Pequod

When I bought my Kamado Joe I had a word with my insulated cabinet smoker and reassured it that it was still the champ. With my KK’s arrival, no such reassurances were made. This time, the title of "Champ" must be earned. The competitors. On the left is the reigning champ, my 270 Smokers Standard. Boxy but good. On the right, the challenger who needs no introduction. 270 started as a regional brand based in Lexington, VA that made inroads on the competition circuit and is now sold throughout the US and Canada. I was an early adopter, posted a review at BBQ Brethren, and still field IM’s, emails and even occasional phone calls from owners and prospective buyers. It's an insulated cabinet with a unique design known as heated draft. I'll spare you the details, but the bottom line is that it is a convection smoker whose design amps up the flow, promoting very even temps and smoke distribution. Water pans are optional but recommended. Couldn't be more different from a KK in terms of airflow and the means by which it manages temps and moisture. To sustain that air movement, the 270 burns a lot of briquettes. After running my KK for 10 hours at 275 the other day I only needed to add two coco char sticks to reload the basket for today’s cook. The 270 excels at cooking the big four proteins popular on the KCBS circuit, so this is stiff competition for a KK. I’ll be using each cooker with my best practices for each. Here's a view of the 270’s firebox loaded to the brim. I’ll burn a fair amount of that today. Lighting procedure is ½ chimney of lit coals laid on top, burning down Minion style. The ever familiar KK lighting procedure for low and slow. One spot lit. Fifteen minutes before the ribs go on I put the smoke wood in each. One chunk of hickory and one of cherry go in the 270. You can see significant fuel consumption already. We'll add more chunks as the cook goes on. Just how you roll with this thing. And the smoke pot with one chunk hickory, two chunks cherry, and the gaps filled with cherry chips. That's it for this cook. No refills. The ribs: four racks of Costco St. Louis cut spares. Four racks seasoned with Meat Church Honey Hog, with two of those seasoned with a second layer of Honey Hog Hot. One of each will go on each cooker. After two hours, both are looking good: Both cookers are struttin' their stuff, smoking their little hearts out: Maintained a steady 275 on both cookers throughout. For the KK this was effortless. For the 270, I had to actively manage the vent because as the coals burned down, the ash was starting to affect the burn of the remaining coals. Whenever I opened for spritzing, the KK recovered immediately to the same temp. The 270 required 5-10 minutes to recover. After 3-1/2 hours the ribs in both cookers were passing both the bend test and the toothpick test. Here's the fire box of the 270 at the end, full of ash and burned down quite a bit. The final product. The KK ribs are on the right. The 270 ribs are on the left. Don't tell my blind taste testers. The Test: I had four blind taste testers. Three are my wife and two daughters who have eaten plenty of 270 ribs. The fourth is Mr. Qua, my eldest daughter's friend, who helped me move my KK to the back yard and is now pleased as can be to be eating ribs. The Results: Wife and daughter the youngest decided both were equally good, although my wife did pick up on a "smokier" note in the 270 ribs. As we discussed it, we concluded that note was the flavor of the briquettes underlying the wood smoke. Not unpleasant, but distinct. The KK ribs cooked with CoCo Char lacked this note. Daughter the eldest and Mr. Qua both picked the KK ribs without hesitation. When asked why, they both stated immediately that they were more moist. I'm the fifth vote and noted that as we continued to eat ribs (Wife and daughter the youngest finished early, so didn't notice this), the KK ribs retained their moisture as they cooled, while the 270 ribs seemed to dry up a bit. The Verdict: With 3 votes for the KK ribs and 2 votes neutral, the new champ is my KK. The KK was both easier to use by far, and also produced more moist ribs. Look for my 270 on Craigslist soon.

Looking good! Ora's getting a workout.

Good deal. There's a charcoal sharing forum toward the bottom of the main page. When the time comes to place an order we can post it there and tag each other with the '@' symbol so we see it.

NOVA=Fairfax County, so you're about 2 hours away. Close enough. Unless ordering with your KK, charcoal ships by the palette in order to keep shipping costs down to a reasonable fraction of the total cost. That's a LOT of charcoal, so makes sense to share an order when the time comes. Don't know if there are other Virginians around (thought I saw one but can't remember who), but can include others too to make it reasonable.

@John A- Where in Virginia are you? If you're near NOVA we might be able to collaborate on future charcoal orders.

@ckreef-That's good out loud thinking and along the lines of my thoughts as well. The "cold" smoker is really an external smoke generator with controllable flow and smoke intensity. If you dial that in first, then anything else you do with the lower vents would be to dial in temp on top of the base temp from the cold smoker. I'm really looking forward to playing around with the cold smoker. Just waiting on the pump.

That's a phenomenal jump! Other than Labor Day weekend, can't imagine what it is. At least one of those was me checking to see if the goat was now a listed accessory.

I think I ordered everything but the rib rack and Sunbrella cover with mine. Deferred on the cover because I can roll mine under cover and out of the elements for now. Also, I'm expecting a second KK and possibly a teak cabinet at some point, so am waiting on that decision to figure out what I want in a cover. Will be ordering a boatload more charcoal with the next one.

@churchi-Fill the pot with any combination of chunks, chips and pellets, lid on tight, and set it on top of the spot you lit in your coals. That's it. The contents will smolder and release their goodness via the three holes on bottom.

@churchi- I have tube smokers I've used for cold smoking in other grills and they are great for that purpose. I've not tried them in a Kamado with heat, but from what I've read people who have tried them have been disappointed with the results. The low air flow tends to snuff the pellets out. I haven't tried it yet (waiting on the pump), but I imagine the KK cold smoker would be a different story since it draws air externally. You can control the amount of smoke independently of the KK vents.

D'oh! We got carried away and missed out on the plate pics. I'll make up for it with the ribs I'm doing on Monday.

@MacKenzie-Nicely done and glad you enjoyed. Very easy to tailor and make your own. No rules on this one!

@churchi- It's in the belly of the beast cooling down at the moment, but it is this one with three 1/8" holes drilled in the bottom: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008GKDU

Probed tender at 7 hours. And ready for slicing.

Four hours in. Looking good, but bark not quite set yet. Let it ride a bit more before wrapping.

Same here. I love Paprika.

I got to the point with my insulated cabinet that I felt I was getting close to that Texas offset smoked flavor (frequent work trips to Texas keep my brisket palate calibrated), but would never get all the way there - an 80% solution. Good enough. I keep checking my KK, expecting I have to tweak something, but there it is pegged right on 275 and pumping out thin blue smoke. Don't have to refill the water pan, add more fuel or chunks. It's boring! Lol.

I got my start on a WSM, so many of the techniques on the Virtual Bullet site are where I started. Great stuff there. There's a guy on the BBQ Brethren who goes by the handle of Bludawg that preaches a similar method that is very repeatable. He runs in the range of 275-325, wraps in butcher paper after four hours, then starts probing at five hours. Takes 5-7 hours to cook and another 1-2 to rest. His method is very close to Aaron Franklin's (who preaches 275). I tend to run at 275 and get great results, usually done in that 5-7 hour window.

Lol. I was making fun of @Aussie Orafor his grates being too clean, and there mine are all shiny! Brisket today and ribs on monday, so this is the last of the shiny grates.

Loving the smoke pot. Putting out consistent, thin blue smoke.

Sorta low n slow. I like to do my briskets at 275. Lots of firsts: first use of coco char, smoke pot, and using the double bottom drip pan as both heat deflector and to attempt to capture some drippings. Coco char: Running up to temp. I've been using my Maverick lately to measure grate temps and compare with the dome therm. Dome therm is usually close enough, so I'll not likely use the Mav for grate temps much anymore Brisket rubbed up with Meat Church Holy Cow. I don't monitor temp on my briskets, so will let it ride for four hours then check the bark. Stay tuned.

@Bruce Pearson-Thanks for the heads up! Bagged one from Dennis.

Would this pump work for my cold smoker? Or suggestions on another? http://www.petmountain.com/product/aquarium-air-pumps/11442-614553/coralife-luft-pump-aquarium-air-pump.html

@Aussie Ora-Overall, I tend to agree that planks don't do much for flavor. They're a convenient way of loading/unloading the fish, provide a bit of a heat deflector, and help contain the messy glaze a bit, rather than have it gunk up grates and fall into the fire. Otherwise, planks are definitely optional in my book.

@churchi-I use a maple butter glaze at the end which tends to crust up the plank, so one use and toss for me.