I love BBQ!

I love the smell of a hot grill cooking up some steaks, I love the smell of a slow-cooking smoker and above all, I love the taste of flame-kissed food.

Humans have been cooking food over open flame for eons; historically, a fire pit or fire place – a “permanent” structure would have been used to cook food. The word barbecue itself has only been around for a few hundred years, however, appearing for the first time in print in 1672, and only in recent history has the cooker become “portable”.

There is a lot of debate over the proper use of the word barbecue and it seems to be regional. In North America, the word means to slow cook over low heat, and grilling is to cook something quickly over high heat, where in Britain, barbecue refers to grilling quickly over high heat and grilling means to cook something under high heat (what is referred to as broiling in North America). Regardless of definition, however, it can be agreed upon that the whole process results in absolute deliciousness.

Now onto the actual point of this Weekly Feature:

Charcoal grills nearly died off in previous decades, save for a few die hards enthusiasts who refused to give in to the lure of propane and then natural gas. Now it seems as though the Grilling and BBQ world are returning to their roots, going “au naturel” if you will with the re-invention of charcoal cooking. One of the companies hopping on the wagon is Primo who has come out with a line of 3 ceramic BBQ/Grills and accessories to go with them.

The Oval Junior and XL are oval-shaped grills. Other than size, they are exactly alike. They both have expandable grill space, cast iron chimneys, and the potential to divide the firebox to allow for two different types of cooking to occur at the same time! The whole thing is genius. The ceramic holds the heat so well that it allows for a completely even cooking process. There are no hot spots due to a burner malfunction and the “Q” is virtually unscathed by inclement weather. The fact that the ceramic holds heat so well also means that it can be used for almost any type of cooking or baking you want! You can even use it as a food dehydrator once it’s cooled down enough.

The Kamado is an egg-shaped cooker and is extremely similar to the Large Big Green Egg. It has a slightly larger cooking surface is less expensive, and a few other minor differences, but all in all they are the same darn thing. Except for that the Primo units are made in America, not Mexico. And as far as I’m concerned that’s as good as Made in Canada!

 The really nice thing about this line is that there are three different sizes that all function pretty much the same way. The Kamado is the smallest, coming in at 280 square inches of standard cooking surface. The next in line is the Oval Junior which has 310 square inches of cooking surface and then the Oval XL which has 680 Square inches of cooking surface. ALL of these units are expandable to have multi-level cooking surfaces, both allowing you to cook different types of food at once, but also expands your cooking surface to accommodate feeding more people!

A final feature that I really appreciate with this brand is that each of their grills comes with ceramic feet so that you don’t even need the cradle if you don’t want it. You can simply place these on a sturdy flat surface and be done with it. The great thing about the cradle though, is that it allows you to move your grill wherever you want it which can be really nice when you end up with more company than expected once word – and smell – gets out that you’re cooking on lump charcoal!

If you aren’t completely sold on Primo BBQ’s and Grills yet, come on down to our store and check them out in person. We will also be conducting demonstrations as well as a series of cooking classes where we will feature the Primo Oval XL and some of the accessories we have in-store. AND our classes will be run by a local BBQ Pitmaster Judge, so keep watching for more details.

Happy Grilling!

If you would like to be notified via phone or email when any of our special events are planned, please send me an email to: info2012@kootenayoutdoorliving.com or give me a call: 250-368-5552