Im new to Kamado cooking. Just bought a big joe series 1 last Sunday and i’ve been practicing trying to maintain 275 all week and could never get it below 330ish. Today i finally achieved it but both my lower and upper vent (daisy wheel) are only 1/4” open. (actually measured it) I only smoked some jimmy dean sausage just for the sake of throwing something in there. But now i worry that i might be producing creosote. Am i snuffing the charcoal to achieve this?
I measured out one chimney of Jealous Devil coal and was able to maintain 275 for 7 hrs. It would’ve gone longer but i had to shut it down kuz i had to leave. Before shutting it down i removed the deflectors to check the coals and there was no fire, the way i see on ‘smoking dad’ utube vids, only ashed over coals.
Tomorrow i plan to smoke a 3 lb piece of brisket and wanted to smoke it at 275. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
by Baseline_Tenor
3 Comments
The key is to wait until your temps have stabilized and you don’t see thick white smoke. Once it’s gone to a blueish almost see through you’re good to go. It’s that harsh white smoke you don’t want on your food. It can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes before you get nice clear blue smoke.
Run what ever width is needed to maintain temps on your vents. I’ll even go a credit card width if I have to maintain temps.
Briskets (especially small ones) are craft that us be mastered. Lots of trial and error to get them right. 14lb is my go to size. Lots of recipes to look up on those!
If you’ve got either blue (this is ideal) or very thin white smoke coming out the top, then you’re good. Don’t want thick white or grey smoke, which indicates poor combustion.
Starting the coals with one fire starter in the center of the basket and letting the dome come up to temp slowly, about 45 minutes, helps to avoid overshooting the temp. You mentioned SD BBQ, so you might already be aware of this info, but I wanted to touch on it just in case.
The bottom vent is the gas pedal and the top vent is the breaks. I have an off brand kamado and leave my bottom open smaller than a pinky finger with the top closed and I can get 225-240. If you want to go lower maybe try that.