What Should I Attempt First with My Big Joe III?

[Nicolaus]

Over the past two years, I contemplated purchasing a Kamado and delving into the world of BBQ. My uncle had a Kamado while I was growing up, and we were treated several times a year to his wonderful marinated leg of lamb that he always cooked to perfection on that very special grill. On top of that, homemade BBQ ribs are one of my most favorite things on this planet. Also, I would like to make smoked Pork Butt. In addition, I’m also just plain curious as to how the Kamado will do with Ribeye Steaks, etc. compared to my 2006 Vermont Castings Natural Gas Grill. Just to be clear, I have never before attempted to make grilled leg of lamb or BBQ ribs on any grill.

I recently took delivery of a Big Joe III. I also purchased a Fireboard 2 Drive (w/ a variety of probes) and a Pit Viper 10 CFM Blower. I also purchased Meathead’s cookbook.

I have absolutely no experience using this type of grill, nor with using anything remotely like the Fireboard or the Pit Viper.

Can anyone suggest what I might attempt first with all or part of this setup?

[radiodome21]

While I’ve never used a Kamado grill before I generally find pork butt to be the easiest thing for beginners to smoke since you almost have to try to mess it up because it’s that forgiving. And theoretically it needs no prep work like trimming or any rubs put on it. You can literally take it out of its package and toss it on the smoker and go from there. That being said I would highly recommend putting a rib on it though.

[LA Pork Butt]

+1 That’s what I did when I got my Big Green Egg.

[RonB]

Did you mean rub - not rib?

[radiodome21]

lol. 😂 I did mean rub, but a rib would work too I guess.

[Draznnl]

Smoked pork butt is extremely forgiving. It is almost impossible to screw it up, they say. You may want to start with that and then move on to nore difficult challenges.

Edit: Darn, radiodome21 beat me.

[Carolyn]

That was like déjà vu.

[Oak Smoke]

+1

[Mosca]

Nice cooker! I went from a Vermont Castings propane grill to my BGE.

First: take a few days to learn your kamado. Skip the temperature controller for now (I’ll get back to that in a minute). There is a short but very steep learning curve. I spent my first half dozen cooks chasing temperatures all over the place! Kamados are slow to start up, much slower than other slow cookers. I plan on an hour from lighting the charcoal until “ready to cook”. Learn how long it takes to get clear smoke, learn the vent settings for the various temps you want to hold. Learn where your hot spots are.

My first cook was 1.25” thick ribeyes, using 2 minutes at 600°, flip, 2 minutes again at 600°, then shut all the vents and let them dwell for 2 minutes. “BURP” THE JOE BEFORE LIFTING THE LID ALL THE WAY, then eat the steaks!

Pork butts are easy as heck, probably the easiest cook of all, but I’d still say do the ribs next. You won’t need the fan, this won’t take all day. I’ll skip all the prep stuff and get right to the Kamado part: get clean smoke at 250° and put the ribs on, indirect. Check them 4 hours later, if the bones are pulling back, they’re done. If they aren’t, check them again in half an hour, keep checking until.

With some cooks under your belt, you’ll realize: it’s just a dumb ol’ fire inside of a big dumb crock pot. An oven, just like the one in your house. Control the fire, and you control the meat. Once you control the fire without the fan, use the fan for the 10+ hour stuff, so you can put brisket on at midnight and go to sleep, pork butt on before breakfast and go about your day, etc.

[klflowers]

Primer for any type charcoal smoker

[KimO]

I have had a BGE for many years; Mosca +1.

[RlsRls]

Agree with above! I had a Kanado for about 13 years. never did and still don't use a fan, but then again, I don't do 10 hour plus cooks. Learning fire control, how much charcoal etc.. should come before buying or using a blower. You'll be amazed at how little charcoal these cookers consume! again comes with trial and error. Get a thermopro thermometer and you're on your way!

[bbqLuv]

I look forward to your future posts,

[au4stree]

The first thing I cooked on my BJ3 was beer brats. Turned out great and I didn’t really care about temp, it was more about starting it and getting coals hot.

[bbqLuv]

Suggestions to get to know your grill. One of my first cooks in a new grill is burgers.


1, THE GRILLED CHICKEN CHALLENGE The Grilled Chicken Challenge Recipe - Traeger Grills®
2. 3-2-1 BBQ BABY BACK RIBS 321 Ribs Recipe (Simple & Smoked) - Traeger®
3. BEGINNER'S SMOKED BEEF BRISKET Beginner's Smoked Beef Brisket Recipe | Traeger Grills

[jfmorris]

Before I cooked anything, I would learn the ins and outs of using LUMP charcoal and how to set it up in your kamado for both low and slow indirect smoking, for direct fire grilling, and such. Use quality lump charcoal, and no more than 3 or 4 wood chunks (not chips) when you want wood smoke. I did a burn in test run when I got my first kamado a couple of years ago, and spent time learning what vent settings gave me what temperatures at the grate level.

For the most part you want to master three or four setups:
- Low and slow indirect cooking in the 225 to 275 temp range.
- Hot and fast indirect cooking around 350f - for things like chicken, turkey, etc.
- Direct grilling setup, for items like steaks, burgers and brats.
- High heat indirect cooking (500 to 700) for baking pizzas, if that is something you want to do.

there is a discussion thread here that helped me some when I first started:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/charcoal-kamados/other-kamados-and-misc/179353-taming-the-savage-kamado

EDIT:

I wanted to add more thoughts on your fancy thermometer and fan.

My process is to fill the bowl with lump, and if smoking bury several chunks of smoking wood in the lump. If cooking low and slow (225 to 275), I nestle ONE lighting cube or tumbleweed in the middle of the lump, light it, and run about 10 to 15 minutes with the bottom vent open and the lid open. I then put the diffuser and cooking grate in place, attach my thermometer probe to the cooking grate, and close the lid, and monitor it with ALL VENTS (top and bottom) wide open. Once the grate temp is around 175, it is time to close the top vent down to a sliver (what you would use to MANUALLY maintain 225), and then install the fan controller on the bottom vent and set it to 225 and let it get you the rest of the way to temp.

The same process applies if you want 350ish for poultry cooks - but I light 3 starters scattered around the bed of charcoal, and then just run wide open until I reach about 275 or so, then close top vent to about where it would be for 350 if running manually , and then install fan on the bottom vent.

[jfmorris]

I will add that the first item I would smoke would indeed be a Boston butt, with a good commercial rub on it. Very hard to mess up. First thing I would direct grill would be a steak or some chicken.

[KimO]

jfmorris that was an excellent instruction of getting a kamado up to temp. Worthy of anyone getting theirs up to speed. Excellent! Add that even without a blower/fan, follow the instruction and the last step just let it come of up temp on its own. Wonderful.

[Huskee]

As mentioned a thousand times above, pork butts are more forgiving and hard to screw up BUT they take 12-20 hrs depending if you wrap/crutch or not, are you prepared for that kinda time commitment right away?

Pork ribs take only 5-7 hrs average, maybe less if they're small or thin. And as long as you check them every so often once nearing their allotted time frame to see if they pass the bend test, you can't screw them up too bad. Overcooking pork ribs means they'll be fall-apart, which many like anyway.

[Johnny Booth]

That is where I was going. I did a pork butt my first time. While trying to get my COS to maintain 225deg. it took me about 13 hours before I gave up and sliced it. Toughest piece of meat I ever had.

[Huskee]

Johnny Booth Yeah if you don't have the time they need then they most definitely will not be that soft juicy shredded pork we all want!

[LA Pork Butt]

It is probably because I did overnight cooks on an old water bullet smoker, but my 1st cook on my Big Green Egg with a Boston Butt and no burn in. If there isn’t any gusting wind and you stack the lump charcoal it is a set it and forget it overnight. The old bullet smoke required getting up at 4am to add charcoal. No need to with the Egg.

[jfmorris]

After reading Huskee and Johnny Booth above, I think I would change my advise a little.

First - learn WITHOUT food how to setup your grill to reach and maintain the following temps. I would consider this your "burn in" run.

1. 225 to 275 range INDIRECT (for smoking)
2. 325 to 375 range INDIRECT (for poultry)
3. 500+ range INDIRECT (for pizza and high temp baking)

There should be videos over at the Kamado Joe website and on Youtube showing exactly how to get there with a Kamado Joe Big Joe III. But the basics should be to light it, set the vents for 225ish, let it sit there a bit to get a feel for it, then open up more to reach 350, maintain that a bit, then go to 500+ by opening up more.

You really don't need to go much beyond 500 for your burn in run, and I find that I rarely want to go beyond 600 for my pizza recipes, otherwise they burst into flames!

Another piece of advice - you don't need the fan above 350. You just open up the vents and it does its thing. Also, if you overshoot temp on a kamado - it is HARD to bring the temp back down. It can literally take hours, due to all the retained heat in the ceramics.

For your first "smoked" cook, I suggest following the advice above for a rack or two of ribs. Or even go for chicken at 350 - that is an even shorter cook, 45 to 60 minutes for a spatchcocked or whole chicken.

[Huskee]

Cool, so it's not just up here! Bone-in thighs are the new wings if you ask me! My favorite. Have you ever made them as Buffalo wings...er.. Buffalo Thighs? Mmmm, man you can't be it. Cheaper, JUST as good, and triple the meat!

[jfmorris]

Sounds good Aaron! I’ve not given thighs the buffalo wing treatment but will now that you’ve made me think of it! The other item I like to treat like wings are drumsticks, which come in a nice big pack at Sam’s. Made many of those when the kids were growing up.

[Johnny Booth]

I like whole chickens b/c we get three meals out of one. Dinner, chicken salad, soup or pot pie. Just 3 now for dinner makes it easier to stretch.

[Nicolaus]

Thank you kindly for all of the advice!

[Nicolaus]

Nice cooker! I went from a Vermont Castings propane grill to my BGE.

My first cook was 1.25” thick ribeyes, using 2 minutes at 600°, flip, 2 minutes again at 600°, then shut all the vents and let them dwell for 2 minutes. “BURP” THE JOE BEFORE LIFTING THE LID ALL THE WAY, then eat the steaks!

I’m assuming this yielded a medium-rare result.

[Mosca]

Yep. It was in the instruction manual, it was there as “first cook: steak”, or some such. They might have been thinner than that, they were grocery store sized, so 1”? It was 13 years ago.

[Nicolaus]

As mentioned a thousand times above, pork butts are more forgiving and hard to screw up BUT they take 12-20 hrs depending if you wrap/crutch or not, are you prepared for that kinda time commitment right away?

I can’t wait to do something like that!

Does starting the fire at 8:00 p.m., putting on the meat at 9:00 p.m. and counting on it’s being ready for a 5:00/5:30 p.m. dinner the next day seem like a reasonable plan for a beginner?

[LA Pork Butt]

As I mentioned above, that’s what I did when I got my Big Green Egg. Of course, it was on the heels of years of experience cooking them on an old bullet smoker. Start the fire at 7:00pm, one hour to stabilize the cooker, a 12-14 hour cook and a 2-4 hold wrapped in an ice chest (IMO the hold is an important part), and you can serve for noon. My plan for an overnight cook is 17 hours max. The 2-4 hour makes sure you can serve at the assigned dinner time.

[Huskee]

You only need that kinda time (16-20 hrs) if you're going unwrapped the whole way, otherwise as LA Pork Butt mentions if you wrap at the start of the stall (or later, at say 180 after more bark builds up-- that's what I do) you'll only need 12-14 hrs, roughly. Anyway, if you have the motivation to attempt it, you'll likely do fine. I recommend a dry run first to make sure you understand how your cooker will behave and you will not be up all night adjusting things with meat on, being miserable.

[Huskee]

To restate it, here's a *rough* timeline, YMMV:
Wrapped/crutched in foil at 160-180, with a 1-2 hr hold after it reaches 200-205 internal: 12-14 hrs give or take
Unwrapped, nekkid the whole way: 16-20 hrs, it varies a lot, but this is my personal experience.

If your pork butt gets done early, you're fine, they hold well in heat and only get more shreddable! I recommend wrapping them (even if you're going unwrapped), once you need to hold it to wait for dinner time. Keep it moist.

[Nicolaus]

LA Pork Butt, can you describe the wrap/hold in the ice chest with some detail?

[Smoked Transistors]

https://www.youtube.com/@SmokingDadBBQ

This guys will keep you entertained all day long if using a Kamado Joe Series BBQ

[hoovarmin]

Nicolaus +1 on watching Smoking Dad BBQ's YouTube videos. They are going to be very helpful to you.