BBQing

Over the last year I’ve been getting more and more into BBQing, mainly influenced by others in the Christchurch Softsource vBridge office who have a passion for food and BBQ's. I believe there are 2 camps of BBQ people, the first camp is happy with a 3-4 gas burner brought from BBQ factory 15 years ago, still going strong, on the weekend parties, throw a few tongue burning double cheese sizzlers on with some Watties T sauce and white bread, a real crowd-pleaser. Then the second camp are “full on” BBQing, normally owning multiple BBQ’s, cook during the weekdays and cook all year round and using direct and in direct cooking methods.

So over the past year I have drifted from camp 1 to 2, what does this move look like? Firstly, I owned a cheap Bunnings 2 burner gas grill that was on it’s last legs, so I decided purchase was a Weber 3 burner gas BBQ, this is considered a premium grill at over $1000, great at direct cooking but limited in-direct cooking, such as smoking which is where American style BBQing cooking comes from. To full the “in direct” cooking gap I decided to purchase a pellet grill which burns wood pellets to generate heat and smoke, this allowed me to do Beef Brisket, Pork Ribs, Pork Shoulder etc. Pellet Grills are great as they are an essentially an outdoor oven as you set the temperature, place your food down and walk away, no adjusting vents or adding charcoal every 20-30 minutes like a offset or kettle grill.

So, I now have 2 BBQ’s, the Weber for direct and Pellet Grill for in direct, the next interest is cooking pizza, in particular Neapolitan pizza. One major problem is both the Weber and Pellet Grill’s don’t reach the temps of 400C+ required. So, after some research I decided to sell both gas and pellet grills and purchase a Kamado Joe grill.

There are several advantages to owning this grill, first is a Kamado can reach the temperatures of 500C required for Neapolitan style pizza’s this also is great for searing steaks, second is that the Kamado uses charcoal which give a more authentic BBQ favor compared to the gas and pellet grill, third is that it’s very fuel efficient compared to a pellet grill which saves money. Finally, since the Kamado is so well insulated with ceramics, it holds a steady temperature for hours so no adding fuel or constant vent/damper adjusting, great for low and slow cooking.

So I’ve very happy with the Kamado Grill, though they are expensive they can do most BBQ cooking methods and more so would recommend to anyone looking into buying a BBQ to consider a Kamado. But like any obsession it never stops, I want to get back to basic’s and a Weber Kettle is considered the OG of grills and would be great to supplement the Kamado for large cooks.