| Over Christmas I bought a Big Green Egg. I read all | | | | Tsukikamado - Another word for the stove, |
| the marketing blurb in the brochure and it captured | | | | constructed with stones, tiles, and clay. |
| my imagination, I've already written about how good | | | | Magatamagata kamado - A large range with polished |
| it is and published some kamado barbecue recipes but | | | | black tops, a base, and a stoke hole in a curved or |
| I was still intrigued to find out more about the origins | | | | horseshoe plan with as many as eleven cooking holes. |
| of such a versatile piece of cooking equipment. I | | | | Ishikamado - a steel rice cooker that is inserted into |
| wrote an article about it but since publishing it, I've | | | | a stone frame. |
| done more research and found that some of my | | | | Niwakamado - A temporary cooking range set up in |
| original findings may have already been creative in | | | | the earth floored area of houses from the first to |
| their origins. | | | | the third of January as part of the New Year |
| My preliminary research on the internet determined | | | | festivities. |
| that it's origins lay in clay cooking pots from China | | | | Kamadodono - A building with a hearth or cooking |
| that were later adapted by the Japanese a few | | | | stove. |
| hundred years ago. The end result was the | | | | Koujinsan-no-kamado - In some districts, such as |
| Mushikamado and looking at photographs on the | | | | Saga prefecture, a large cooking range mainly used |
| internet it's pretty clear that this part of the story is | | | | for special occasions. |
| clear cut. | | | | Kamado matsuri - Cooker and Well Festival |
| Where things become a little less clear is in the 1960's | | | | Mushikamado - rice cooker |
| when the kamado as we know it today arrived in | | | | The second claim made by Johnson is that he |
| the USA. There's a lot of published work that refers | | | | trademarked the word kamado, but careful |
| back to Richard Johnson, a man who founded the | | | | investigation at the US patents and trademarks |
| Kamado company that it was he who brought the | | | | office has proved this claim to be untrue as well. |
| kamado to the USA and also it was he that first | | | | So who should we believe and do we really care? |
| called it a kamado and patented the name. Further | | | | Looking around at how many businesses use the |
| research leads me to believe that some of these | | | | word kamado and the evidence above about how |
| points are not true. | | | | well utilized the word is in the Japanese language it |
| The first point is that kamado is in fact a real | | | | would appear that some of the claims made by |
| Japanese word and not one made up by Johnson. | | | | Richard Johnson may well be considered good |
| The word kamado actually is part of the Japanese | | | | marketing rather than a statement of fact. Having |
| language and means stove, and to further the point | | | | said that, I'm thoroughly enjoying cooking on my |
| there are also many derivations of the word in the | | | | kamado all year round, I'm excited about the results |
| Japanese language:- | | | | that I get when using it either as a barbecue grill or a |
| Yukikamado - A pot with a stove attached that | | | | meat smoker and all the smoker grill recipes I use are |
| could be carried around | | | | contributing to the factual proliferation of the internet. |