Kamado double indirect method for low & slow?

[Mosca]

I did a search here; au4stree mentioned this about half a year ago in a comment, but it hasn’t been discussed.

I watched this vid:

The gist of this is: use TWO deflector plates. The lower plate prevents higher temps on the upper plate, forcing the fire to burn hotter with more fuel to maintain pit temp, making the smoke more like that in an offset. Additionally, put wood chunks UNDER the ash basket, where embers fall; they will ignite the wood, which will burn with live fire. (There is a third phase, which happens first, involving a 90 minute cold smoke and a pellet tube. I dunno about that one.) The downside is that the kamado is forced to work harder to keep the fire hot; it stays efficient, but under a different set of circumstances.

The research makes sense. I’m not firing anything up in the next couple weeks, but I have all the tools to do it. Next brisket I’ll give it a shot and see what I think.

He also has another vid titled, “is the double deflector method obsolete?” But I haven’t watched that one yet.

[au4stree]

Yep, I use that method all the time when cooking pork or briskets. The only difference is my KJ BJ3 has the slo-roller which in effect is supposed to create more smoke movement. I do like my results, less “overcooked” on the bottoms of the meat. With Jealous Devil lump I’ve had 12+ hours at around 250° cook temp, no fan controller. Of course, those were summertime cooks, not winter. Albeit, winter in Alabama is nothing like others.

[SheilaAnn]

Especially the weather by guy in the video….he's from Canada.

[58limited]

Interesting, I need to look into this method myself.

[Oak Smoke]

I believe I’ve seen that same guy doing a ceramic heat deflector and then a pizza stone to cook pizza in a kamado.

[Sweaty Paul]

I have too. He has a pan of water between the ceramic plates as well.

[Sweaty Paul]

We recently had the floors redone at the house with tile. I had the guys cut an old rectangular pizza stone and made it oval shaped to fit in my Primo better. I'm looking forward to trying the "double" indirect method. Will shoot for a cook at 275. Will be trying out my new Smobot too!

[Oak Smoke]

Sweaty Paul You will love the Smobot! It is so simple and works so well.

[Skip]

I got an email from the Ceramic Grill Store showing this attachment that they came up with and I wondered what it was for. Is this the theory behind it? I'm a little confused.
Double Indirect Large Big Green EGG | CGS Twisting Spider — Ceramic Grill Store

[LA Pork Butt]

Skip, I got the same email which made me wonder what was the point of the attachment. But, I think your assumption is correct. Smoking Dad has another video in which he does ribs using essentially the same method. The principal is to keep the intense heat off of the bottom of your meat, but I wonder if all the extra effort is worth it. I’ll probably give it a try sometime.

[Mosca]

That’s how I found it, too. I didn’t know what they were talking about, so I went on a Google search.

[Mosca]

Following up on this,

Smoking Dad went to Texas to learn more about kamado smoke vs offset smoke….

Wait. Let me back up a bit.

Meathead has an article, a great one, about the science of smoke. Required reading for what follows.

Meat smoked in a restricted air flow environment with charcoal and wood chunks tastes different than wood smoked with wood burning freely. It’s not worse, it’s just different. Last year I was in Texas, I ate lots of barbecue, I came home, and I made a brisket. They aren’t the same.

Smoking Dad has both kamados and offsets, and he set out to try to make his cooks on his Kamado Joes taste like his cooks on his offsets, mostly because he doesn’t always want to be tending a fire and feeding logs every half hour. Which is why a lot of us don’t have big wood fired offsets, and brick smokehouses, cost notwithstanding!

So he traveled to Texas, and met with a lot of pitmasters, and spent some time at up-and-coming Bar A BBQ, where they actually have a BGE in house, and they worked together to see how close the flavors were, to see how to possibly simplify the process, and to just make ‘Q.

Now, I think this guy talks really fast. And I think he makes some assumptions that his viewers have watched all his videos sequentially, which I haven’t. But what I get out of all of this is that

1) The initial cold smoke is important, and there are several ways to do it.

2) Run your kamado with the top vent wide open, to prevent creosote build up; regulate from the bottom.

3) The secret is one that was partially passed on by esteemed former member CeramicChef, who advocated burying the wood chunks deep in the charcoal and letting the smoldering wood smoke filter through the burning lump; Smoking Dad takes it a step further and also puts wood chunks under the ash basket, letting embers fall and ignite the wood to combust fully and with an open flame, which then passes through the burning lump, further combusting it.

4) To complete the rhythm of the cook, he starts with a fully burning fire, but puts the rig together and starts before the shell gets heat soaked, tossing a wood chunk on the initial burning fire.

The idea is to create, in a kamado, a combustion environment where the smoke output duplicates that of an offset.

Interestingly enough, on this coming Thursday, I will be at Bar A BBQ. And I’ll be there from 1PM until 3PM, taking a brisket class. And I will ask a load of questions, and find out first hand what the deal is here.

[STEbbq]

Ok. Something like the temp to 350 direct and then after placing the deflector grates, grate temp might be 250. I can see how that could work.

[Meathead]

Fascinating video. I have never been a fan or round kamados because the wood smolders at the low temps, but his method allows it to burn and that is a better flavor. Bottom line: You rarely see Eggs win competitions.

[Mosca]

I’m going to give this a go. I have the tools, except the smoke tube, but those are cheap. And I’m going to be at Bar A BBQ on Thursday for a couple hour class, and I am definitely going to be asking questions about this specifically. I will definitely share my results; I will probably do one brisket this way, another brisket the usual way. Or ribs, that’s faster.

As for the competition thing, I’m just after good eats. As soon as people start declaring winners and losers, I’m outta here.

[STEbbq]

I am still somewhat inclined to think this is overly complicated. I’m not sure about any benefits.

[Mosca]

I agree. I’m not sure if it’s going to always be complicated, or if it’s something that is complicated the first time but subsequently is just habit. I’m also concerned about the buying-more-things aspect. But right now I am enjoying the level of thought that has gone into it. I’ll know more after my trip to Bar A.

[STEbbq]

This is a great set of questions for the class.

[Henrik]

I dunno, seems overly complicated. When cooking in a kamado I just run it hotter. Mainly because it has a (subjectively) more moist environment, and I want bark. So if I cook at 240-250° F on a regular grill, I cook at 280° F in the kamado. Gets the job done, shortens the overall cook by 2 hours, and is easy peasy.

[Mosca]

I’ve landed on 260°-275° for briskets, a bit higher for pork buts, a bit lower for ribs.

I’m not sure if it’s overly complicated, or just overly complicated the first time; the only thing that actually is extra is the smoke tube, all the other stuff is the same as we always do, just putting things in different places and in a different order. I liken it to car detailing. It isn’t any harder to do it the right way, you just need to know what the right way is.

[hoovarmin]

I have followed Smoking Dad's method since I purchased my Big Joe 4 years ago. Because it came with a Slo Roller, I don't need two sets of deflector plates. The first time you do it, it might seem complicated - but now as Mosca says, it is a habit that doesn't take any thought at all. I need to go back and watch his more recent videos. I've been placing my wood chunks in the ash basket and then pouring the lump on top of them. I had not seen this update of putting them under the ash basket, but it makes sense. It's basically the idea of a KBQ. When I run my Joe with several wood chunks under the coal I get invisible, clean smoke.

[Skip]

I just looked at my LG BGE and see how I can easily have 2 Deflectors by using my Spider from the Ceramic Grill Store and a 14" Pizza Stone on top of the Spider THEN add the BGE Plate Setter and CGS PSWOO Ring.

PS the way I look at this situation, I saved the price ($35.99) of the New CGS Attachment sooo I get to spend that money on some other attachment I MIGHT use.

[Mosca]

Yeah, I’m tempted too. But I'm pretty sure I have a grate that drops down and would accommodate the 14” stone.