What charcoal to use in a kamado (and which to avoid)

Lump charcoal is simply carbonised wood: no binders, no starch, no borate. It lights in 12-15 minutes, reaches 350-400 °C effortlessly for a pizza, settles to a stable 110 °C for a long smoke and, once you shut the vents, self-extinguishes so you reuse what is left next cook. That reuse is key in ceramic: with a well-sealed kamado, a quality bag of lump lasts roughly twice as long as in an open grill.

Pressed briquettes are a different animal. They contain a binder to hold their shape, light more slowly, throw more ash (3-5% more by volume) and many supermarket brands carry chemicals that a kamado, being a sealed chamber, concentrates. The extra ash is the real practical problem: it clogs the lower air intake and chokes your temperature exactly when you are six hours into a cook. On an open grill you do not notice; in a kamado you do.

The honest exception: for very long, stable low-temperature sessions, a pure additive-free briquette — like ProFagus Grillis or BlackSellig coconut — holds a more uniform ember bed than irregular lump. But for 90% of cooks, and certainly anything above 250 °C, lump wins on clean flavour, control and less ash. If you are only buying one bag, make it hardwood lump.

Smoke in a kamado is added separately from the charcoal: you place three or four wood chunks among the embers, not fine chips that burn off in two minutes. The sealed ceramic circulates that smoke for hours, so a little wood is enough — overdoing it is the classic mistake that leaves an ashtray taste. Rule of thumb: 60-100 g of chunks per cut, spread out, and never soak the wood (water only makes steam, not smoke).

Each wood has its character. Fruit woods — apple and cherry, like Weber Apple chunks or Grill Republic premium cherry — give a sweet, mild smoke, ideal for pork, chicken and fish. Olive, very much a local wood (Smokey Olive Wood makes it in Spain), is mid-range and pairs perfectly with lamb and vegetables. Hickory (American walnut), like Weber Hickory chunks or Axtschlag pecan chunks, is the rib and brisket classic: powerful, with that bacon-like edge.

The one to treat with respect is mesquite. It is the most aggressive wood there is: it burns hot and leaves an intense, almost medicinal flavour that ruins a delicate cut in minutes. If you have mesquite chips like Exstream BBQ, use them by the spoonful and only on heavily seared red meat (tex-mex-style beef roasts), never on chicken or fish. To start, stick with fruit or olive wood: they forgive excess.

Lighter fluid is the kamado's number-one enemy. The porous ceramic absorbs the fluid's hydrocarbons and releases them for months: a single use can leave your kamado smelling of kerosene on every cook for half a year, with no easy way to reverse it. The same goes for cheap chemical firelighters and pre-soaked "instant light" briquettes: in a sealed oven those vapours do not vent, they concentrate in the food.

Always light dry. The cleanest and cheapest option is wax or vegetable-fibre cubes (two or three, in the centre of the pile, 12-15 minutes to ember), or an electric blower like Looftlighter or Looftlighter Air that lights smoke-free in 60-90 seconds. If you come from a traditional grill, a chimney starter like the Weber Rapidfire also works, though a kamado needs it less.

The other big reject is anonymous petrol-station or bazaar charcoal. It is usually mixed softwood, poorly carbonised, with tiny pieces that slip through the grate and a high share of fines that produce only ash. You spot it because the bag names neither the wood species nor the origin: if it does not say "quebracho", "holm oak", "marabú" or "hardwood", be suspicious. A 1,500-euro kamado fed with 3-euro-a-bag charcoal cooks like a 30-euro grill.

The most important kamado rule runs counter to intuition: you always load the basket full, no matter what. Temperature is not controlled by the amount of charcoal but by the air vents. Filling the basket and then choking the oxygen gives you a stable session; loading little charcoal to "run a low temperature" only gets it to die out mid-cook.

For short, high-heat cooks — pizza at 350-400 °C, a quick-seared ribeye, vegetables — light a single spot in the pile with one cube: the ember front spreads on its own and in 15 minutes you are ready. The unburnt charcoal is saved for next time. For a medium session (whole chicken, ribs in 3-4 hours at 150-160 °C) light one or two spots and let it climb slowly.

For real low & slow — brisket or pulled pork of 8-14 hours at 110-120 °C — a basket filled to the brim is non-negotiable: a well-sealed Classic/Large burns around 1 kg of lump per hour at that temperature, so 6-8 kg cover the whole night without reloading. A dedicated charcoal basket like the stainless Onlyfire helps here, keeping the pile compact and improving the draught. A 9-15 kg bag — Kamado Joe Big Block XL, Jealous Devil Quebracho or Orework Spanish holm oak — gives you between two long sessions and a whole season of short cooks.

The Spanish market now has excellent options that did not exist five years ago. For top-tier lump, the benchmark is Jealous Devil 100% White Quebracho (15.8 kg): large, dense pieces, almost no fines, that burn very long and withstand sear temperatures without crumbling. The Kamado Joe Big Block XL (9.1 kg) is the brand option designed for ceramic, with pieces sized just right for the basket.

For local, sustainable product, Orework Spanish Holm Oak (15 kg) is hard to beat: Iberian holm oak, very stable embers and zero food miles. TODOBRASA Marabú Premium (10 kg), from Cuban marabú, is another favourite for its density and burn time. For a tight budget and big-box availability, Big K Lumpwood (10 kg) does the job without pretension, and Kingston Tools Lumpwood (750 g) is handy to try before committing to a big bag.

In pure briquettes — if you want them for those ultra-long sessions — ProFagus Grillis and PINI COAL Premium are the reliable ones; BlackSellig coconut briquettes last an age. For smoke, round it off with a couple of chunk bags: fruit (Weber Apple, Grill Republic cherry), domestic olive (Smokey Olive Wood) and hickory/pecan (Weber, Axtschlag) cover everything you will cook in the first year.

Where to buy: specialist kamado and barbecue shops carry the best range of premium lump and chunks; big-box stores cover briquettes and basic lump; and online you find the import brands (Jealous Devil, Kamado Joe) that are rarely in a physical store. Buy the big bag of your favourite lump and a couple of chunk bags, and you have fuel for months.