Kamado Joe: What I Wish I’d Known Before I Bought Mine
It’s been almost exactly a year since I purchased a Big Joe. I thought I’d share some thoughts here on Reddit in case they’re helpful for people who are in the market for a new grill/smoker.
TL;DR version: It’s a fun hobby but requires way more effort than I’ve ever seen any kamado fans acknowledge online. And it simply cannot take the place of a gas grill. Also it’s possible that I am a total idiot and have just missed important things that others easily understand.
I’ll say I was persuaded to buy a Big Joe by all the enthusiasm one finds for kamado grills online. But really I feel like I was suckered into a very expensive purchase by a really effective marketing campaign that includes middle-aged dudes on YouTube making delicious things. If you’re like me, my fellow forty-something suburban dad, and you like new gadgets and you like smoked meats and you like the idea of doing things that feel authentic and rustic and whatnot… well, just pay attention to how your own weaknesses might be exploited by a company looking to maximize profits rather than serve your best interest.
My big mistake: the propane grill I’ve had for years and years really needed to be replaced. I wanted a smoker as well as a grill, and was hoping to find one product that could do both things well. I also cook for large numbers of people (10+) very regularly, and the Big Joe’s cooking area, plus the fact that it’s marketed as a smoker/grill combo, made me think it was exactly what I needed.
But it’s so not.
Now, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to just fire it up the way you can with a propane grill. I’m not that ignorant. This is a price I was willing to pay. Unfortunately, what neither my wife nor I realized was just how common it is for us in the summer to just “throw something on the grill” for dinner. By going exclusively with a kamado grill, I created a situation where grilling anything at all became a project — a project that usually required real advance planning. This really jacked up our usual cooking.
It’s also a mistake to think that the big surface area means you can easily grill large quantities of food. One thing I never thought about was how difficult it would be to maintain a consistent temperature across a large amount of lump charcoal. Maybe there are some grill masters out there who can manage it, but I’m not one of them. Just last week, I cooked sixteen 1/3-lb burgers. They all fit, as I’d hoped, but oh my word: what a nightmare to attempt to get them all done to the same temperature at roughly the same time! I didn’t even have time to put cheese on them, as I was so busy moving them around and trying to avoid burning the ones on the hottest part of the grill.
And unless you want to invest in cast iron grates, a lot of your grilling is going to be unsatisfactory. Those steel grates that come with the grill work fine, but you’re never going to get beautiful dark brown or black grill marks from them. You’ll make chicken breasts that are properly cooked and taste delicious, but look pretty lame. “You eat with your eyes,” they say, and this is definitely a downside to kamado cooking — or grilling, anyway.
Oh, and the fuel costs are absurdly expensive compared to a propane grill. This is one place where I feel like I was flat-out lied to by people here on Reddit. When I was considering making this purchase last year, I asked about how much I’d spend on lump charcoal versus how much I’d been spending on propane. I was assured that it wouldn’t be a big difference.
This, my friend, is not true.
It’s so much work! All the setup requires real effort, and cleanup is rarely easy. Now, if you’re merely grilling, it’s a snap — just like your propane grill, you finish cooking, kick the heat way up, and let stuff burn off. Great. But if you’re smoking or using the expensive flat cast iron accessory I splurged on, it’s yet another project to be taken on. Right at this moment, I am smoking a pair of pork butts. This means that I have the heat deflector plates in between the charcoal and the grates. And this means that there’s no way to easily burn off the stuff that gets left behind on the grates when I’m done smoking: the deflector plates are blocking the flames and will be way too hot to move as long as the fire is still burning. The problem is only exacerbated when it’s the cast iron flat top I’m using; I’d naively assumed that I could just flip it over when I was done cooking and burn residue off, but this is essentially impossible. Maybe there is some good technique out there for moving a 500-degree, 15-lb piece of metal, but I have yet to find it.
Now, here’s the thing. I actually mostly like my Kamado Joe Big Joe grill. It’s fun. It looks kind of cool and it smells great and it’s given me a bit of a new hobby to play around with. I’ve made some really awesome food on it over the last year and I’m sure I will continue to do so. But it’s far more work and far more expensive to use than I’d predicted when I bought it, and no reasonable person can pretend that it takes the place of a propane grill. I’d also be lying if I said that I can tell the difference between smoked meat that I’ve prepared on it versus stuff my brother-in-law has made on his pellet smoker. Perhaps there are some barbecue aficionados out there whose palates are so finely tuned that they could tell a difference. I cannot, myself, and I bet you can’t either.
So here’s my verdict:
If you are a person with lots of disposable income, who enjoys smoked meat and is looking for a new hobby, and you have some extra time on your hands, the Kamado Joe is a fantastic tool and you should definitely get one.
If you are a person of limited resources and are looking to get into the world of smoking, and especially if you are hoping to find something that can bring you into that world while also replacing your propane grill… run. Run away as fast as you can. Stop watching those videos about how amazing it is. Stop thinking about all the insanely cool things you could do with a multi-tiered Divide and Conquer (TM) cooking system. Buy a new propane grill and a separate smoker (pellet is easier; charcoal is better if you think the extra effort sounds fun — which it really can be), and be proud of yourself for making a prudent choice and having saved a bunch of money at the same time.
And think of me the next time you get home from work and thirty minutes later have successfully grilled some beautiful-looking chicken breasts for dinner.