How the Kamado saved Christmas.

The Grand Dame at Christmas

My blog header says that it will cover many topics, but so far only scale modeling has come to the fore.  It's time to break the mold.*  Hence, a Christmas story should be told.

The Grand Dame's lonely single oven.

For many years, I have been responsible for the protein phase of our Christmas feast.  This has typically centered on a standing rib roast of beef, prepared in the manner I first learned from Alton Brown on his Food Channel show 'Good Eats.'  While I don't do the whole over-the-top clay flowerpot thing that Mr. Brown espouses, the start-low, finish-high, "reverse sear" approach has served us well.  Still, the method has its deficiencies, including occupying the oven at otherwise unhelpful, i.e., too low and too high, temperatures through most of the day.  The high temperature finish also creates a greasy smoke that permeates the house and lingers in the oven for weeks, or at least until it's cleaned!    These problems were masked when our home had double ovens and a restaurant-grade exhaust hood, but such is not the case in the 1925-vintage Grande Dame of Bonita Drive.





Our approach was complicated this year by our desire to manage the needs of a non-beef-eater in the family.  After considerable consideration and consternation, a brainstorm came upon me.  Father's Day 2017 had dawned with a new Kamado style charcoal-fired grill/oven in the back yard. 

The Akorn Kamado
- repaired in the local style

It's not green, nor is it ceramic, so the manufacturer doesn't call it an egg.  They call it an "Akorn" instead.  The layout is really more like an American-style kettle grill than a true Kamado in format, except the metal shell is heavily insulated and set up for a tight seal like a good egg smoker.  We chose the metal version out of fear that a massive dog would topple it and send a million shards of ceramic everywhere. Foresight paid off when it was the daughter-person rather than a dog-person who knocked it over; it survived with only a minor deformity.  The deformation did put extra strain on the bolts attaching the handle to the shell and one of those worked its way out and into oblivion, leaving the handle too loose to use.  So, to give the device a good Alabama gestalt, I used rough twine to reinforce the handle  - and maybe insulate it a bit - until I can find the right replacement bolt.  

My plan to use the Kamado was encouraged by summertime successes in maintaining a steady temperature while smoking a brisket and roasting an upright beer canless chicken, but hadn't tried it in the cold yet.  The high temperature forecast for Christmas Day was about 35°, so I thought I might need a bigger charcoal load to hold the oven temperature around 200°.  I therefore used a full grill chimney of lump charcoal and got the party started.  Once the charcoal was flaming away, dark orange and smokeless, I  dumped it from the chimney and placed the ceramic diffuser disk and cast iron grates into the Kamado.

The contraption,
configured for
Christmas roasting

The butcher had prepared the roast, 5 bones long and just shy of 11 pounds, by cutting the meat from the bones and tying it back together for cooking.  After a rub with canola oil and a heavy dusting of Chicago Style steak rub, the meat went over the fire, on a rack in a Pyrex roaster, with a disposable aluminum pizza pan serving as an additional diffuser to reduce the risk of hot spots on the grate that might crack the Pyrex. 

Well, this Kamado is very well insulated, and after using the chimney-full of charcoal I had a hard time keeping the temperature inside the oven under 300° for the first few hours.  I used a remote read thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature of the meat and actually had to pull the roast out a few times to vent some heat and slow down the cooking. 

A Goldilocks roast
Dark, crispy and delicious crust
and pink all the way through.
"This one is just right!"

After about 4 hours, the thermometer alarmed at the pre-set temperature of 118° at the core of the roast.  I pulled the meat from the heat to rest and and allow the residual heat tp carry through.  As other preparations continued (see below), I opened up all the vents on the kamado.  With no additional fuel added, the oven temperature rapidly rose to almost 600°.

I cut the butcher's string and removed the meat from the bones, which went into a nascent au jus.  The rest of the meat went on that rocket-hot grill for about 10 minutes, forming a beautiful dark and crispy crust with just a hint of smokiness.  The finished product looked great, after carving tasted even better.  It's the best any of my roasts have ever turned out, and I think this won't be the last time we use the Kamado at Christmas.

Persian Pomegranate/Orange Chicken

What about that non-beef eater?  Her heritage is Persian and she likes chicken, especially dark meat. We brainstormed a bit, reviewed a lot of recipes and decided to create Persian-style pomegranate/orange roasted chicken thighs.  After a sear to crisp the skin, the meat was glazed with a concoction built from pomegranate molasses, pomegranate juice, and orange juice.  Topped with dried apricots and cherries, it roasted, open-topped but partially immersed in glazing liquid and aromatics in a 350° oven. Once cooked through, we dressed it with sliced orange rind, pomegranate arils, mint leaves, and pistachios.   A fully seat-of-the-pants recipe by Mrs. Datguy, this came out as a beautiful and delicious dish.  It couldn't have been done without that big red outdoor auxiliary oven.

And that, dearly beloved, is how the Kamado saved Christmas.

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*This pun, on both modeling and food, was completely unintended.  It was the daughter-person who saw it as such and notified the author.  Seeing puns that I didn't?  I learned her good!