Meat & Greet BBQ Podcast

My Kamado Fell Off the Outdoor Kitchen (and it got worse from there)

Owen & Dan Season 7 Episode 10

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What happens when your kamado tries to swan dive off the outdoor kitchen mid-cook? We get candid about the mess, the ash, the panic, and the fixes that stop it happening again. From a Christmas “brisketta” that blew past the predicted timeline to a gammon glazed in rum and coke that turned out beautifully, we unpack how small choices shape big results when you’re cooking for people you love.

We trade the January performance grind for practical midweek sessions: flat-top fajitas, hot-and-fast chicken, and quiet cooks that sharpen timing without the camera rolling. Then we go deep on value: bulk-buying from the butcher, controlling fat for better burgers and sears, and even stretching sides with a 25-kilo sack of local potatoes that tastes better and costs less than supermarket packs. It’s a reminder that great barbecue is half sourcing, half process.

New gear has us dreaming bigger. A stout rotisserie and deep roasting pans unlock shawarma over wood, spinning roasts with self-basting juices, and richer gravies. A cocktail smoker sparks experiments with cold-smoked coffee beans and subtle aromatics. Along the way we talk safety and design: why kamados can get top heavy on low units, how to add stops, choose the right feet, and load fuel without tipping. And because pain teaches fast, we confess the chili-to-eye mistake and share practical ways to avoid it.

Looking ahead, we’re plotting premium chicken to test whether heritage birds earn their price, eyeing Meatopia and local smokehouses for inspiration, and lining up weekends where friends actually want to stand outside again. If you’ve battled the weather, the clock, or your own equipment, you’ll feel seen here. Hit play, learn from our chaos, and come out with smarter prep, safer setups, and tastier plates. If you enjoyed the chat, follow the show, share it with a barbecue friend, and leave a review to help more grill nerds find us.

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Sponsor And Warm Intro

Owen

Today's episode is brought to you by AOS Kitchens, the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists. Welcome to another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Today it's a catch-up between me and Dan. It's been a while since we've got together, had a chat around all things barbecue.

Dan

So let's get straight to it. Dan, how are you doing, mate? Yeah, good, thanks. Good. Feels nice seeing you after Christmas period that always seems to last a whole month, just because of how busy everyone is. How did your Christmas day go with all of the barbecuing you had planned?

Christmas Cooks Recapped

Owen

Yeah, really well. I mean, obviously, we we last caught up on Christmas Eve and did the Christmas Eve special. I mean, we're now what on the 2nd of February recording. I appreciate it won't be released for a few weeks, but it does feel instantly odd talking about Christmas. Uh it's it's a distant memory, to be perfectly honest with you, but it was good. The meat turned out as I expected. Well, um, I did and the thing that I was most looking forward to, if I if you remember correctly, I saw I picked up on one of the um uh videos that Shropshire Lad had put out just before Christmas about his um gammon, you know, like his gammon ham in a rum and coke uh reduction, like a glaze. Did that absolutely banging. So well done, Shropshire Lad. Honestly, it was so good. So I'll definitely be picking that up again.

Dan

Well, the reason I wanted to ask you is that's been the last big barbecue cook I've done. I've done one or two other little bits and pieces, so it's still kind of fresh in my mind, mainly because I got that um brisketta, which is like a smaller version of a brisket, and the whole thing about it is it's meant to take like three and a half, four hours. Still took uh six and a half hours, and that's even after I ramped it up for the last hour and a half, conscious that I was gonna be late for Christmas. So it came out really well. Like I was surprised how well it came out in the end. But I mean, talk about stress on Christmas Day that you just don't need. I may I may as well have done a brisket and stuck it on before I went to bed Christmas Eve night during. To be honest,

The Brisketta That Wouldn’t Hurry

Dan

I don't I've never heard a brisketter. Yeah, it was a new cut that I found on the John Davidson's website, and I cannot fault how good it was. Really good to eat, and I mean every bit of beef is different, right? Every cut, like you I dare say I'll have it again, it'll do in the like three and a half hours. But it was around 800 grams in size, and it just took forever compared to what it suggests it should take. Do you know what I mean? So, what was it? The flat? Yeah, right.

Owen

Okay, so it was just a small piece of flat.

Dan

Yeah, basically, but I still wasn't expecting it to take that long, and then you have to factor in rest time as well. Yeah, like uh I was lucky that I had it on at like five to six in the morning, six, just to allow. Otherwise, I would have been absolutely stuffed for like half one, two o'clock

January Slump And Low-Social Cooking

Dan

eating. But we got there, we got there in the end, but um, other than that, I've kind of uh we've spoken a few times, I don't know if it's January, the kind of going off social media thing, and I just I've barely posted anything. All the little cooks I've done have been basically blackstone or like hot and fast on the monolith, and mainly like just chicken bits and pieces for like wraps and and for heaters and and things like that, yeah. Um, which you know it's it's nice to get out there, but I just I haven't bothered taking photos of anything, I've not been interested in doing that, I've not been interested in videoing anything. Um, kind of like the opposite of if a tree falls in a wood and runs around, does it actually make a sound? Well, I I'm barbecuing, but no one's seeing it, and it doesn't really matter to me, which I suppose is the way it should be. But I don't know what it is about January and just completely switching off from social media. Have you found the same yourself? Or um so I've I've done a fair few cooks.

Owen

Um I've attempted we'll we'll come on to a barbecue fail in a minute, but which I was videoing or attempting to video. So there's a couple there's a couple of things that I have filmed, and I was trying to put a decent reel or a you know a short YouTube video, not a short, but a short enough one that anyway. But then when I started to look back at the quality and it it wasn't quite what I wanted. Um I again we've obviously been posting stuff about the podcast and a couple of stories here and there, not necessarily cooks, but I have been cooking. Yeah. A fair amount, obviously, the the weather hasn't really been that good, but um yeah, just uh I've not slowed I have slowed down midweek.

Dan

See, I'm the opposite. I mean, I I I haven't had my weekends for pretty much December and Jan. So

Bulk Buying Meat And Value Chat

Dan

my like barbecuing had to be kind of midweek, and I think that's also the other reason why just not taking photos, not doing videos of it, perhaps, because you're like work, kids, bed, chuck stuff on, eat. It's like 10 at night now, um, and kind of re rinse and repeat.

Owen

But um, I I want to do another water spring, yeah, yeah, or in just getting a little bit lighter. Um and and yeah, and also right, obviously, as we we love the social element, not you know, certainly I don't you know probably the same for you. My family doesn't want to go outside in the middle of January, two degrees and whatever, and you just end up kind of standing out there on your own, which is fine, bit of alone time, but uh but it I quite like the social aspect. So I'm not I'm looking forward to spring when people are more than happy to join you where it's a little bit warmer, you can make a bit more of a thing about it.

Dan

I'm trying to plan what my next big cook will be because for my birthday I got a 40 pound Tom Higstons voucher, which fantastic, exactly what I want. But um Smithfield's market closed, isn't it? And that's where they get the majority of their meat. So there's not been as much on the website, and they're like, we're sorry, we're trying to get more store. Like, you know, that's absolutely fine. But timings-wise, I'm like, all the stuff that's on there, they're really expensive cuts at the moment, and I'm like, I want something that I can drop like £40 voucher on and top up with another £20, 30 quid. I don't necessarily want to have to spend another £140 on top of the 40 to get something in. So I'm I'm in that in-between of do I bide my time and just wait until something comes on there? Do I go for something completely different? Just go to your local butcher. Well, I I've been doing that for the chicken and stuff. It's more the fact I've got this voucher. So I'm like, shall I get something that I can't necessarily easily get from the butcher? Do you know what I mean? Which is available on site on online. But um, yeah, I've got my classic uh five kilos of minced beef and five kilos of chicken breast that I do from my butcher. No one else does it, or if you thought about it, it's cheaper than the supermarket, it's better quality. Yes, you bag it up yourself into like portions and and freeze it so you can get it all you want, but it's so much better doing it that way than just getting your meat at the supermarket, which God knows where else they pump into it as well, either. You know, the amount of moisture that seems to come out when you're doing that nightmare. Buy in bulk.

Owen

Uh yeah, yeah, I'd I'd I'd do the same, but I actually I I actually don't think there's a especially with beef at the minute, I don't necessarily think there's a huge amount of difference. What price-wise, do you mean, or quality? Yeah, yeah, prop pro price-wise, you know, I went to Tesco's fairly recently, and I think it was about 750 grams of mints, was seven quid, nearly eight quid or something. And you just think so.

Dan

I because I bought mine in bulk, um, I got steak mints, five percent fat, um, and it came out at just over six pounds a kilo. So love loving it, absolutely loving it, and also I like if you make burgers and stuff, you can pick what fat you add to it to get it back up to 20%, whether it's like tallow, whether it's butter, whether it's flavoured butter. But yeah, that's that's that's geeky burger making, right?

Owen

I tell you one of the things I did buy in bulk uh over the Christmas period, which I've never done before, but from a value perspective, so I picked up the meat at the butcher's for for Christmas and that, and they they were selling full sacks, 25 kilo sacks of potatoes, local potatoes, six quid. So you got like you got about 50, 60 potatoes for for like six quid.

The Great Kamado Fall And Aftermath

Owen

Honestly, so good, so good. I mean, obviously, we had potatoes for days, uh, even to the point where as guests were leaving, yeah, it takes some potatoes, you know. Uh we we still didn't get quite through all the bag, which I hate food waste, but it was a lot of potatoes. But what but the actual value considering you'll pay two and a half quid or whatever for like six in a bag at the supermarket, and this was 25 kilos worth, and and and they were big old, you know, big old potatoes. I mean, it did come with half a field in the bag still, so that was probably a couple of kilos of uh soil, but you know it it was it was pretty pretty pretty darn good value. And it's felt you were eating proper big ass meaty potatoes, doesn't it?

Dan

Yeah, which is exactly what you want if you're like doing jackets or or anything else for that matter. I'd I hate having to deal with the little new potatoes and stuff if you're like peeling them, and I'd much prefer just get me a few big fatty boys, yeah, skin them, strip them down so they're naked, soak them for a little bit so they're tender, have my way with them.

Owen

That's a wonderful time.

Dan

I mean, after I've taken them back out of myself, I tend to roast them off.

Owen

So it cannot, I want to get to a barbecue fail straight away. Yeah, because it happened uh uh last week. So uh I decided so I I've recently invested in a secondhand GoPro camera. So um obviously we did the last episode just before Christmas, and we were out outside and we had the one camera set up. Um want to try and make some more video content this year, and I thought, right, well, I don't want to spend a huge amount of money, so I'll get a secondhand camera, not a new model or anything like that, but something of good enough quality. Anyway, got that, arrived, and I thought, right, do you know what? I'm gonna do a a full English uh sorry, a full English roast dinner on the barbecue, you know, create some content, vegetables, everything on there. Anyway, so it starts to get things going. So I got the Somerset grill going, and I was doing a pork loin, um, and then I was gonna use the broil king to get some cauliflower cheese and bits of so I had a few bits that were on the Somerset, a few bits that were on the Broil King. Um got the got the thing going, got the Somerset going, started cooking the uh pork and um moved over to the Brawl King. As I was lifting it all out, taking all the old ash out, the the whole thing just completely fell off my kitchen. Like no barbecue just completely fell off the kitchen off the kitchen unit onto my new porcelain tiles. Oh my god. And made a loud bang. And then I was thinking, crap, have I just A broken the kitchen unit that it was on and fallen off, B, have I just smashed my porcelain tile a bit underneath it and see if I broke the bloody barbecue. Thankfully, nothing was broke, but literally obviously ash and soot had gone absolutely everywhere. The whole inside had like come out, so I had to sort of put all the cast iron dish and bowl and all that back together. And then where it was particularly cold outside, I was trying to cook various bits and pieces, and I don't know, maybe it's because I bashed it about a little bit that it just I don't know, was throwing a bit of a grump. Couldn't keep the bloody

Safety, Stands, And Stability Fixes

Owen

temperature. So in the end, uh, and then again because it was cold, I just I'd had a bit of a complete nightmare. But I had this GoPro camera, and I was trying to film the content, and I was in the middle of chopping stuff up and all that, and then I whacked the camera with the barbecue as I was trying to pick it up, thinking I'd broken the bloody camera. Oh my god. Luckily, again, that that's fine. So then I just threw a right strop. I was like, fine, I'm not doing this anymore. I put the camera and stuff away. I thought this is ridiculous, and and and then I was like, uh anyway, I just threw a strop and then nothing was going right. So I ended up finishing half of it in the air fryer because I uh the cat, like I was doing some roast carrots, cooking them for what seemed like a bloody air forever, and they were still rock art, everything else was ready, so I was like, Oh my Christ, this is ridiculous. So then I literally had to finish stuff in the air fryer from end to end, it was just an absolute nightmare. Um, and then the kids were a bit like meh about the pork they didn't really want to eat. You were like, I'm I'm gonna break you. So all in all, it was just uh yeah, it was a it was a bad day in the office, let's put it that way. Yeah, but look at it the other way, right?

Dan

You've had your bad barbecue day for the year. Plain sailing now, mate. Absolutely plain sailing, you go do what you want for the month.

Owen

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Dan

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Owen

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Dan

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Owen

Visit aoskitchens.co.uk.

New Toys: Rotisserie, Roasting Pans, Smokers

Owen

But yeah, so I'm uh it's a little bit frustrating. So obviously, with the Brawl King keg, it it can it came obviously with uh feet, you know, like most, and you know, it was like eight legs, and then like a uh mesh ring that kind of connects them all together. Obviously, now I've put it onto a specific Camado kitchen unit, you know, a half-height thing, yeah, and then I've just put little rubber feet underneath it. But obviously, and I don't know if all Camados would be like this, whether it was what you've got or a big green egg or or Camado or whatever, but it's obviously particularly top-heavy when you lift. So if I take out the cast iron grill, if or or if I take out the charcoal basket, the actual weight of the lid is heavier than the body. So it's actually starting to lean back, and it's happened now a couple of times, so I almost have to hold the hold the barbecue to then almost fill the charcoal or empty the charcoal without you know, obviously I have to have the lid open to get access to it, but as soon as I do that, it becomes too top heavy and starts to lean out. So I'm now having to hold it to then. And then as soon as I put the weight back into it, um it it it obviously then counter counterbalances the the top heavy lid. But yeah, but I what I don't understand is why is it just this particular barbecue? Because obviously lots of Camados and grain eggs and all these kind of stuff are put into kitchens and units very similar, but presumably not having it knit fall off for a star and nearly fall off a few times.

Dan

Well, I mean the stand that mine's in is different, but comes right up the back with the legs and out the way it's designed. But I I I've seen a lot of the kitchens, I've seen them installed it, and they have a wall behind them. And I don't know if that's like a subconscious thing. Obviously, if there's a wall there, it can't go backwards. Worst happens, the the lid touches it, but that feels like a huge design flaw.

Owen

Like maybe it's not designed to go in there, but anyway, yeah, so it proper proper fell off.

Dan

I I'm more thinking not so much the barbecue, but like the little tiny rubber feet. You like you think they've been able to do that?

Owen

They weren't designed for a

Coffee, Cold Smoke, And Fiery Mistakes

Owen

barbecue, they're just quarter-inch thread things that I've just found on the on Amazon or whatever. Maybe I need to lift them up higher, I don't know, to give it more stability, but yeah, it completely fell off.

Dan

No more nails, mate. No more nails the bottom of it. Yeah, that's why I wasn't cooking, right?

Owen

Otherwise, that would have been that that would have been awful the amount of oh because I was I had what I was putting in there was like uh ceramic dishes to to cook various bits and pieces, it would have been an absolute write-off.

Dan

That's genuinely giving me the fear about mine now, despite the fact that I've had it for like five years.

Owen

Yours is not off, yours is on its original legs and not in a unit. Yeah, true, true, still terrifying. Anyway, so yeah, I just I needed I've been saving that for a week or so, but uh oh god, it angered me.

Dan

Oh yeah, I bet it did. I can also imagine the type of stroppy you would have done. You'd have done the classic Owen, head down quiet, storm off, and then come back and start ranting and raving, hands everywhere. Oh, I wish it was filmed. I wish, like, if your security cameras have picked that up, I mean, they probably would have picked it up, um, for sure.

Owen

Oh, and I've still I've still got all the the start of the content that I was creating. So actually, I did have my GoPro camera on, and I think it was recording whilst it fell off, but again, it's too raw that I haven't actually gone through and looked at the content.

Dan

Just make it make sure, not even the content, the security camera of because now that we know everything's fine, I just want to see your reaction when it happened, how you reacted, and how animated it is if it's like a cartoon character.

Owen

Well, that yeah, because obviously then I was trying to pick it back up on my own and this camera in it. I just yeah, I was having it anyway, having a right there. You're lucky you didn't put your back out. God, oh that that would have topped it off.

Dan

That would have been I mean, that would have been quite funny, but now that we know if things okay, it's kind of funny anyway, to be fair. Oh, my mine's nowhere near as exciting as that. I just burnt the shit out of my eyes. I'm stupid. Eyes, uh yeah, so not not not with like fire. So cook something, chopped up some chili as like a garnish, put in like some white wine vinegar and a little bit of sugar to almost like pickle it, and I'd I deliberately put gloves on, but I'd taken one glove off, and then with like bare hand taken the other glove off, and there must have been enough chili oil where I touched or whatever. A minute or two later, I've scratched one eye and then I've yawned and scratched the other, and as I'm scratching the other, the first eye starts like being red-rawn. Like, no, I can't untouch my second eye. And then I just can't see for five minutes. It's bright reds.

Owen

Yeah, like that time at uh visible festival, you touched your uh

Next Big Cooks And Premium Chicken

Owen

private area. I'm walking like a tripod for the first time in my life for about two, three hours, just in constant pain. There is nothing worse than getting chilly in your eye. Which one? Exactly. Both all three. Yeah, same time.

Dan

Oh, yeah, we are stupid, aren't we? Can you not barbecue and properly if you don't make mistakes? Even if they're stupid ones.

Owen

That's true. Well, after uh so after our recent episode with Ben from Somerset Grill, uh I've uh I've just had some goodies arrive. Nice. So I've just got the rotisserie. Uh they've just obviously well they're releasing their uh new roasting pans. What a bit of kit they are. Really solid, deep roasting dish. So um uh and I've got the meat hooks and things like that. So uh yeah, very much looking forward to uh the next couple of weekends of testing out the new accessories. So I'm definitely going to be doing a nice big schwama on the rotisserie over the wood. So I think that's going to be quite nice with some flatbreads and things like that. And then obviously I've got to test out that new roasting dish. So take two of creating some videos. Which barbecue will he do this time? Yeah, exactly. Which one? Imagine this. Yeah, I I couldn't even push the Somerset one off.

Dan

So you definitely would be able to lift it. No, exactly. Um again for my birthday, I got like a meat spike for making like swarma or even like roasting kind of chicken system, which I still haven't had the chance to really have a go with, but I'm looking forward to doing that. Um, the other thing I got, which I I'm gonna use for whiskey because that's what it's designed for, but I'm also interested just from a smoking perspective, it's a at-home smoking whiskey and cocktail set. So, like you put like the little tiny sieve over the top, you put little wood chippings in there, you flame through it and then

Festivals, Restaurants, And Plans Ahead

Dan

cover it. So that looks like fun, but I'm wondering if you can like mildly smoke stuff inside quickly with it as well, food-wise.

Owen

Maybe I suppose it's like just like that cold, it's like a cold smoker, isn't it?

Dan

But even if it wasn't for like a long amount of time, would it make a difference to do it for like a few minutes before you like seal something off and chuck it in the oven or anything else? Like it's not gonna be the same as putting like smoke flavouring stuff in the artificial stuff that blows your face off if you get it wrong. But it might it might still be quite funky.

Owen

Yeah, that'd be quite cool. I I did some cold smoking actually a uh a week or so ago, and I still haven't tried them yet, but I bought my wife a coffee machine for Christmas, so she's got like a bean to cup coffee machine. So I thought um I'd smoke some actual coffee beans. Or why not? I was doing cheese and bits and pe you know, the bits and pieces. Um I'm I'm not a huge coffee fan, so I'm probably not the best judge of it, but she obviously is. So yeah, I'm uh interested to see how some cold smoked coffee beans would be, whether that would do anything to the taste.

Dan

So I've heard of smoked coffee beans dipped in chocolate, but I can't say I've heard of smoked coffee beans being used to make coffee. But I mean they put coffee and chili. So it feels like a flavour profile that would go well together.

Owen

I don't well, I don't know. That's I'll let you know.

Dan

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I want some smoked coffee beans because I drink all the country.

Owen

Well, I know you drink a stupid amount of coffee, but yeah, just anyway, worth see how it comes out.

Dan

It's why I'm so calm all the time.

Owen

Yeah, yeah, that so what else uh so what else we got going on in the uh from a barbecue perspective then? So you're still not 100% sure what you're gonna be cooking next.

Dan

Well, the likelihood is the next thing I cook is fajitas, but like my big next big cook. Yeah. I've also been really tempted. I've never gone like full-on expensive chicken. Like, you know, you can get like the special breed, oak-fed chickens that can be like 40, 50 quid. To trying one of them to see what the difference is is kind of tempting.

unknown

Oh yeah.

Dan

Oh, yeah. Well, there's there's always that conversation of well, chicken's chicken, right? But is it surely it's the same as anything? If you're paying for quality, you will get something different. So I'm tempted to do that, and then I can use my new kind of stand-up roaster thing, stick the spike up the chicken's ass, torture it, have a good time. Sounds good, yeah.

Owen

Yeah, absolutely.

Dan

And you've got the roasting stuff to play with and the rotisserie. I just want to see like how entertaining that looks on that beast, particularly the rotisserie. That's gonna look well impressive spinning around on there, get some nice crackling going.

Owen

Absolutely. Well, yeah, you'll have to come over, but also, as I said, uh, I think stuff's starting to open up now, isn't it, for uh for the summer tickets for I've already messaged you this week about beer and and bits and pieces, so um yeah, definitely looking on I'm I'm wanting in the next week or two to try and get a few things locked in the diary so that there's a few festivals and stuff to look forward to.

Dan

Hub in the park, meet Meetopia in particular are two that I'd like to get to this year.

Owen

Yeah. Well, both are incommutable distance, aren't they? Um, and there's obviously we potentially look at smoke and fire again. Um try something new.

Dan

So oh the other thing, um I spotted in Colchester of all places a sign talking about a smokehouse, which I thought we might want to try at some point down on the height. No idea if it's any good or not. I was just driving to pick up vintage mirrors the other day. Don't ask as you do, as you do, and I passed this sign. I almost gave myself whiplash. I was like, what is that? That's uh different and new. So we keep threatening about trying to get out to more kind of barbecue restaurants. That would be a nice start if it's literally that close to our doorstep, and hopefully give us the kick up the arse that we need to go out and do more. So, watch this space.

Owen

Sounds good. So uh

Season Milestones And Sponsor Close

Owen

I think uh it was good to have a little quick catch-up. Um we've got more guests lined up. Um we're starting to come towards the end, I think, of season seven. Ever nearing to a hundred episodes. We keep saying it, but we we are nearly there. We're edging it. We're edging, absolutely. And um I think until next time, keep on grilling.

Dan

Today's episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.