Kamado heat deflector level

[Bbqboy]

Greetings from sunny myrtle beach, sc.......it's big A from speedway BBQ.

Thanks guys for all the great advice, keep it coming.........I will be experimenting with the primo this weekend.

Think what I will do is weld some roundbar legs to my lower small grate so that it doesn't rest directly against the walls of the firebox and will allow for the expansion of the metal grate(great tip,thank you)yet will sit above the fire,place my drip pan on it as the deflector and go that route to start with for my first indirect cook.

I've used wsms for years and have always used a water pan( with great success)....... I've actually built a hulk sized copy version of a 22 inch wsm out of the top and bottom of old weber kettel and a 55 gallon drum .....fire ring, water pan ,draft control, the whole bit.......has 3 racks on it and cooks 12 butts/ shoulders easily.

Use the minion method of firing it and it runs around 12 hrs on 1 22 lb bag of charcoal and some wood chunks at 225/240 range in good weather conditions( cold or rainy , or windy, takes a little more charcoal and effort).

Thanks again for all the advice......I'm anxious to see what all this ceramic buzz is about........I do see the negative being portability of the unit itself , but am anxious to see if it produces something better than what we already do ....

Anybody wanting some pictures of ours and or advice on how to build there own xxl bullet type grill, just shoot me a good email address to send you some pictures.....be happy to help.

Big A

[GAM]

You can post the pics here.

Sandy

[NASH]

Depending on what I'm cooking, a dry drip pan burns fats to cinders and I get a scorched taste in the food.

Yeah - that would be bad! Haven't really had that issue. On higher heat cooks with deflector and drip tray I raise the tray off the shield with tiny balls of foil - seems to help.

I use the foil balls to hold the drip pan off the heat deflector too. Works awesome to use those drippings for a gravy.

The other no burn option is to fill the drip pan about half full with sand. But that doesn't make very good gravy



Transmitted from the Hop-phone.

[dexter]

Depending on what I'm cooking, a dry drip pan burns fats to cinders and I get a scorched taste in the food.

Yeah - that would be bad! Haven't really had that issue. On higher heat cooks with deflector and drip tray I raise the tray off the shield with tiny balls of foil - seems to help.

I use the foil balls to hold the drip pan off the heat deflector too. Works awesome to use those drippings for a gravy.

The other no burn option is to fill the drip pan about half full with sand. But that doesn't make very good gravy



Transmitted from the Hop-phone.

I do the same except sometime I use a few crushed cans the work well too if you happen to run out of foil. On my egg I use the " feet" it came with.

[NASH]

Greetings from sunny myrtle beach, sc.......it's big A from speedway BBQ.


Thanks again for all the advice......I'm anxious to see what all this ceramic buzz is about........I do see the negative being portability of the unit itself , but am anxious to see if it produces something better than what we already do ....

Big A

First you'll need to re-learn methodology. It may or may not produce better, they are different so food coming out of them is a little different. Some think better, some think worse, others think different but equally as good. I think they have the potential to produce a better product if you learn to use them properly. Think no opening the lid, no mopping, no peaking Keeps the moisture inside where it belongs, not to mention all the heat that makes these things so incredibly efficient. Open the lid when your brisket or butts are up to internal temps. Ribs can be little trickier but generally speaking, I'll open it up 1/2 hr or so before I think they'll be done to check doneness or to sauce.

You likely already know that you should use lump charcoal instead of briquettes in these.

FYI: The Primo Grill Forum is a great resource for information. Plenty of home cooks and competition cooks alike on there.

[Bbqboy]

Thanks Nash........I never open the lid on the wsms or smokezilla( my homemade beast)...... Once they are rubbed and injected, they are on the smokers for 7 hrs unwrapped over charcoal and hickory at 230/240, then taken off and wrapped with a small batch of smoked brown sugar and put back on for the final 3 hrs......my ideal pull temp is/ has always been 185 for chopped / pulled and 180 for sliced que.

Never even look at em until they are pulled off for wrapping.

Can't wait to experiment with some of the coastal cuisine we have around these parts.......fish, crab, oysters and shellfish.

[LeafMan66_67]

Thanks Nash........I never open the lid on the wsms or smokezilla( my homemade beast)...... Once they are rubbed and injected, they are on the smokers for 7 hrs unwrapped over charcoal and hickory at 230/240, then taken off and wrapped with a small batch of smoked brown sugar and put back on for the final 3 hrs......my ideal pull temp is/ has always been 285 for chopped / pulled and 280 for sliced que.

Never even look at em until they are pulled off for wrapping.

Can't wait to experiment with some of the coastal cuisine we have around these parts.......fish, crab, oysters and shellfish.

Had a guy wanting to take photos of the ribs on the WSM at the Fall River competition - told him to come back in a couple of hours when they were done 'casue the lid doesn't come off until I think they are ready. He seemed a bit put out by that!

Also - Bbqboy - you may have a typo in your temps - guessing you meant 185 and 180 for your pulled and sliced?

[Bbqboy]

Whoops..........your right!!!

180 and 185......lol

[NASH]

You might want to do a little experimenting with no-wrapping with it. Either way, sounds like you'll be pumping out some delicious que!

You're right about the seafood, thinking about it on the ceramic has me salivating about now

Transmitted from the Hop-phone.

[Bbqboy]

Will do brother.......can't wait to get started on it.

I do a smoked grouper fish on a pizza stone in my wsm and finish it off with a light lemoncello glaze that I make..... The wsm doesn't quite get as hot as I would like , but does pretty good........can't wait to try it on the primo!!!

Will keep you posted.............and thanks to everyone, this is a killer forum .

Makes me want to start brewing my own beer just so I'll fit in a little better.......you guys rock!!!

[NASH]

Will do brother.......can't wait to get started on it.

I do a smoked grouper fish on a pizza stone in my wsm and finish it off with a light lemoncello glaze that I make..... The wsm doesn't quite get as hot as I would like , but does pretty good........can't wait to try it on the primo!!!

Will keep you posted.............and thanks to everyone, this is a killer forum .

Makes me want to start brewing my own beer just so I'll fit in a little better.......you guys rock!!!

Do it!!

Photos!

[Bbqboy]

Ok, I think I've gotten the deflector deal figured out......I cut me 3 strips of sturdy expansion metal about 2 inches wide and a little over 13 inches long and welded them to the edge of the grate spaced equally apart, I then took some wide channel locks on bent the top of the expanded metal pieces in the form of a small u shape( much like the top of a wreath hanger that fits over the top of your door would look like at Christmas) .....it took a little bit of fine tuning for it to sit evenly around the edges the way I wanted it to, but now the 3 pieces of expansion metal rest on the primo insert edges, the round grate doesn't rest along the walls of it at all and a foil wrapped pizza stone sits on the charcoal grate and acts as the deflector........I would say the stone,grate combo sits about 8 or so inches above the fire, and the clearance around the grate/ stone combo to the wall of the insert is a good inch or so all the way around as or provide good airflow......got about 25 bucks in the whole deal because I had some expansion metal from my last build leftover......kind of cool , works good, and I didn't have to go buy a store bought one for 60 bucks.

Latest cook was a rock salt encased prime rib this weekend.......seasoned and then covered nice size 4 bone piece of prime up with rock salt in a Dutch oven and put it on the primo at 400 and pulled it out at 125 internal.....the hole thing comes out of the Dutch oven as one huge chunk of salt...you crack it open and expose the prime rib for cutting and dispose of all of the salt.....you would think it would be too salty, but nope..........some how the salt locks in the perfect amount of moisture.

I've done it in the oven that way before, but wanted to see how the primo did with it using my home made deflector.........medium rare , light smoke deliciousness.

Google the rock salt method if you've never done it........it's crazy

Big A

[Bbqboy]

Sorry , meant to mention the grate I welded the expansion metal to was a charcoal grate from an 18.5 wsm....

[NASH]

Photos of that bad boy?

Salt roasting method turns out some great food. I've never done it but have eaten a bunch.

Transmitted from the Hop-phone.

[dexter]

We do fish that way quite often but never tried beef, probably works the same way tho, and it's rarely over salted which is always weird