Ceramic Coal

Ceramic Coal

If you are a barbecue aficionado, perhaps you have heard of the Kamado Cooker. Perhaps not. The Kamado type cooker is a heavy ceramic vessel used both as a smoker and and as a grill. The "Big Green Egg" is the name brand of one type of Kamado Cooker. there are other brands to choose from. They all work basically the same way, and are really just a certain style of a vertical smoker.

There are generally three types of smokers to choose from when cooking barbecue. One is the offset smoker, which has a fire box set off from the smoke chamber. the meat sits on top of racks in the smoke chamber. Smoke and heat enter the smoke chamber, flow around the meat, and exit through a chimney system.

The next style of barbecue smoker is a kettle grill/smoker. Think "Weber Kettle Grill". This type of grill can be set-up for use as an indirect smoker. To use as a smoker, charcoal is piled up to the sides of the kettle, and the meat is placed in the center of the grill, not directly over the hot coals. Smoke from the coals goes around the meat giving it that smokey good flavor before exiting the little vents in the top of the lid. This type of smoker, low tech as it is, will turn out fine tasting barbecue.

Finally, the last style of barbecue smoker is a vertical smoker. In a vertical smoker, the fire is built in the bottom of the single chamber, many times there is a water pan directly over the fire, and the meat is smoked on racks located vertically above the fire in the bottom of the chamber. The smoke and heat travels upwards, around the meat cooking it and giving it that smoked barbecue flavor before exiting through the vents on top of the unit. A Kamado smoker is simply a specialized type of a vertical smoker.

The Kamado smoker is made out of heavy ceramic material, about an inch thick. The benefits of the Kamado smoker is that the fire can easily be maintained at very low temperatures which is good for smoking meat "low and slow." Also, because of the insulation properties of the ceramic material, a small amount of charcoal fuel is used while cooking. If not used as a smoker, the Kamado makes an excellent grill, achieving temperatures as high as 725 degrees. It can be used for many types of cooking, including baking of pizza's.