r/kamado

Pork belly ribs cooked to 95C internal, coated in jerk seasoning and smoked with some peach wood.

New to charcoal and Kamado's. Got the lil guy to play with.

I got coals burning. When I added wood chips I got good smoke.

Should I open the top vent more or the bottom? I don't want to send it to the moon.

When I started up this morning it went to to 600°F l wide open. I closed it up to a finger on the lower door and 1/4 on the top and left it ride down to 250 over a few hours before I put the shanks on.

Body and lid is warm but less than it was a few hours ago.

Still definitely getting air flow through. Just lost on the best move to warm it up to 200-225°F I know nothing good happens fast. Baby steps.

Impulse buy for $150 on marketplace … was titled a kamado joe (picture was not showing the label) and when I got there I realized it obviously isn’t. Then I opened the vent to see … Please tell me it’s salvageable 😭 and if so how bc I have no idea what I’m doing.

So, as I was pulling my Akorn to smoke my first brisket I dropped it on it's face. The latch was dented into the body pretty bad but I was able to pull most of it out. I fired it up around 11 pm hoping to have the brisket on for midnight to be done by 10 or 11 in the morning and rest for 4 or 5 hours before cutting into it.

Is this salvageable? Or am I going to need to buy a new bottom half for it? Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated. The following is how the smoke went... i had previously successfully smoked a pork butt and a chuck roast both of which turned out great... I had the settings dialed in for "pre drop" condition. And made what I thought were correct adjustments... looking for any insight if there is any way to use this predictably as is... if not let me know that as well and I will shell out for a new bottom half..

At 11:45 my temperature was already at 416 (I started with vents open and lid up for 10 minutes) so I closed the vents completely and around 1:30 the temp dropped down to around 300 so I threw the brisket on assuming it would help with getting the temp down which it did. It almost immediately dropped to like 215 and by 2:30-3 am it was apparently pretty stable at 235... i went to bed but was awoken by an alarm at 4 am saying the temp had exceeded 275, I got up and nudged the vents a little more closed and went back to bed till I had to be up at 6. At that time the temp had reached 360 and the brisket was at 190. I ended up wrapping it and putting it in the oven at 275 to finish, which it was at 204 and probe tender by 9 am... the bark looked great when I pulled it off the grill and it smelled terrific. I will update with the results once I cut into it.

TLDR dropped my Akorn on its face for my first brisket cook, turned into a bit of a nightmare but still hoping it came out ok...