A kamado is a traditional Japanese wood or charcoal fired earthen vessel used as a stove

Stove

A stove is an enclosed heated space. The term is commonly taken to mean an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating, either to heat the space in which the stove is situated or to heat the stove itself, and items placed on it...

 or oven

Oven

An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...

. Modern versions of the cooker are produced and sold internationally. They are often marketed as barbecue

Barbecue

Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...

s for outdoor use.

History

Clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 vessels have been used by humans to cook food for many thousands of years. Clay cooking pots have been found in every part of the world and some of the earliest dated by Archaeologists to be over 3000 years old have been found in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It is believed that in these circular clay cooking vessels are the origins of the modern Kamado albeit the clay finally being superseded by ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

 materials.

All over the globe this elementary cooking vessel has evolved in many different ways, the tandoor

Tandoor

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Azerbaijan, India, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central Asia, as well as Burma and Bangladesh.The heat for a tandoor was...

 for example in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, the mushikamado; a device designed to steam rice and used by Japanese families for ceremonial occasions. The mushikamado was a round clay pot with a removable domed clay lid and was typically found in Southern Japan. Innovations at this time included a damper and draft door for better heat control and it was found to be fuelled by charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

 rather than wood.

The mushikamado first came to the attention of the Americans after the Second World War . The name "kamado" is, in fact, the Japanese word for “stove” or “cooking range”. The kanji character for “kamado” is 竈. In hiragana

Hiragana

is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...

, “kamado” is written かまど. In katakana, it is written カマド. In romaji, it is written kamado. Literally, it means “place for the cauldron”. The word has become a generic term for this style of ceramic cooker.

Technology

Modern Kamado style cookers are made from a variety of materials including high fire ceramics (Broil King Keg, Big Steel Keg, Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, California Kamado, Primo, Grill Dome,Dragon Fire King), refractory materials (Komodo Kamado), double wall insulated steel (King-Griller by Char-Griller), traditional terra cotta (Imperial Kamado) and a mix of Portland cement and crushed lava rock (Kamado). Outer surfaces also vary from a high gloss ceramic glaze (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, California Kamado, Primo), paint (Grill Dome), textured stucco-like surface (Komodo Kamado, Kamado) and ceramic tiles (Komodo Kamado, Kamado). The use of modern ceramic and refractory materials ensures that the units seldom crack – a common fault in the original Japanese design. (Brands using older materials, notably Kamado (Portland cement) still suffer from cracking problems.)

Fuel

Kamado grills are generally fueled by charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

 although some attempts have been made to fire them with gas or electricity. One of the claims of the ceramic construction is that there is no flavour contamination (metallic taste) to the cooked food and for the same reasoning, lump wood charcoal is the preferred choice for modern kamado cooking. Not only does lump charcoal create little ash, the alternative charcoal briquettes contain many additives that can contaminate the flavour of the food. Lump wood charcoal can be manufactured in an environmentally sustainable manner using the technique of coppicing

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...

.

Uses

Manufacturers of the kamado style ceramic cookers claim that they are extremely versatile. Not only can they be used for grilling

Grilling

Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been cut into slices...

 and smoking, but pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

 can be cooked on a pizza stone and bread can also be baked. This is by virtue of the excellent heat retention properties of the ceramic shell that mean temperatures of up to 750 °F can be achieved. Also, due to the precise control of airflow (and thus temperature) afforded by the vent system, Kamado-style cookers are much like wood-fired ovens and can be used to roast and bake anything that can be roasted or baked in a traditional oven. The high end Kamados also have the ability to use a rotisserie cradle which is great for crisping up the skin of birds and uniform browning.

Grill Parts

In addition to the outer ceramic shell there is a ceramic or stainless steel bowl inside the unit to hold the charcoal. There is a draft opening in the lower side of the unit to provide air to the charcoal, as well as a controllable vent in the top of the dome lid for air to exit the cooker. Temperature is controlled by adjusting these two vents. One or more grids are suspended over the fire to provide the cooking surface(s) for the food. Finally, most Kamado-style cookers have a hole drilled in the lid to allow the insertion of the stem of a dial-type thermometer for monitoring the cooking temperature of the cooker. The high end Kamados have multiple layers of actual insulation which create low airflow cooking conditions and are self-opening. Digital temperature control devises can be installed to regulate temps using a small blower to regulate airflow.

Manufacturers

The American owned and designed Komodo Kamado manufactures its high end, feature loaded grills in Indonesia. The Big Green Egg

The Big Green Egg

The Big Green Egg is the brand name of a kamado-style ceramic charcoal cooker.-History:The Big Green Egg is commonly referred to as a kamado barbecue because of the origins of the basic design that lie in southern Japan....

is a US company that manufactures their ceramic components in Mexico. Primo, also based in Atlanta, is the only US-manufactured product. Primo is known for producing the only available oval shaped cooker. The Grill Dome in India, and the California Kamado in China. Other manufacturers include Imperial Kamado, Kamado Joe, Broil King Keg and Big Steel Keg by Onward Manufacturing and King-Griller by Char-Griller.