Great Kamado Smoke Can Be A Challenge Due To Limited Airflow…. BUT After Spending A Week In Texas Touring The Top BBQ joints, Including Franklin’s, Interstellar BBQ & Even Cooking For Cooper From Bar-A-BBQ On His Big Green Egg, I Am Starting To Re-Think “Good” Kamado Smoke. Today, I am cooking some Bar-A-BBQ inspired Texas Beef Ribs using a new cold smoke method I adapted during my cook for Cooper Ambercrombie (owner of Bar-A-BBQ in Texas).
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Chapters
00:00 – A Week In Texas Has Me Thinking…
02:39 – Geologie Sponsorship
04:42 – Bar-A-BBQ Inspired Cold Smoke Setup for Kamado’s
06:50 – Look Ma, No Pellets & Even Better Results
09:42 – Results & Taste Test
#SMOKINGDADBBQ #biggreenegg #goodsmoke
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GOOD vs BAD Kamado Smoke, A Top Texas BBQ Joint CHANGED My Mind!
47 Comments
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Is it just me? Or is bbq getting too complicated?!
Why add tallow? I notice this in almost all bbq vids. Adding tallow to ribs and brisket. But these cuts are SO fatty to begin with! Why more? In Spanish we have a word “empacha” which there isn’t a direct translation that I know of in English. But basically there’s so much of a “rich” thing that it makes u sick.
Excited to see the new konnected BIG JOE coming out soon… are you going to review it as well? Curious to see if its just a size upgrade or if they made any other updates to it
A week of bbq, I'd easily gain 10 pounds in 1 week
This is the #1 question I get on my Bar-A-BBQ videos – and you are the only one who could answer it. Well done sir!
So…it looks like this method nixed the double indirect.
Hey Where do you buy the Smokai and how much do you pay for it? how does it work with Kamado Joe 3 and can you please a video about it?
Best regards
Love it! Can’t wait for the rest of the tips and tricks!
Fantastic video again James. Been following you for a while now, here in the UK. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your Texas trip
So if you pull off a brisket in the mid 190’s, are you letting it cool down before wrapping? Or wrapping ot right away and hot holding it?
So after your 4 hr cold smoke, how long did you cook them for and did you still cook at 225F? They look amazing. I try to make a lot of your stuff on my kamado.
To be fair James, what about the Primo grill??? You showed the round red & green well enough. That oval Primo makes it far easier to manage a fire under one side of the grill. No sliding, no removing deflector plates.
James, great videos! Was preparing to follow your double indirect BGE cold smoke method for my next brisket (video from a month ago) until I saw this video. Are you going to be doing an updated BGE brisket video using this exact method?
Very good video!!!!! Very informative and well made!!!
Why don’t you use a cold smoke generator?
Hey James an awesome video, I've been following the whole Texas BBQ crew for some time, I have a BGE and a 270 Smoker, always looking to get as close to the flavour of an offset as I can… looking forward to your next video… quick question… how long did you hot hold the Beef Ribs? Thanks, Mike from just up the road!!!
I luv my egg had it for 15 years still looks great and even better works great
James, is the eggspander interchangable with the KJ divide & conquer set up? Not willing to leave team red but would be willing to consider using some of the BGE components. My apologies if that question is answered in the comments below.
I can't wait to get down to Montgomery, TX and try out Cooper's food. You and Al have convinced me of that. Now, if I can figure out a Vision Classic B version of your setup, I'm going to give it a go!
Glad to see that you are back in the cult of the BGE James!
Maybe you'll get into this in your upcoming videos but I have to ask — is there any way to adapt that BGE sliding expander rack to the Big Joe? I've started to use the BJ expansion grill to simulate the Chud Box as you demonstrated in one of your videos. Using live fire using wood splits with the meat higher up has been a game changer for me. But you just can't add wood in that configuration the way you can with a Chud Box. Having a way to easily add wood during a cook would be amazing.
Does bbq really need to be this complicated?
Can’t wait for the Austin episodes. When will you visit KC BBQ?
200F isn't cold smoked. Real cold smoke is around room temp.
that skin lotion could be utilized as a tasty binder on your next smoke ???
I call Cooper Abercrombie (Bar-A-BBQ) the BBQ Mythbuster. He is showing the world that dirty smoke, within limits, is not a dirty word. And it tickles me to death to see him use Match Light charcoal to start his fires. He trained under Jirby (Goldee's BBQ), who has personally debunked these myths. They are showing all of the so-called BBQ purists that they are following a false gospel. The truth will set the BBQ world free.
Would this method work on a Weber Smokey Mountain?
Congratulations James. You clearly are on the BBQ map if you're being hosted by the BBQ glitterati. I'm really eager to see the entire series!
If you were to design a grill/smoker what materials, size , and shape would you choose?
I've been saying for years "dirty smoke" was flavor. "Thin blue smoke" is smoke for people who don't really like smoke
That’s funny. I was just watching a bar a video for brisket and he said he pulls it dead center 195. He didn’t even do probe tender. I was going to ask you about it and I saw this video! Would you recommend just pulling it dead center at 195 now?
Awesome cook!!!! I want to up my game and will be trying this soon!
James! Are you still team red?
Very interesting. my little smoker is difficult to maintain that clean blue smoke so most of the time it is the white cold smoke and was always wondering how much it effects the taste and its nice to know that the white smoke is actually desired for cold smoke method. I even use the pizza stone as a deflector like you have.
Wonderful video!
Thanks for doing this video that included both cold smoke and overnight holding. I used a pellet tube several times to create cold smoke but only mildy satisfied with the smoke taste from the cold smoke. I used apple pellets and it still was strong almost bad smoke. I try again and make sure the top is fully open and try the live fire with the cold weather we have now. How long do you hold your meats in your oven? I like to cook briskets, pull pork and other long cook meats the day before severing. I target to finish cooking around 9 pm the night before and hold the meat at 148 degrees in a food warmer for 18 hours with very good results.
The majority of bbq YouTube has been convinced that the traditional ways of bbq are wrong and modern innovation is the only way to get good bbq, and just this last year that attitude has been changing. I first really saw it with Al (iirc his name) at the Eat More Vegans channel and it’s nice to see. When I started bbqing back in the 80s (from real old timers) and got more serious in the 90s, smoking at 185-225 was normal and it was dirty (but not filthy). Exhaust vent wide open (we called it a rain cap, not a damper) and choke it at the front end so it makes lots of smoke but the smoke flows over no restrictions instead of sitting with the exhaust backed up. Then you could crank it up after a couple hours and clean up the smoke to finish the cook. None of this is new. I really like that you specifically experiment so much (it’s what I enjoy most about bbqing myself) but if you try looking back and trying the old ways you might be able to find a way to improve it rather as well, like you do with the newer style.
Also, cold smoke is below like 80f, 185-225f is hot smoke, 250+f is grilling with smoke for us (hurts to call myself this) old timers. Hearing people calling 200+ smoking cold smoking always trips me up lol
Say it ain’t so?!? BGE?? 😢
What wireless probe are you using in this video?
Please, it is not LeeRoy Lewis, it is LeRoy Lewis! Sound like LaRoy
I am glad to see that this is starting to catch on. Jirby BBQ, pitmaster at Goldees, was doing videos on this 3-4 years ago and the "thin blue smoke" BBQ purists were everywhere shouting sinner! I have been cooking that way every since and it has been great.
Great video James. It seems like starting with cold smoke is making waves. I'd first started pulling briskets at low to mid 190's ever since Jonny White from Goldee's had mentioned it, I had no idea that others had also been doing the same. Since he had worked at Franklin's, he had once mentioned that some 70% of the briskets at Franklin's get overcooked. Interesting if they too, started pulling when the briskets are still tight!
beef ribs have been my nemesis. We love them when they turn out, but more than any other meat, I get mixed results with them…. never understood why. Of late, I've been going hotter and faster using a double indirect fire – a youtuber I follow suggested it 🙂 This looks like a return to lower and slower. I have never been able to get a bark that looks as good as this video in the BGE. I have an Oklahoma Joe's at the cabin that sometimes comes close. Just finished an overnight pulled pork so this one is on the list for next weekend.
Welcome to club cold smoke
Can you smoke on a kettle grill?
Primo is the best!!!!
Those ribs looked great. Do you ever do a temp check or monitor with a probe while they are holding? I'm wondering what the final temp lands at before they start to come back down.