For a while, I’ve been wanting a kamado type grill. The best known is probably the Big Green Egg. It’s definitely nice . . like the Cadillac of kamado grills, but it’s expensive and most of the accessories must be purchased separately. Since I’m more of a Honda kinda of girl, instead of a Cadillac girl, we shopped around and checked out everything we could find and read all the reviews, made a few phone calls and made a decision. As I mentioned Monday, we would have to pick it up in Abilene and bring it home and it probably will not fit in the Highlander and if it does, it’s the ONLY thing that would fit so it would mean driving 2 hours, getting the grill and driving back. In addition to the Big Green Egg, we considered the Primo, Kamado Joe, the Vision Pro and the Bayou Classic.
We went with the Vision Pro.
The main reasons we went with the Vision Pro were (1) Everything we read talked about their customer service being amazing. (2) Home Depot will deliver it to our home and we don’t have to mess with picking it up anywhere. (3) It comes with almost all the accessories we would want . . all included in the price.
We did see some complaints about the Vision Pro having some air leaks around an opening where the electric starter can be inserted. This can cause a problem when trying to cook “low and slow”. There were a couple of fixes listed that Vince could easily do but since we have our Cookshack smoker that is so easy to use and works so well, I doubt we ever use the Vision Pro for smoking anything. I mainly wanted it for bread and pizza and cooking at the temps needed for those items, a bit of air leaking isn’t going to be a problem for us.
We’ve ordered the lump charcoal and will be ready to make bread and pizza as soon as the grill is delivered and set up . . in a week or so.
You know I’ll be posting about our experiences with the new grill.
Patty says
Is there an advantage to making bread and pizza in one of these over an oven? I have not heard much about them but sounds interesting.
Patty
JudyL says
Because of the thick ceramic walls and the dome lid, which is also ceramic, the heat is radiated and acts somewhat like a convection oven. It’s very similar to a wood fired brick oven when baking bread and pizza. Lump charcoal is used, which supposedly burns hotter and longer. The grill is also great for cooking “low and slow” — smoking meats for extended periods. Some folks sing the praises of these grills for the way they cook steaks but on all the reviews I’ve read, they aren’t the best for grilling steak so we’ll probably always have a regular charcoal grill for our steaks. You can google “kamado” grills and get all kinds of info on them.
CJ Tinkle says
Oh they make FABULOUS steaks! Heat it up to 650 degrees, toss your steak in for 2-3 minutes, open and flip it for another couple minutes, close the oven down and let the steak rest another couple minutes. TO DIE FOR. Especially when you’re gonna slather it in RD’s blue cheese, onion and cream sauce. 🙂
JudyL says
We’ve had steaks cooked on a Vision that a friend has and on a BGE at a sales show and I still think our Weber does better steaks. Almost all the professionals prefer a regular charcoal grill because once the steaks are seared, they can be moved away from the heat – and continue to cook over an indirect heat and with all the kamado grills, except the Promo, that cannot be done. We like our steaks thick and it’s real hard to sear them and not cook them over indirect heat and get a real good medium/rare piece. Our Weber will get to 650 degrees long enough to sear steaks and then we move them away from the flame. And, briquettes are a whole lot less expensive than lump charcoal. I’m sure we’ll try the steaks on the kamado but my guess is we’ll continue to use the Weber for steaks and pork chops.
Erin says
Yes what is the advantage to having one? You come up with interesting gadgets!
JudyL says
We had been wanting to build a wood fired brick oven for pizza and bread and from what we’ve read, this should do the trick and is much less expensive than building a wood fired oven.
Denise :) says
I’ve got a couple of friends that have the Big Green Egg … you’re *so* going to enjoy your new addition!! 🙂
Jean says
We have a Cookshack smoker, too, and just love it! My husband smokes rib racks by the dozen and we always get great compliments, along with salmon, topped with cilantro – try it, it’s yummy!
JudyL says
I could eat cilantro by the handful but Vince doesn’t like it so no cilantro on our salmon. We had smoked salmon tonight.
Angela says
We have a big green egg and love it. Best of all, my husband does the cooking on weekends now. We have had good luck with ribs, chicken and pork butt. Haven’t tried a pizza yet, but I hear they are excellent.
JudyL says
We’ll probably continue to do all our “low and slow” smoking in the Cookshack and the kamado will be used mostly for bread and pizza.
Doreen says
One word………yum!!!!! Bread/pizza on the grill is so outstanding!!!!!
CJ Tinkle says
Hello Judy! It’s been forever, but I’m back home and back online and finally getting time to catch up on some blogs. I’m not familiar with the brand you chose, but you are going to love baking pizza and bread on this oven, the wood smoke flavor is fantastic! I can’t hardly stand an oven baked pizza anymore. I’m looking forward to hearing about your experiments with it, and I hear you are a GRANDMA!!!!! Congratulations!
Angie says
Judy, I enjoy reading about all your tools for cooking. You must have them all by now. :o) It will be fun to see how you use this new one. How is this new cooker different than any other outdoor grill. (We have a Weber that uses charcoal)
JudyL says
We have a Weber too and we also have another brand of charcoal grill and we’ll keep those for grilling steak. The kamado at our house will mainly be used for bread and pizza.
Linda Steller says
Oh cool! I can’t wait to see what you make in this. Never hurts to have something you can use as an oven when the power is out, especially on cloudy days!
JudyL says
Oh, yes! 🙂
Becky says
I too am interested in the ame questions that have already been posted. I’ve been catching up on reading your blog and I don’t think I missed the answers so hopefully you’ll post something soon for all of us with “inquiring minds”!! thanks Judy!
JudyL says
I’ll post a lot once we get it and start using it so please stay tuned.