Found a local guy who graciously offered a whole a bunch of cherry and apple. Lovely stuff! But the only catch is that it's in 6-8" pieces, as opposed to chunks. So I was considering using it for the fire, as opposed to just smoke wood - essentially using the Big Joe like a super efficient stick burner.
Super interested in hearing if any of you have tried it. And, either way, what thoughts you have.
My joe is the classic size. I use a lot of apple as smoking chunks, but not as fuel. I think if you can get enough air through the cooker to sustain a flame your temps will go through the roof. On the other hand, when you reduce the air flow, you’re going to get an air starved nasty fire that produces acrid smoke. The only time I have anything like a flame in mine is during a cleaning burn, vents mostly wide open to start. The temp will climb to 700 F fairly quickly and have to have the air cut back or it will get much too hot and risk cracking the cooker. Ask my how I know that one.
I opened the vents wide open for my first cleaning burn and went to the office for a few minutes. When I returned the temp gauge was pegged and the top cover was making popping noises. It was so cracked I was concerned it might fall apart with me watching. The fine folks at Kamado Joe warrantied all of it. Not long after that they came out with the "don’t go over 700 F " policy.
Thanks for the thoughts! 👍ðŸ½
So let me run this by you….
Let’s say, I start my fire with some of these logs. Get a good flame going with top open. Then after a little bit of a burn, once I’ve got some coal action going on, I drop the deflector, close the cooker, and vent it low. Give it a good little run, to burn off that acrid smoke, and get it down to a low smolder…
Did a test burn last night, and it went pretty well. Temp control wasn’t an issue. Was able bring it up, cap it, bring it up more, etc, in increments up to 500 - and then set it and forget it. Even after a number of years, I never cease to be amazed at how well designed and built these things are. Unreal!
The only thing that’s tricky is smoke management. I feel like it kinda went from thick ignition smoke (to be expected, initially) into virtually no smoke, fairly quickly. I think that’s mostly because I was totally focused on heat control, per other posters (1000% valid) earlier
concerns.
So, now that I can easily get temps where I want them, the trick is going to be getting smoke to happen gradually over the cook, instead of all at once early on. I feel like it’s gotta be doable - particularly at extended stretches at low temps (vs getting up as high as I did, which was for temp testing purposes, and not actually necessary for most real world conditions). Just gotta get my head around making it work.
No fire/smoke techie here but I would think your fire is burning so efficently there is very little visual smoke.
And I'm guessing you are still getting some benefits of smoke even though you can't see it.
Hopefully the Fire fighters will hop on here and confirm whether I'm right or wrong.
If you have a chop/miter saw cut chunks into smaller pieces and toss on another small chunk ever 10 mins or so to get the smoke action re-occuring at the beginning of your cook.
Thanks so much for the thoughts! So, that totally makes sense. The issue being, that I need to pull out the deflector plates and grates every time I add more.
The trick may be to settle the fire (coals really), down at 200 or so, and then add some more wood around the outside or something like that. Then you’d lock it all down, and hope the overall fire temp
Is low enough that you can get some clean smolder happening. That’s *essentially* how a stick burner works right?
That’s obviously, where I too, am well out of my non smoke techie/firefighter (stoker?) league.
But with a stick burner, you’re basically throwing on BIG chunks *all the time.* And you’re not getting big ol nasty billows of thick harsh smoke all night, then. So I am theorizing (even though I’m probably the last guy who should be) that must be because of the overall low fire temp…. 🤷ðŸ½â€â™‚ï¸
I would think there would not be enough air flow in the kamado in order for the fire to burn efficiently on a low and slow cook. If you burn the wood, and allow it to move into coals, then you would be fine. But I would argue, at that point, you might as well use lump and add smoking chunks to add flavor.
I did try this with my Kamado back in the day, and I never really had luck with it when it came to cooking low and slow. High heat cooks? Let it rip.But I never could get it to burn efficiently and cleanly to go long low and slow. Kamados are really designed to roll really slow, with very little airflow, which is why lump charcoal is perfect for them.
I understand your curiosity, but I ultimately went back to using lump and chunks for those long, low and slow cooks. But who knows, maybe you will have more patience than I did. Plus, projects like these are what makes this stuff fun!
It is a function of temp. And clear smoke is arguably better than blue smoke. In that it is burning that much cleaner. When I run my KBQ, the smoke is almost always clear smoke out of the exhaust. That is exactly what I want. Thin blue is great too, but it will impart a stronger smoke profile. Which is certainly not a bad thing, but it is a stronger flavor profile. MonsterDuckMadness Also, have you checked out Meathead's article on Smoke? It might give you a more clear understanding.
Check this out, brother. This is a great resource. It really helped me understand the whole thing. (BTW, I love that you are doing this, again, this is what makes cooking and BBQ so much fun)
Learn all about wood smoke and how it adds flavor to BBQ. Find out whether you should be using wood chunks, chips, pellets, logs, or sawdust in your cooker. Discover the truth behind the claim that different woods have different flavors.
I gotta start reading things I thought the OP was talking about a Jumbo Joe instead of a Komodo Joe.
I’m sure the same theory holds true but my adding chunks idea sucks.
Hi you could try using a separate burn barrel then shoveling the coals over to the Kamado. The idea being you get a bunch of wood going in a metal barrel let it burn down to glowing coals then fill up the firebox with those. I don't know how long they would last but it might be worth a try.
Any thoughts on the ongoing loading into the Kamado (given the need to pull out grates, plates, and plate setter)? Or are we thinking it’s just a big load up of coal when it’s ready, plus add in some more wood for smoke, and then lock it all in for the long haul…
I think a big load up front. I have a BGE with a rack from the ceramic grill store. I can pull it out including deflector, cooking grate and food all at once if I need to re-load.
Yeah, I mean, thats a great question. So, I don't have a chop saw of any kind. And finding someone who does, and borrowing it; or taking the wood over there and back every time I need smoke wood... I mean, I'm sure I could figure it out. But it takes a lot of the value out of free wood. I think, at that point, it probably makes more sense to just buy whatever smoke wood I want to use.
Now, if I can figure this out, I can use the free wood for both fuel and smoking... And also, fun experiment!!
And thats really a lot of it. I really feel like, the more I learn from experimenting with different parts of the process, the better my cooks get overall. This might well be first time that I derive absolutely no benefit whatsoever from F-ing around with some aspect of my cooks. It could happen! But generally, even if I fail miserably, it's at least fun to try.
Plus, projects like these are what makes this stuff fun!
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