First Kamado - Kamado Joe Classic
Well, thanks to a Christmas bonus a Kamado Joe is sitting at my house, waiting to be fired up. I am literally chomping at the bit to get that smoky charcoal cooking aroma wafting around the backyard. My BBQ journey has begun and I cannot wait to capture every moment and share it here on www.kamadolife.com
WooHoo – Super excited. I have been researching this purchase for ages and can not wait to get some Kamado Joe cooks under my belt. You will find my buying journey in this post Why did I buy a Kamado Joe? A well-considered investment.
What did I purchase?
The unit I purchased (Secondhand) was a Kamado Joe Classic Series 1 with the divide and conquer cooking system. The unit itself as it turns out was a stand-alone unit (no side shelves) and put into a standard Kamado Joe trolley. I followed up with the guy I bought it from and got the story and it all makes sense. Basically, it was to do with the lack of stock, so the store made a deal to sell the stand-alone unit with the stand.
In a way, I really like the fact it was a stand-alone unit, cause the black unit with the Stainless Steel parts looks really good. I’d go as far as saying I LOVE it. There is a slight downside though, stand-alone units do not have side tables, and as I found out, do not have the needed mounting points to add them. I wasted $20 finding this out by buying a second hand set from Gumtree (the Aussie version of Craigslist). So if you need a set of near new second-hand side tables for the kamado joe, drop me an email.
What are my first impressions
The good
- The stainless parts on black – looks super awesome
- Easy to light, check out my review of the Ozito charcoal starter.
- Exceptional heat retention
- Grill size for 99% of the time
The room for improvements
- Need to burp during the higher heat cooks (check out this YouTube example)
- Potential to add some sort of heat deflector on the handle
- Some form of “in-built” storage for racks, deflectors etc.
The regrets
- Not having the side tables.
Where to from here?
Learning learning and more learning. Until this purchase, I never really knew how much I love cooking on charcoal. The versatility and flexibility of the Kamado style cookers, in particular, the Kamado Joe is just absolutely mind-blowing.
There aren’t too many BBQ/Grills that you can do so much with one piece of equipment and continuously turn out amazing food. Grill, Roast, Smoke, Pizza, Rotisserie, you name it you can most likely do it on the Kamado.
If you have read this and still need convincing. Check out some of these recent cooks for some inspiration.
