PortafilterProcrastinator
Really really pleased with it. We’ve used six or seven times already. Even fired it up a couple of times just to barbecue a few bits for lunch as well as longer evening barbecues.
I was considering both the Big Green Egg and the Kamado Joe and ultimately went with the Joe as I couldn’t really see any noticeable benefits of the BGE despite the higher price.
It’s really great though, especially how easy it is to control the temperature with the front/top vents. Using the recommended lump wood (I just bought the Kamado Joe brand) which is in huge pieces, you can easily keep the temperature the same for hours if you want and easily raise/lower it. This is the biggest benefit we’ve seen over our previous kettle barbecue where you would fill it with coal and then just cook during the optimal temperate and then have to add coal etc.
Four of five big chunks of charcoal have lasted three or four hours for us, cooking at around 180-240. You can also just reuse any leftover coal in the basket too.
The food cooked in it retains plenty of moisture and lots of the smoke flavour due to the design.
Ours also came with like a blanking plate thing you can put over the fire if you want to smoke for longer periods without direct cooking but I’m yet to try that.
The only ‘downside’ (although it’s a byproduct of a benefit) is that it stays hot for a very long time after use which isn’t really an issue but I like to put a cover on it and haven’t been able to do that until the following morning due to the heat retention.
Highly recommended!
