Lighting a Kamado, and best cooking tins and pans

Good morning Team Fire

The weather continues to be a big tease so my appetite for grilling waxes and wanes somewhat. I like to think I’m not a fair weather cook, but I do love me some fair weather ;-))

Torrential rain had me pulling the ‘lets have pasta on the sofa’ card more than once in the last week. Whilst Sunday’s glorious sun had us hitting the beach to fly the kite, run the dawgs, loll around and cook lunch. Steak sarnies, so epic. Definitely ready now for more of the latter and less of the sofa.

How I light my Kamado Joe

I had a Kamado masterclass at Fire School last week, and after showing the group how I lit my oven someone asked if I had written instructions on the process that they could refer back to. Now, wouldn’t that be useful…. So here goes, in bullet points below: (thanks, Emma, for the nudge to do this - hope this is helpful)

1. Firstly, open up your top and bottom vents fully

2. Open the lid and use a pokey stick, a shovel, your hands, to ‘rake’ around the colas from the previous cook. These coals are perfectly good to cook on, never waste them, but you do want to lose any excess ash that’s hanging around. The problem with ash is it closes down the air gaps between the charcoal and whilst it’s perfectly possible to light ashy charcoal it will put you on the back foot in terms of air control. Meaning the charcoal gets to be in charge of the air, rather than you. This is the wrong order of things. Fire cooking is infinitely easier if you are the one in control of the fire.

3. Top up with fresh charcoal, you want to be running with a full basket every time. If you don’t have a basket (I have Kamado Joe Classic 2’s and 3’s - 2’s have no basket, 3’s do) fill up to a couple of centimetres below the metal ring that holds the sections of ceramic fire box in place. This may be more charcoal than you are used to using, may feel counterintuitive if you are only cooking something quick. But just do it. This is how they are designed to run at their most efficient, and remember, you shut your air vents down at the end of each cook, the fire will die in 10 minutes or so and all that coal is saved for next time.

4. Place one natural fire lighter in the centre of the coals, just on top, no need to bury it underneath. Light it up and let it burn and catch the charcoal. Leave the lid fully open at this stage, along with the vents top and bottom.

5. Once you see a little ring of lit charcoal around the fire lighter shut the lid fully clicking the latch, but leave the vents fully open at this stage.

6. Once the thermometer on the lid reads 50C BELOW the temperature you want to cook at, start moderating your air vents down. So if you are thinking, for example, that you wanted to cook a pork shoulder at 140C, start shutting your air vents down at 90C, or if you want to grill steaks at 250C, start shutting down once you get to 200C.

7. I can’t tell you how far to shut your vents, you just need to learn your own kit. In mine, a finger width open at top and bottom, will give me a temperature of around 120-140C or so. And my vents half shut, top and bottom, will give me around 200C. But to a certain extent I need flex on the day - that’s fire cooking for you. What I can tell you is that it’s easier to heat these things up than to cool them down so better to err on the side of caution until you get used to your own kit.

8. But, whatever you do, once you make an adjustment to your vents STEP AWAY for 10 minutes. If you’re constantly going up and down you have no idea what the adjustments are actually doing. You need time for the air to work though the system and have an effect.

9. On vents, I always open or shut the same amount at the top and the bottom. I have heard people say one vent is a clutch and another is an accelerator (I cannot tell you which way around because it befuddles me), but to my mind all you need is air in and air out. By adjusting to the same level consistently top and bottom, I have built up a super clear picture of how my vents work, but adjusting differently would muddy the picture in my mind.

I hope that’s helpful! Obviously, any specific questions on this, bung ‘em in the comments section below. One last thing, I consider it imperative to burn only very pure, entirely chemical free charcoal in a kamado. Thing is, you burn the charcoal slowly over time, starting from that central spot you lit and controlling the rate of the burn by adjusting the vents. This is why they are so fuel efficient. So any chemicals and shit in your charcoal? Where do those nasties get to go? Why, into your food of course, and into the ceramic walls of your oven, just ready to ooze out next time you cook. If there was one time your chemical charcoal would make you food taste really, really extra shit, it will be in your kamado. 

Need a charcoal recap? If your charcoal smells in the bag, it isn’t pure. If it smells or smokes when it’s alight, it isn’t pure. You may get a little bit of ‘burny’ smells on initial light but beyond that, nothing should be noticeable. It’s 95% pure carbon after all (or should be). Was chatting coals with my favourite charcoal maker (Matt, Whittle and Flame) earlier this week, and was reminded of how useful the ‘Grown in Britain’ certification is. Will say more on that soon. My personal line in the sand is that I won’t set fire to anything I am not 100% is not British, and Grown in Britain guarantees that.

---

At the same Kamado class there was much curiosity about what tins and pans are good for fire cooking. and my answers always the same - pretty much anything goes provided it is ‘fire proof’ - so no plastic or wooden handles, a no non stick coating. I chuck just about everything else into and over my fires. Here’s a list of my favourites:

• Netherton Foundry Prospector pans - amazing kit, not the cheapest but insane quality that will outlast my children and probably any future grandchildren too. Made in Shropshire by Neil and Sue, lovely people who make lovely things. I have all different sizes and use them from melting butter and toasting spices, to making sauces and baking and even stews and paellas.

• Falcon Enamel tins - you know the old fashioned white and blue enamel tins? Just brilliant. No they don’t stay very white or even very blue. But they are great, functional fire cooking ware. I have rectangular ones in various sizes that I use for roasting a joint in, or often sit under a roasting joint to catch the juices along with some veg and water or wine/cider to begin the stock making process for the best gravy. They are also fabulous for roasting veg or fruit, or baking a cake or a pie (yes, I do these things on my barbecues). They also make little round ones that I use for toasting nuts or spices. 

• Alex Pole - I have a lovely iron pan that Alex, a blacksmith, gave me that I use all the time. Its a brilliant size a shape for a apple tart tatin, or an upside down fruit sponge, or any sauces I want to make over the fire.

• Cast Iron - whilst I don’t own any fancy pants le Crueset pans I do I a few Sainsbury’s cheap versions, and I can confirm that they are fantastic over the fire. I have a big deep one I use for things like chilies, and a wide shallow one I use for braising chicken legs - something where I want the meat partly submerged under liquid buy with the skin exposed to get crispy. I also own a Weber cast iron wok which is just great for, well, wokking over the fire, but also

• Ceramic oven dishes - whilst I’d be tentative about putting these over a flame, they are great for indirect cooking. Basically anywhere where you are turning your grill into an oven by using the indirect convection currents to cook on.

---

And that’s your lot for today, bar a heads up that if you are a paid subscriber (thank you, thank you!)  I will be sharing the autumn class schedule for Bristol Fire School in mid June - so many of you are emailing to ask! Just working on dates now. Summer is full expect for a couple of fishy and seafood spots at the end of June, although no doubt some last minutes cancellations will come in. You’ll hear about them right here.

Big love

GT

X