The Chairmaker

Blimey...that mini-kamado looks like it has been napalmed! Personally, I wouldn't be putting squashed pop cans in there as a spacer...those are lined with plastic (to stop the acid in the pop eating the aluminium can) as well as being painted. When that burns, along with the paint on the cans, all that burned gunk is ending up on your food. Fair dues for trying, but that piece of meat is way too large for that cooking space.

Kamados don't need a water pan as the airflow is so low inside them (spectacles wearers learn this very quickly!). They retain the humidity released from the meat. I did try it once and found that the brisket that I was cooking didn't develop any bark...in fact most of the rub ended up absorbing the steam and falling off.

I've tried a few briskets over the last year and usually find that the Irish/British briskets are a bit too lean and are over-trimmed. I've tried the Irish Angus from John Davidsons and whilst the flavour was good the brisket ended up being a bit dry (even with injecting it). Ditto a more recent one from Sherwood Foods, lots of flavour but just a bit too dry. I tend to buy them in the 4.5-6Kg ranges...maybe I need to go bigger? This weekend I tried one of the Miquel Vergara briskets, again from John Davidsons. This was a 6Kg one that arrived nearer to 6.5Kg. About 1.5Kg of fat was trimmed (later rendered into tallow). I injected it with a mix made from an OXO beef cube, a few good splashes of Worcestershire sauce and some Knorr liquid seasoning. The rub was homemade- roughly 2 parts fresh ground pepper, 1 part sea-salt, 1/2 part of smoked paprika and 2 parts fresh ground coffee. The brisket sat for about an hour with the rub before smoking. It went on to the Big Joe at 11PM. Smoking wood was chestnut and Mesquite. The grill temp was 230f. At about 4AM I boat-wrapped the brisket in foil with some of the left-over injection mix in the boat. Some of the freshly rendered tallow was spread over the exposed bark. I pulled it off the grill at about 12 the next day, so that was 13 hours on the smoker. The really strange thing was that the point hit 190F yet was tender. The flat (in the boat) was butter soft and anymore time would have it falling apart. I rested it for 2 hours in the polystyrene packaging that the brisket came in (excellent recycling!). Without a doubt, this was the best brisket that I have ever tasted...tender, huge flavour, tremendous bark (sorry...too busy eating to take piccies!). Try these briskets if you are after some...they are on a special offer at the moment and you won't go wrong!

Nicely. Enjoy it.👍

@Craig Price How did you get on?

I bought one recently and had a chance to give it a go on Saturday night. I had a 4.5Kg brisket to cook on my new Big Joe ll so it was an ideal opportunity to give it a go. First problem was that the app is a pig to get connected. I had to disable the multi-channel WiFi on my router and only use the 2.4Ghz band. once connected though it reconnects with no problems. Even then it took ages to get it connected. The manual is less than clear- for example it says to press the WiFi button to change connecting modes. The problem is that there is no WIFi button on the device!!! Second problem- I had to make a backing plate for the air vent connection as the standard plate was too short for the large opening on the Big Joe. Even with the crappy little extension pieces the adaptor was still not big enough.It was fine on my Pit Boss K24 though @Inkbird do you make any larger air vent adaptors? Third problem. The probes leads are just too short. Bear in mind that the air vent tube has to go into the bottom of the Kamado and the leads under the dome. I wasn't able to route the probe leads round the back of the Big Joe (Kamado Joe tell you to route leads at the back where the mesh seal is joiuned by soem tape to prevent damage to the seal). This just want possible. In fact, it was just about possible to have the unit sitting on the shelf, right at the edge as the airpipe is barely long enough. Another 12 inches on the probe leads would have made all the difference. Now the good points. It works perfectly. Over a 10 hour smoke it controlled the temperature perfectly....maybe a 4 C variance at worst. The weather varied a lot during the overnight cook- the ambient air temp dropped by about 8C, we had some blustery wind and it rained heavily for about an hour. The app works fine too. Once it connects once then it reconnects really quickly. Overall, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Make the probe leads a bit longer and offer some alternative air vent connections and it'd be a 9/10.

A big chain. Or insurance cover for items in the garden. M&S insurance is good for this, I have found.

Smoking Woods on Amazon. Also this crew are ok too Gwernyfed Wood, also on Amazon. Don't bother with wood chips....they burn out too quickly.

Bloody good deal that. At that price it's not worth buying the older Classic 1 and adding the Kontrol tower. It also seems that Classics are now shipping with the metal shelves (was a £120 upgrade) too. I know that the Big Joe ll that I had delivered this week had the metal shelves.

There's a brisket arriving from Sherwoods Foods on Friday. That'll be going on late Saturday night for an overnight smoke (gotta get my Inkbird controller plumbed in first!). The the French MotoGP on Sunday to the sound of brisket chomping!

Not the missus, but the Big Joe ll beside her...

The cheapest D&C system I've found is this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Onlyfire-Cooking-System-Kettle-Similar/dp/B084RRCMWW?ref_=ast_sto_dp It fitted my Pit Boss K24 perfectly. The other bits you can get from kamado.co.uk or the YNNI store on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=YNNI+KAMADO&i=outdoor&search-type=ss&ref=bl_dp_s_web_0

Ive asked over on Kamadoguru and a bloke reckons that the ceramics are the same. Based on that, the OP's offer looks pretty good, as long as the seller confirms that it has the later firebox and the D&C system. Make sure its not an older one found at the back of the warehouse!. Building the bundle might save a few more quid. The kontrol tower is £70, a Joetisserie is £279 and a classic 1 bundle from Birstalls (with a cover, charcoal and delivery) is £899. That.s a total of £1250 with £250 in your back pocket for other bits and bobs. https://www.birstall.co.uk/products/kamado-joe-ceramic-classic-joe-cover-bundle-.html

I dont know, to be honest. Looking at the specs, the Classic 2 is 15Kg heavier than the 1. I wonder if they changed the body shape or thickness? If the bodies are identical and the AMP firebox and D&C system are now included in the Classic 1, then the Classic 2 looks way over-priced. It might be worth posting on Kamadoguru.com. Joe Setzler knows everything there is to know about KJ products.

My bad, it looks like it does. I think that they might also be fitting the multi-part AMP firebox to new Joe Classics 1 as well. https://uk.kamadojoe.com/products/classic-i

You'd need to raise it up an inch or two.

That's an impossible question for anyone to answer. It's a bit like me asking you if I would be disappointed if I had worn brown shoes today instead of black ones.

What about a kiln shelf? https://www.cromartiehobbycraft.co.uk/Catalogue/Ceramic-Kilns-Electric-Kilns-Pottery-Kilns/Kiln-Furniture-Kiln-Shelves-Kiln-Accessories/Kiln-Shelves-Batts They do a 12.75" one for about "25 delivered.

Be cautious if that's Teflon coated. Teflon decomposes to some very nasty compounds if over-heated (above 250C)

As far as I know, they are pretty much the same as Pit Boss and Louisiana Grills. I ran a Pit Boss for 4 years until it developed a hairline crack in the base and up the sides about 5 inches. It's being returned under Costco's excellent no-quibble warranty. The YNNI has a 20 year warranty on the ceramics, which looks pretty good. The big factories churn these grills out and the various importers badge them As far as I can see, Pit Boss, Louisiana Grills, Kamado Bono, Quinta Kamado, Vision (possibly Monolith too)are all made in the same factories. Auplex and TopQ are the big players. KJ carries a lifetime warranty on the ceramics, 5 years on the metals and three years on the deflectors. Monolith warranties the ceramics for the lifetime of the product (about 10 years) and 5 years on the metals.

At he price level you are looking at you can't go wrong. If you had them side be side then you'd spot differences. That's not how it works in the real world.....you ain't going to buy both and then return the loser. Both will cook superbly and at the moment the limiting factor will be the users ability. Pull the trigger, then post lots of pictures and cook threads. Enjoy!

As Adam said though...there's no real "right" answer. And if you are anything like me then you'll drive yourself nuts umming and ahhing over the differences for blooming months! Pays yer money and takes yer choice. Either way, Kamado cooking is very different and kamados really are a do-it-all solution. I used a Weber kettle for 15 years before I got my first kamado and it really was night and day. You'll have a ball learning new techniques and long slow cooks really are so much easier than on any kettle.

I've come close to dropping the lid on my pit Boss a couple of times (so much so that I ordered an extra spring to fit it to take some weight off. Predictably- the day before I found that the base had cracked!). It only has to drop heavily once and catch a tool or something for it to be an expensive evening! For the Big Joe I'd say that it was a necessity. The jump between the KJ1 and 2 was significant- the air hinge, new style gasket, Divide & Conquer, new style firebox and the new top vent. They really moved the game forward and there's enough difference to make, for me, the ver 1 to be a non-starter no matter how many accesories the dealer has added (and lets be honest, most of what's added is cheap enough- skewers, gloves, chicken stand, wood chunks. The Joetisserie is a decent add-on, but they are only £280 new. The move to the ver 3 isn't really worth it TBH. The SloRoller looks to make some difference, but not a huge amount. Certainly nowhere near the same jump from ver 1 to 2. The new stand is nice enough, again not that significant though. The ceramics on the 3 are higher than the 2, but you need that extra height for the SloRoller. The Classic 3 is only £100 cheaper than the Big Joe 2...the added extras are nowhere worth the difference that the bigger cooking space offers.

I'd discount the chip feeder on the Monoliths as little more than a gimmick to be honest. I would not consider the KJ 1 at that price. The design is old-skool- 1-piece firebox that is prone to cracking, old fashioned heavy hinge, no divide-and-conquer system. The seal is felt which will burn out much more quickly than the seal on the Joe 2. Changing the seal and the firebox won't make it a version 2 either- you'd have to replace the hinge as well. And the top vent on the ver 1 is very rubbish compared to the vent on the ver 2. You can pre-order one from Birstalls in Leicester for £899 for delivery in June. The add-ons that you are being offered doesn't make up £600 https://www.birstall.co.uk/products/kamado-joe-ceramic-grill-classic-joe-.html I would deffo consider the Joe 2 for £1399. I'd also consider the YNNI 25" kamado. There's a few on Amazon at the moment at £1200 in various colours. Their main site are slightly cheaper at kamado.co.uk with a price of £1140. There's no stock at the moment, but deliveries are due soon. Hell of a bundle too- charcoal basket, divide-and-conquer system, 20 year warranty on the ceramics, cast-iron grate and cover. https://www.amazon.co.uk/YNNI-Feeder-Kamado-Trolley-TQTT25PK/dp/B08NYTPHYQ/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=YNNI+KAMADO&qid=1620578664&s=outdoors&search-type=ss&sr=1-7 https://www.kamado.co.uk/YNNI-25-inch-Orange-Limited-Edition-Chip-Feeder-Bundle-TQTT25OR-_p_271.html I was in a similar position after my Pit Boss kamado developed a crack (after 4 years). I considered the Monolith, but the looks of the stand put me off. It looks too easy to damage if you are moving it on roughish ground. Yes, the stainless bands are nice, but the stand is powder coated steel. The Pro version looks like a decent upgrade, but at over £2K is puts it in Big Joe territory. I eventually settled on the Big Joe 2 bundle from Birstalls for £2079 delivered inc the Big Joetisserie. (so much for sticking to my budget!). Thats a lot of grill for that money.

I'm in the UK....