drank a lot.......oh wait....never mind.
They got kicked out for not washing their hands after using the bathroom and after picking their noses. They rode the short bus too.

Ron, you need another bourbon brother!

texaswig

2 zone cooking is overrated. It's called moving the food around if needed. The larger the grill the easier it is. Or maybe I'm just missing something. 

DTEgg

@Dobie; I like the way you think!

DTEgg

Just read the article and then went to Amazing Ribs and read Max's article on the BGE there.  Same thing.  All Serious eats did is copy and paste, not real work involved.

KiterTodd

That is odd.  They say "Here are my top 10 kamado cookers for your consideration," but they list the Akorn first and are not clear on if these are listed in particular order?

I would agree that the Kamodo Joe offers fair competition for the BGE as it appears very comparable in build quality, but comes with a lot more options standard.  The rest of their reviews though are pretty off the mark.

I have seen the Akorn in person. And while I would say it is a good budget alternative, quality construction is definitely not one of it's selling points..

The Akorn is a double-walled, insulated steel egg that is much lighter and in some ways more durable than the popular Big Green Egg—and it's less than half the price. Char-Griller has mostly been known over the years for inexpensive grills, and, until now, you pretty much got what you paid for. But this design and Char-Griller's manufacturing process may be a match made in heaven.  

I'm guessing there is some advertiser influence in this list.  I saw the Vision also and thought that was poorly constructed.

I would also agree with other comments that you are buying a ceramic grill for a purpose, and if your primary goal is traditional open top grilling, use your weber with some nice lump.  You don't have to buy an oval egg.

Interesting share, though.  Thanks.

HeavyG

DTEgg said:

Just read the article and then went to Amazing Ribs and read Max's article on the BGE there.  Same thing.  All Serious eats did is copy and paste, not real work involved.

Max Good - of AmazingRibs.com - wrote the article for the SeriousEats site.

It's not as if Serious Eats just copy/pasted stuff from AmazingRibs themselves as you suggest.

northGAcock

YukonRon said:

Blasphemy. They shall forever be banished. Obviously, they do not even know how to cook, because while in culinary school, they did drugs, and drank a lot.......oh wait....never mind.
They got kicked out for not washing their hands after using the bathroom and after picking their noses. They rode the short bus too.

Ron.....you could use a good rub down at the spa! Hope you'll are doing well.