The growing movement for Kamado cookery is unrelenting and the avid home cook is prepared to spend quite a sum on that amazing piece of kit that can transform simple ingredients into restaurant quality food. Whether you have bought a Lidl entry level, all the way up to the BSTRD. or Egg or Joe (and all of those in between) the principles remain the same and what is not to fall in love with.
Unparalleled flavour makers, precision airflow, versatility of cooks, hyper efficient, looks the biz in your garden too! Kamados are the sort of barbecue you quietly admire every time you look at it, but then so many then fill it with poor quality charcoal. Apart from being nasty to cook with, poor charcoal is hard to control as you have no idea what you are burning, and how well it has been made so it is suddenly guesswork and Kamado cooking is about precision and certainly not guesswork.
Bad charcoal will kill your ceramics. If there are chemicals involved, either in the charcoal, the fire lighters or, and we struggle to say this, gel fire lighters; the ceramic will absorb the chemicals and no matter what you do, the flavour it gives off is impossible to remove.
The flavour sensitivity a Kamado delivers is ruined in equal measure, not just by chemicals but also poorly made charcoal. Restaurant grade means nothing - in reality many producers just stick this on their bag as it offers the impression it's good quality but many are not.
Badly made charcoal has lower carbon levels and more 'wood' - so you are burning charcoal as well as wood in your fire and the wood will give a much heavier smoke profile. Some people may like this but our view is always to add flavour in as it is impossible to take it out. Start off with a mild and neutral smoke, like in all our British charcoals, and then add in smoking chunks if you want more flavour.
The beauty of a Kamado is in the ceramics, they absorb heat gently, regulate temperature with precision and hold steady for hours. That’s what makes cooking on them so enjoyable. Poor quality charcoal filled with binders, chemicals and harsh woody smoke do not simply disappear after the cook. Those smells settle into the ceramics themselves and quietly replicate in every meal thereafter, no high heat burn off will remove them. One minute you’re cooking a beautiful piece of fish, the next it tastes of lighter fluid and regret.
Our proper British lumpwood burns cleanly and consistently. No chemical tang. No strange odours. Just carefully selected wood turned into exceptional charcoal by people who understand charcoal making properly. Our British charcoal, is circa 90% carbon so what you are burning is absolutely fit for purpose.
We also know what is in the bag by species even our mixed charcoal is a carefully selected blend of British hardwoods so it delivers the perfect burn. Knowing your species will enable you to know how it burns, how it performs and how it makes your food taste.
Sounds all so obvious right? We cannot tell you how many conversations we have with people who have never thought of charcoal as an ingredient - or why their food tastes like an oil rag or the inside of a Texas smoker.
Oak burns long and steady. Ash fires quickly and cleanly. Alder just wants to get hot and fast. Every species behaves differently and that’s exactly how it should be.
Good charcoal gives you control. Stable temperatures. Predictable cooking. Better flavour. The sort of fire that lets you enjoy the cook instead of constantly battling to get it hot or calm it down. And boy it is efficient. A few chunks will deliver the heat you need - no need to pour.
