{"id":1290,"date":"2026-05-31T15:14:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/2026\/05\/31\/ceramic-grilling\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T22:37:47","slug":"ceramic-grilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/2026\/05\/31\/ceramic-grilling\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceramic Grilling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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London Sunshine Cadet 13\u201d Kamado<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I learned a while ago that a domed kettle is the optimum shape for grilling and smoking. Along with proper venting control this provides a stable temperature environment for your cooks as well as quick temperature changes up or down as needed. Which is why I ended up switching to Weber charcoal grills – the de facto standard in charcoal kettle grills. Weber grills have treated me so well, in fact, that I quit using my dedicated smokers. My professional smoker (which was<\/em> my pride and joy) hasn\u2019t been used in years. I need to sell it or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another kettle\/domed type grill that was out there that I didn\u2019t give much thought to was the ceramic kamado style cooker. Your Big Green Eggs, Kamado Joes, and the likes. The cost was prohibitive. I thought Webers were overprice, kamados were triple the cost for comparative sized Webers. The is why I never tried them. Until this little guy came out, the Cadet by London Sunshine<\/a>. Cheap enough to give it a go. See what all the hype is about. The problem? It is tiny. The Weber Smokey Joe 14\u201d sells for around $69. The London Sunshine Cadet? $239. Quadruple the price of a standard weber that small. To add insult to injury, the Cadet has an even smaller grid diameter than the Smokey Joe. I also ordered the small deflector plate London Sunshine makes to fit this little kamado. I ordered that on May 20. It has yet to arrive. Or even ship out for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cadet next to the Weber Smokey Joe 14<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Cadet actual grill diameter is about 10 inches<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Smokey Joe actual grill diameter is about 13 inches<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Cadet arrived. It was heavy. Duh. One of the major drawbacks of ceramic grills is the weight. These things are heavy as fuck. This small one is 50 pounds. Required some assembly – the stand, handles, etc. Your normal assembly of a standard ceramic kamado. I had it complete in less than 20 minutes. The next day I fired it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial burn of a ceramic is not supposed to exceed 400 degrees F, though the grill makers claim you can get up to over 700. With that 400 degree limit in mind I dropped in 12 Kingsford charcoal briquettes and placed a tumbleweed under the cast iron grate. Once the coals were lit I placed a chunk of mesquite on the coals, placed the small grate on top, and closed the lid. Both bottom and top vents were wide open until I got within 50 degrees of my desired temp – 225 (desired temp was 275). Once that was hit I restricted both top and bottom vents and it settled in between 275 and 300. Good enough for this test so I left it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They<\/em> say you should only use lump charcoal in kamados. Not regular briquettes. They<\/em> say regular charcoal will clog the pores of the ceramic. I say, why does that matter? Pretty sure them pores are clogged already because of that glazed paint coating on the outside. But what do I know. I fully intend on using lump charcoal, but this was all I had on hand at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You learn real quick with ceramics that getting the temperature up is easy. Getting that temperature to lower once you overshoot is not due to the ceramic insulation. It takes forever to lower your temperature. Those 12 briquettes held that temp steady for 5 hours. I was thoroughly impressed. Enough to begin my next stage – figuring out which full-sized kamado I would be added to small grill collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most unfortunate part of this testing phase was the timing. I was within the week prior to my upcoming colonoscopy which meant red meat was off the menu. FML. My first cook was BBQ chicken breasts. Seasoned with Marion Kay\u2019s Chicken seasoning (rumored to be the Colonel\u2019s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices) and slathered with Rudy\u2019s BBQ sauce. Quite tasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once that little deflector arrives, I\u2019ve got the perfect small picnic roast to smoke on this Cadet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My foray into ceramic grilling\/smoking has begun. Experimented with a London Sunshine Cadet 13 to see what all the hype was. In a word, amazing. More on my corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Ceramic Grilling","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[499],"tags":[683,219,682,680,419,417],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grill","tag-ceramic","tag-grill","tag-kamado","tag-smoker","tag-smokey-joe","tag-weber"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img_2026-05-31-143910.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1290"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basilweb.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}