Grilling with Saffire
How to Cook Like a Champion
Kamados are well-known for cooking mouth-watering meats: steaks, ribs, burgers, poultry, and even fish. Kamado grilling not only means high-temperature grilling, but also slow smoking and even baking. With a Saffire at your disposal, you can learn how to cook almost anything on a kamado.
Imagine such exotic foods cooking on your grill as pork roast, pot pies, beef jerky, pizza/calzones, bacon and eggs, homemade bread, or clams. You can make a stir-fry on a kamado, for grilling’s sake! So load up your Saffire with all-natural lump charcoal, because you’re about to learn how to cook like a champion!
A Southern Delicacy on the Saffire Kamado Grill
Breakfast Bake on a Kamado Grill
Some Super Saffire Steak Tacos
A Quick Saffire Grilled Breakfast
An Easy Saffire Dinner for Two
A Kamado Steak Night
Simple Citrus Baby Back Ribs
A Quick and Easy Recipe for Saffire Hot Wings
How to Smoke Baby Back Ribs on your Kamado Grill
A Wood Fired Pizza Dough Recipe: Exceptional Kamado Grilling
How to Use Your Saffire: Kamado Grilling
How to Start the Fire
Caution: Never Use Lighter Fluid Inside Your Saffire! It Will Void Your Warranty!
Not only does lighter fluid have an odor and lower the quality of your food, but it can also damage the ceramics in your grill.
Preparing to Start the Fire
- Remove the Cooking Grid. (You can hang the grid on the Side Shelf Tool Hooks while you light the fire.)
- Remove excess ash.
- If you have a Charcoal Basket, just give the Charcoal Basket a shake to knock excess ash down into the Ash Pan. This helps maintain better air flow for easier starting. Then any remaining charcoal is good to use again.
- For grills without a Charcoal Basket, stir the charcoal around with your Ash Cleaning Tool. This will knock the ash down through the Cast Iron Fire Grate, where it can be removed through the bottom vent/ash door.
- Add charcoal as needed.
- If you have a traditional ceramic Firebox, pour lump charcoal into the Firebox, on top of the Cast Iron Fire Grate, until it covers the series of round holes in the Firebox. When you want to cook or smoke for more than three hours, you can fill it to the top of the Firebox instead.
- For grills with Saffire’s Crucible Firebox, you can fill the Charcoal Basket all the way up, or load the Crucible’s Fire Grate with three inches of charcoal. (Remember to leave a space between the charcoal and the firebox, so air can reach the charcoal on the sides for optimal heat.)
NOTE: When you want to use the “Smokin’ Chip Feeder” to add wood chips to the fire, it’s good to make sure the charcoal is not covering the access port at the front of the firebox area (see details under Smoking on a Saffire).
Starting Your Kamado
- Start the fire.
- When using a combustible fire-starter, nestle one down into the charcoal. You can place fire-starters in more than one spot in the charcoal if you want to get the whole area burning quicker for high-temperature kamado grilling and searing. (While arranging your starter, you can stack some charcoal around it to speed up the ignition process. Be sure to leave enough air space around the stacked charcoal for the air and flame or it will not burn properly.) Now light the starter.
- When using an electric fire-starter, nestle it down into the charcoal so it rests in the charcoal just above the Fire Grate. The charcoal should envelope the lower half of the starter element. At this point you can plug in the starter. Remember to unplug and remove the starter within 8 minutes to avoid damaging the starter. Once you see a nice ember going inside the charcoal, the fire should continue to increase even after removing the starter.
- Let the temperature rise. Replace the Cooking Grid and close the grill. Then swing the Chimney Top Air Control fully open until the grill is up to the desired temperature.
- Adjust the temperature the way you want it. When the grill has reached the right temperature, adjust the Top and Bottom Air Controls according to your needs (see Controlling the Temperature).
Using a Grill-Safe Fire Starter Square
Using an Electric Fire Starter
Don’t forget to extinguish the fire when you are finished cooking. Simply close the Top and Bottom Air Controls to snuff the fire out. This will efficiently preserve any remaining coals for next use. (Note that you can close the Air Controls before your food is finished cooking. Your Saffire will hold its heat for a long time. However, see the safety section below.)
How to Control the Temperature
Using the Cooking Grids
How to Roast and Smoke with the Heat Deflector
Smoking on a Saffire
Secondary Cooking Grid
Cleaning the Cooking Grids
How to Clean Out the Ash
Cooking Guidelines
Pizza
General Guidelines
The Saffire makes a fantastic ceramic pizza oven! Here are three ways you can set it up:
- Place a Pizza Stone on top of the Cooking Grids, level with the top of the grill. (This may incur a little extra wear and stress on the Cooking Grids over time, especially if you are an avid pizza chef.)
- Invert the wire Multi-Rack and set the Pizza Stone on top.
- Mount the Saffire Accessory Bracket on the Multi-Rack and place the stone on top.
After adding the Pizza Stone, bring the grill up to 500°-600° F and maintain that temperature with the Air Controls set to high (see Controlling the Temperature).
Once the grill has reached 500°-600°, do not wait much more than a couple of minutes to put the pizza on. First spread a layer of corn meal on top of the Pizza Stone, and then place the pizza on that. Careful vigilance is required to ensure the pizza crust does not burn.
- When making pizza from scratch you can build your pizza right on the stone.
- Wearing gloves and using a Grid Gripper when transporting a hot Pizza Stone is highly recommended.
Tips for Preventing Burned Pizza
Here are some suggestions to help prevent the crust from burning. These are especially helpful when baking a thicker or stuffed pizza, calzone, etc., which has a tendency to burn on the bottom before it cooks in the middle. Doing all of these together will help more than any one individual suggestion.
- Place the pizza on a cold Pizza Stone, and then place the stone into the preheated kamado grill. The ceramic Pizza Stone absorbs more and more heat the longer it stays in the hot grill, making it more likely the bottom of your pizza will burn.
- Place the Ceramic Heat Deflector on top of the Multi-Rack, and then place the Pizza Stone on top of the deflector. This provides a higher heat deflection to absorption ratio. You may also substitute a second Pizza Stone in place of a Heat Deflector.
- To keep the Pizza Stone the pizza sits on cooler, rotate that Pizza Stone out with each new pizza you make. You would need at least two Pizza Stones to do this, as well as a Heat Deflector or Pizza Stone for the top Pizza Stone to sit on (see suggestion #2). We suggest using the Grid Gripper, with cooking gloves, to hold onto hot Pizza Stones, along with your Ash Tool to hold it steady as needed.
Safety
Warning: Never grill indoors, or where there is not a reasonable open flow of air. Burning charcoal generates carbon monoxide, which can be fatal in large amounts. Don't use your grill in your home, garage or tent. Allow your grill to fully cool down before storing inside.
Warning: If it has only been a couple of minutes since you have closed down the air setting on a very hot fire, do not abruptly open the lid. As with most grills, this can cause the additional smoke in the top of the grill to ignite into a ball of flame when it is opened. When opening the grill it is always a good practice to first open the Chimney Top completely and then lift the lid open one or two inches and hold there for a count of 5. Then open the lid fully. This allows both oxygen to enter and excess smoke to exit the grill slowly and safely.
Warning: Never allow your grill's temperature (as measured at the grill dome by the temperature gauge) to exceed 900° F! Allowing temperatures that exceed 900° F pose a safety hazard.
Warning: Make sure to let ash fully cool before removing from grill. The ash in your grill may take more than two hours to fully cool. Wait several hours to clean out the ash, or wait and do so before your next cook.
Warning: Always store used ash in a non-combustible container. Ash may still be extremely hot, even when it seems cool. Storing ash in a combustible container may lead to unintentional fires.
Warning: Always use a non-combustible safety "under grill" mat when grilling over a combustible surface, such as a wooden deck. The under grill mat should be underneath the grill, and reach at least 18" away from the front of the grill. Hot coals and embers, if fallen or shot from the grill, can slowly start fires on combustible surfaces, leading to unforeseen property damage and loss of life.
Caution: Avoid burns from hot surfaces. Saffire's ceramics make them much safer than traditional metal grills, however there are a few hot spots you should be aware of. The Smokin' Chip Feeder cap on the front of your grill and the Chimney Top can get very hot as the temperature on your grill rises. Be careful when touching these metal components while the grill is in use. Protective gloves may be necessary.
Danger to Equipment
Caution: Avoid grilling at temperatures (as measured at the grill dome by the temperature gauge) above 700° F. Consistent cooking at temperatures that exceed 700° F may reduce the life-expectancy of your grill.
Caution: Never use lighter fluid inside your Saffire! It will void your warranty! Not only does lighter fluid have an odor and lower the quality of your food, but it can also damage the ceramics in your grill.
Caution: Do not allow ash to fill all the way up to the fire grate! This prevents air from flowing around the grate, causing the grate to get extremely hot and reducing its life expectancy.
Caution: Don't soak your ceramic components, such as a heat deflector or firestone, in water. Soaking ceramic components in water for extended periods of time may increase their risk of breaking, limiting their overall lifetime. (In the case of accidental soaking, allow ceramic components to air-dry for at least 24 hours before further use in the grill.)
Caution: When using your grill where ocean spray is present, be sure to clean and cover your grill once cool. Salt is highly corrosive to metals. Powder-coated steels are extremeley susceptible to rust when in contact with this chemical, and even 304 stainless steel can rust with long-term exposure. If your grill is on the beach front, be sure to spray your grill down once it's cooled after each use, and then cover it.
Caution: Keeping your grill near a hot tub will void your warranty! Chlorine is highly corrosive to metals. Never keep your grill near a hot tub, where chlorine spray and fumes can eat away at the steel components, including bands, hinge and springs.
Other Kamado Resources on the Web
How-To Recipe Blogs
YouTube Videos with Saffire
Happy Grilling!
