Tips and tricks for barbecuing with a Kamado

The YAKINIKU is the best barbecue for those who love the smoky grill taste. When barbecueing with a Kamado, the possibilities are endless. And all that without having to open the lid and the YAKINIKU Kamado losing its heat! The Kamado is also the perfect barbecue for long-term slow cooking. With the ceramic bbq, you can work with indirect and direct heat. We will gladly explain this for you!

BBQ on a Kamado | Direct heat

When cooking with direct heat, it is important to make your ceramic bbq very hot. Sear your ingredient briefly and intensely on your Kamado. Open the vent slider at the bottom of your ceramic Kamado fully and leave the daisy wheel closed. Do this with the air vents fully open. Always make sure you add enough charcoal to start. This way, you can easily generate heat on the bbq. Your grill grid also needs to be in the Kamado for quite some time to get up to temperature.

Do not use a raised grid. It is important that your ingredient is as close to the charcoal as possible. Place your ingredient on the grid without using oil or other fatty substances. The heat will prevent it from sticking to your grid. The oil can cause unwanted flames on the Kamado. Close the Kamado so that the flames do not get any oxygen. After a few minutes, turn the ingredient over.

Be careful, when you open the Kamado, flames can start again. Use long tongs or gloves to protect your hands and forearms. For ingredients with a thick fat layer, such as duck breast, it is wise to use a (half) heat shield. Place it between your grill grate and your coals. This will prevent too much fire when you barbecue with a Kamado.

SAFETY TIP

It may happen that you lose control over your fire. Close your ceramic bbq immediately until the temperature drops. Close the bottom draft door completely, so that the oxygen supply is cut off. Leave the daisy wheel on top a little ajar. In this way, the bbq with Kamado does not completely fill up with CO2. This could lead to dangerous flames.

BBQ with a Kamado | Indirect heat

There are a number of steps you need to take when cooking with indirect heat. First, place a half or full heat shield between your grill and your burning coals. The heat shield prevents direct radiant heat from the coals to your ingredient. The shield in your bbq on the Kamado will also prevent oil or grease from burning. When you cook indirectly, you use your ceramic Kamado more as an oven than as a grill. The BBQ flavour will, however, always be present in your preparation. This is because you are cooking in a closed BBQ. You can work indirectly with the Kamado at high (for example, pizza) temperatures. You can also work at low temperatures (for example pulled pork).

SAFETY TIP

Be careful when cooking ingredients with a thick fat edge at high temperatures. It is possible that so much fat will come loose that it will run into the fire. This can cause flames to come out over the side past the heat shield. It is best to fry such ingredients on the Kamado barbecue in a cast iron pan first. Wait until most of the fat has melted and the fat side has turned a nice colour. Then you can cook the ingredient further on the grid. You can then use the pan with the fat to let the meat rest in.

Become a master griller with the Kamado bbq from YAKINIKU. View the entire range of Kamados here.

BBQ with Kamado | Bread and pizza

Bread and especially pizza are baked at high temperatures on the bbq with a Kamado. Bread between 200-250 °C and pizza between 350-400 °C. To get the temperature up, use a large amount of coals in your YAKINIKU Kamado. Do not start baking until the coals are fully lit in the Kamado. Place your multilevel lift, heat shield, standard grid and a pizza stone well in advance. Without the heat shield, the pizza stone would get too hot. This would burn the bottom of your pizza or bread immediately. Use the pizza mouth to easily take your pizza or bread in or out of the Kamado. This way, your ceramic bbq does not lose heat when you open it. You can also do this without the pizza mouth. Try to make sure that the lid of the Kamado stays open as short as possible. It is ideal to do this with 2 people. One person picks up the pizza and puts it on the pizza stone. While the other person opens and closes the lid of the bbq on the Kamado. Use the pizza scoop to easily remove your pizza or bread from the Kamado. Using a pizza scoop has several advantages. You do not need to open the lid to take the pizza out of the Kamado. In addition, the pizza mouth also comes in handy during preparation. You can easily check if your pizza is ready. Without too much heat escaping from the Kamado bbq.

Feel like baking a delicious pizza or bread? Check out the range of pizza stones and heat shields of YAKINIKU.

BBQ on Kamado | Charcoal Marabu

A quick bag of charcoal at the gas station. That is of course not the ideal preparation to get the best results from your ceramic Kamado. The collapse of the Soviet Union played an important role in the creation of a very special type of charcoal in Cuba. In the early 1990s, support for Cuba fell away overnight. The country entered a serious agricultural crisis. The land and agriculture were neglected. This gave the invasive Marabú plant free rein to overgrow the island.

People started to fight the rampant Marabú. They cut it down and made charcoal from it. That was an immediate hit! Marabú charcoal turned out to have exceptional combustibility properties. This accounts for the very long preparation time and the high degree of carbonisation during the process. The processing is truly artisanal and time-consuming. The charcoal burner builds a kind of stack, or Meiler.

Marabú is a heavy wood, perfect for barbecuing on the Kamado. This property is also maintained during the 14 to 24 hour burn. Partly because of this, the calorific value is very high. Marabú charcoal has a long burn time. Even at high temperatures, the charcoal produces very little smoke. This is due to its complete carbonisation. This makes the charcoal ideal for an afternoon or evening of grilling on your Kamado.

Are you ready to grill for a long time on your ceramic bbq? Then the Marabú charcoal is perfect for you. Check out our assortment of charcoal here.