Charcoal and fire: what belongs in a kamado and what does not

Nearly every kamado manufacturer specifies lump charcoal and advises against briquettes. That is not brand loyalty. Briquettes are pressed charcoal dust with a binder, and the binder does not burn away: it stays behind as ash. A kamado is a sealed ceramic bowl where ash collects at the bottom, and ash blocks exactly the opening your air comes in through.

The second difference is control. Lump charcoal goes out when you shut off the air and picks up where it left off when you open it again. Briquettes burn through more steadily and respond less sharply to that, which makes the fine control a kamado is prized for awkward.

Buy large pieces rather than a bag of dust. Large pieces let air through the pile; dust packs tight and smothers itself. Finding some smaller material at the bottom of any bag is normal — that goes on top, not underneath.

This feels wrong and is still the answer. Fill the firebox to the bottom of the fire ring, whether you are cooking for twenty minutes or twelve hours.

You can, because you do not burn a kamado out, you shut it down. Finished cooking? Vents closed, lid closed, and the fire goes out by itself within fifteen minutes. What is left is simply charcoal and goes back in next time.

Too little charcoal is a real problem. A half-full box will not reach the end of a long cook, and topping up a hot kamado means opening the lid, taking out the grates and the deflector — with meat inside and a quarter hour of heat lost.

You do not light a kamado across its whole width. How many spots you light decides how big the fire gets and therefore where you end up — and that is far easier to steer than bringing it back down afterwards.

One point in the middle for low and slow, around a hundred to a hundred and twenty degrees. Two or three points for grilling at two hundred. Several points with the vents wide open for pizza, where you want the stone genuinely hot.

Use firelighters or an electric lighter. Both are clean and tasteless. Leave the lid open for ten minutes after lighting so the fire catches, then close it and let the kamado climb gently to temperature.

The patience lives here: a kamado that has overshot does not cool quickly. The ceramic that holds temperature so beautifully also holds the wrong temperature. Better slow up than hurried back.

A hot kamado with the vents shut has a fire with plenty of fuel and not enough oxygen. Throw the lid open in one movement and that fire suddenly gets all the air it has been missing, and the flame comes out at you. That is flashback, and it costs people their eyebrows every year.

The fix is simple and becomes a habit: lift the lid a couple of centimetres first, wait two seconds, then open it fully. That first gap lets air in gradually instead of all at once.

Do it every time above a hundred and fifty degrees, even in a hurry, and certainly if you have just closed the vents. Stand beside the kamado as you open it rather than over it.

Charcoal gives barely any smoke flavour. If you want it, a few chunks of smoking wood go in among the coals — and a few means literally two or three, not a handful.

Too much smoke does not taste of more smoke, it tastes sharp and bitter, and that does not come off again. Faster in a kamado than on an open barbecue, because the smoke sits in a closed bowl rather than drifting away.

Put the chunks among the coals rather than on top, so they only start smouldering when the fire reaches them. Soaking is unnecessary: wet wood steams first and smokes afterwards, and the steaming achieves nothing.

The bottom vent is where all your air comes in, and ash falls straight towards it. A kamado that suddenly will not reach its temperature, or sags halfway through a cook, usually has no fault at all — it has a full ash pan.

Scrape the ash out before every session, or every second one at least. It takes a minute with an ash scraper, and it is the most common cause of a kamado that "stopped working".

Do it cold. Ash you have taken out can still be glowing days later, so never into a paper bag or a plastic tub, and not into the garden waste.

After shutting down you are left with half-burnt charcoal. It is better than new: it has already driven off its gases and catches faster.

Before the next session, stir it so the ash falls out and the pieces sit loose, top up with fresh charcoal on top, and light again at whatever number of points suits your target.

Only when there has been a real cook and little is left but dust do you empty the box. Dust smothers the fire, which is the other side of the same ash problem.

An ash scraper and firelighters. That is the list. Everything after that is comfort.

A charcoal basket or divider is pleasant if you switch often between direct and indirect, because you can hold the coals to one side without moving them with tongs. It does not make your fire better, only your handling shorter.

A core thermometer does earn its place, but not because of the fire: it tells you when the meat is done, which is the only number that finally counts. The gauge in the lid measures the air under the dome, not what you are eating.

A blower or controller solves a problem most people do not have. A kamado holds the same temperature for hours unaided; anyone who cannot usually has an ash problem or a vent problem, and does not need a fan.