The Weber Jumbo Joe has the same performance characteristics of the larger Weber kettles.  You can achieve extremely nice control over the temperature by manipulating the bottom and top air vents.  The combination of an extremely tight fitting lid and smaller air intake holes makes the Jumbo Joe an excellent smoker.

The Weber Jumbo Joe is a much more versatile cooker than its small size would lead you to believe.  You can easily slow cook a slab of baby backs or get things hot and roast a beer can chicken.

I have used an extra grill grate and grilled twenty chicken thighs at once.  If pizza is your thing I have a post showing two ways I have tackled making pies.

I hope these posts give you an idea for how much food you can fit onto the Weber Jumbo Joe and different ways of using the grill.

Before you start grilling you are going to need to get your coals lit.  Ditch the lighter fluid and stop goofing around with messy charcoal chimneys.  I have switched over to exclusively using Weber lighter cubes.

The Weber Jumbo Joe as a grill. (Both vents 100% open)

• Steaks (Three techniques)
• Tri Tip (Using GrillGrates)
• Chicken Wings (Using GrillGrates)
• Country Style Ribs (Grilled and Braised)
• Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Pork Tenderloin (A Classic)
• Whole Chicken (Three techniques)
• “Fried” Chicken (Fun and awesome)
• Pizza (With a raised stone.)
• KettlePizza (Much better!)
• Turkey Necks (You have to try these!)
• World’s Best Pork Chops (Yep, you read that right!)

The Weber Jumbo Joe as a smoker. (Both vents 50% open)

• Baby Back Ribs (Two examples)
• Pulled Pork (Yeah Baby!)
• Chuck Roast (Perfect for smoking.)
• Amazingly Tender Roast Beef (The trick is salting the beef!)
• Beef Short Ribs (My first Low and Slow)
• Canadian Bacon (Easy, delicious)
• Slow Roasted Prime Rib (Mmmmm..beefy!)

 

 

 

I personally own and use a Weber Jumbo Joe, Weber Smokey Joe Gold, 18.5 inch Weber One Touch and a 22.5 inch Weber Platinum (pre-2012 model).

I use my 22.5 inch kettle for smoking multiple slabs of ribs at once and the Jumbo Joe for just about everything else.  The only use the 18.5 OTS gets is to hold my charcoal chimney.

I keep the Smokey Joe Gold around for its good looks but just don’t have a reason to ever put in any charcoal.

The picture below gives a quick comparison of the most popular Weber kettles.  Below the picture are several posts giving details on the head to head comparisons between the different grills and explains why I do not recommend certain kettles.  (I would LOVE to see a picture of the Jumbo Joe sitting inside a Weber Ranch kettle!  If you have these two grills then please send a picture and I will share it with everyone!)

• Weber Jumbo Joe vs Weber Smokey Joe
• Weber Jumbo Joe vs Weber GoAnywhere
• Weber Jumbo Joe vs 18.5 inch OTS/OTG
• Weber Jumbo Joe vs Larger Kettles

 

 

 

You don’t really need to upgrade your Weber Jumbo Joe as it is an excellent grill as designed and delivered. That being said, if you want to make a great little grill even better then here are some ideas to get you started.  🙂

Weber Hinged Cooking Grate

You will want to add some charcoal during eight hour low and slow cooks.  Adding a hinged grate makes this very simple.  The thing only costs $15 and I am delighted to have mine.  You can keep the existing grate and use it to double the capacity of the Jumbo Joe.

Rotisserie Ring

The rotisserie ring from OnlyFire is one of the ultimate upgrades that you can get for your Jumbo.  You can spin a chicken, pork loins or even stick on a pork butt, truss it tight, and try your hand at rotisserie pulled pork.  If you want to take a break from sticky sweet competition style ribs you can go “Italian Style” and thread a rack of ribs onto the spit and roast them at high heat.  Rotisseries are serious fun!

Weber Portable Grill Tools:

This stainless steel tong and spatula set are high quality Weber products that are just big enough to easily fit inside the Weber Jumbo Joe.  The tools are easily transported inside the Jumbo making life easy when you are on the go.  They look beautiful and work great.

Craycort Cast Iron Grate

The Craycort cast iron grates are modular which lets you easily add charcoal when needed.  They are also heavy duty grilling equipment.  These run about $70 but consider it an investment, not an expense.  Here is a post showing the Craycort grates on the Jumbo.

Char-Broil Cast Iron Grate: 

This is an interesting grate that fits 18.5 AND 22.5 inch kettles.  I haven’t used this myself but Old Dave sure likes his.  It looks like a bargain compared to the Craycort.  The only downside I see is that it won’t allow easy access to the coals if you need to add more.

Kettle-Q

You can use the griddle for breakfast (hash browns and fried eggs!) or for a shrimp and veggie stir fry.  Very cool.  Here is a video post showing the Kettle Q making up some sweet looking breakfast burgers on the Jumbo Joe.

GrillGrates

I seriously cannot recommend these things enough.  These make grilling over high heat extremely easy.  Killer grill marks.

KettlePizza Basic Kit

If you are serious about pizza then this is for you.  If you are simply interested in pizza then don’t bother.  This lets you turn your kettle into a SERIOUS wood fired pizza oven.

Weber Charcoal Basket

These let you easily bank your coals for low and slow cooks.  You only need one basket but they are sold in sets of two.  Here is some more information.

Tel-Tru Barbecue Grill Thermometer

If you want to add a thermometer to your Jumbo then this is what you should use.  I had a thermometer on mine for a while.  It looked cool but didn’t really help me any.

Weber Portable Charcoal Table

I don’t have the Weber portable table but everyone I have spoken with several owners on Twitter and G+.  The general consensus is that the table is a very nice addition and worth the money.

Weber Lighter Cubes

The absolute best way to light the charcoal in your Jumbo is with Weber lighter cubes.  Forget about lighter fluid and messy charcoal chimneys.  Here is a post showing how I use Weber Lighter cubes for both “low and slow” cooks and high heat grilling.

FireQube:

If you want something even easier to use than lighter cubes then check out this great single use, self lighting box of premium hard wood charcoal from Grill Easy.  This is a perfect solution for tailgaters and campers who don’t want to lug around big bags of charcoal.  Here is the review I wrote when I tried the FireQube.

 

 

Even though the Weber Jumbo Joe is an excellent smoker I have visions of making it even better.  Two of the limitations of the Jumbo as a smoker is the need to add charcoal every few hours and the temperature differential between the grate and the dome (~30F).  I saw a cool modification some guys were doing over at the Virtual Weber Bullet with their 26.75 inch Weber kettles and thought it might make the Jumbo better. 

The modification is the insertion of a custom cut heavy gauge steel plate onto the charcoal grate.

The base of the plate forces all of the intake air to go through the banked charcoal bed.  I was hoping that by increasing the mass of the grill and eliminating the possibility of cold air flowing past the charcoal that the temperature gradient would be greatly reduced.  I was also hoping that the flared side of the plate would allow me to have a much larger charcoal bed that would burn slowly.

I have tried the setup a couple times and am not seeing the desired results.  I believe the temperature gradient is minimized somewhat but the top of the Jumbo Joe is still at least 20F hotter than the grill grate.  The grill itself has been running hotter than desired as the large charcoal bed does not burn as slow as I need. 

The problem could be as simple as I need to get more accurate with the air intake and crank it back a little more.  I am rather impatient and haven’t made the time to keep playing.  I think the idea is pretty solid though and if nothing else the metal plate looks cool!

I didn’t have the equipment to make this myself.  Instead I stole a piece of poster board from my kids and used a pair of scissors to cut out the shape I needed.  It took a few tries but it was pretty simple to cut and shape the poster board into the exact shape.

 

I took my poster board model down to a local metal fabrication shop and they drew everything up from there.  They used 16 gauge steel and charged me $70. Yeah, I know…the experiment cost more than the grill.  That’s okay; a man has to have a hobby!

Be sure to check out some other Weber Jumbo Joe Upgrades!

The folks over at Kettle Pizza sent me a complimentary Deluxe Kettle Pizza insert for me to evaluate with the Weber Jumbo Joe.

You can get either the Deluxe Kit or the Basic Kit from Amazon.  The Deluxe Kit comes with the insert, aluminum pizza peel, a 14 inch pizza pan and a 15 inch pizza stone made of cordierite and runs about $200.  The Basic Kit just comes with the insert and runs about $140.

Quick Summary

1. I love this thing.
2. Do NOT follow the instructions provided by Kettle Pizza.
3. Versatile Eye Candy.

Deluxe Kit or  Basic Kit

Okay…longer description.

The main reason for using the Kettle Pizza insert instead of how I used to make pizza on the Weber Jumbo Joe is that this lets you work at much higher temperatures without burning the crust. This is getting close to replicating brick oven pizza in your backyard. Instead of working in the 450F range and a pizza taking 30-40 minutes to bake this runs at 600-700F and pizza is done in 8-12 minutes. The end product is very different and if you are a pizza enthusiast this should make you very excited.

The technique that I came up with is an evolution of the work done by Kenji over at Serious Eats with the 22.5 inch Weber kettles. There is significantly less total volume in the Jumbo than in the larger kettles. Not only is the circumference of the grill smaller but so is the vertical component. The distance between the charcoal and the top of the dome is about 5 inches shorter on the Jumbo than on a 22.5 inch kettle. The decreased volume of the Jumbo Joe makes using the Kettle Pizza insert much simpler.

I am not going to go over the details of what happens with the Jumbo Joe when you follow the instructions provided with the Kettle Pizza. Suffice it to say that the results are highly disappointing. What follows is the technique I developed for this particular kettle. It is extremely easy and very reproducible.

Creating Kick Ass Pizza on the Weber Jumbo Joe with the Kettle Pizza Insert

1. Light a full chimney of Kingsford charcoal.
2. Distribute the charcoal evenly on the charcoal grate. Bottom vent fully open.
3. Support the grill grate on the wing nuts on the TOP of the Kettle Pizza.
4. Put the pizza stone on the grill grate and the kettle dome on the insert. Top vent fully open.
5. Let the stone pre-heat for at least 15 minutes.
6. If you are not getting to temperature (600-700F) throw a chunk of hardwood onto the charcoal.
7. If the grill heats past 700F wait until it cools to the target zone.
8. Lift the lid and slide your pizza onto the pizza stone. Use an oven mitt, the handle will be HOT.
9. Close the lid.
10. Stand around for 4 minutes until you start to smell the crust baking.
11. Remove the lid and use the peel to rotate the pizza 180 degrees.
12. Wait another 4 minutes and start peeping through the air vent at the toppings.
13. When the toppings are brown and bubbly remove the lid and use the peel to retrieve the pizza. Use an oven mitt, the handle will be HOT.
14. Repeat as often as needed. When the temperature starts to drop just throw more fuel into the Jumbo through the opening of the insert.

Safety Tip: I am doing something REALLY STUPID in these pictures. I am getting a charcoal grill hotter than heck with visible open flames on a wood deck. This is a classic recipe for disaster. I have a hose and fire extinguisher nearby and am ALWAYS watching the grill.

Deluxe Kit or  Basic Kit

Basic Pizza Making Tips:

1. Go easy on the toppings. Less is better.
2. Dust the peel with corn meal before you making the pizza. This will let the pizza slide easily.
3. Pay attention when you slide the pizza onto the hot stone. It is easy to overshoot and end up with a pizza on the ground.
4. DO NOT use this with frozen pizza. Bad things would happen.

Versatile Eye Candy

I think the Kettle Pizza looks gorgeous on my Weber Jumbo Joe. The contrast of the wooden handles, stainless steel and black porcelain just work together. Add to that the orange and reds from an open fire and you are looking at something beautiful.
One night after a pizza making session my daughter and I just sat on the back deck and used the set up as a fire pit. Sitting there watching the flames leaping around in the little Jumbo was a wonderful evening. I could easily recommend the Kettle Pizza just for creating a beautiful fire pit.

But wait…that’s not all!!

The latest design of the Kettle Pizza lets you switch the location of two bolts (takes about 3 minutes) and convert this into an insert for a 22.5 inch Weber Kettle. If you have a small collection of Weber kettles this is freaking awesome!! Seriously…this thing fits both kettle sizes. Talk about a sweet deal!! I have not tried making pizzas on my 22.5 inch kettle so I will point you back to the work done over at Serious Eats for that discussion.

Deluxe Kit or  Basic Kit

Bottom Line: The Kettle Pizza insert is an awesome addition for the Weber Jumbo Joe.

To all of the fine folks over at Kettle Pizza (I’m looking at you, George!) I want to say, “Thank you very much!”

 

Be sure to check out some other Weber Jumbo Joe Upgrades!

Update:  I have stopped selling these on Amazon.  Truth be told I am a horrible business man and after all expenses I was only making one to two bucks per cover and spending way too much time in the process.  I am hoping Weber starts making a cover soon and will post links as soon as they do. 

The Weber Jumbo Joe Grill Cover is now available as an aftermaket accessory.

This is a cover that a friend of mine makes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  To the best of my knowledge this is the only cover available for the Jumbo Joe .  This isn’t one of those cheap and nasty vinyl pieces of junk.  This is a solidly built custom fitting cover.

I am very happy with mine and am proud to offer these for sale through Amazon.

I grilled this tri-tip on the Weber Jumbo Joe with the help of a GrillGrate.  You don’t have to use a GrillGrate for tri-tip but it does make it easy to get great grill marks and cook with medium direct heat.

This tri-tip weighed 2.2 pounds and was seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper and granulated garlic.  One reason I like tri-tip is the thickness of the cut; it lets you grill long enough to get great grill marks without over cooking the steak.

 

I let the seasoned tri-tip rest on the counter for 45 minutes and while it was hanging out I fired up the Weber Jumbo Joe.  I wanted to use direct medium heat so the approach was to use about two thirds of a chimney of lit briquettes placed directly underneath one GrillGrate panel.

 

I let the panel heat up for about five minutes then added the tri-tip and listened to the sizzle!

I closed the led and let it grill for seven minutes then rotated the meat by about 45 degrees.  After another seven minutes I turned the tri-tip over and basted the grilled side with some Italian dressing.

I closed the lid and let the tri-tip cook another 20 minutes until it hit an internal temperature of 142F.  The steak was rested for ten minutes…it was a long wait….then sliced thin and devoured.

 

If you don’t have GrillGrates you can grill this over direct heat for about five minutes and then move the tri-tip to the indirect side of the grill for the remainder of the cook.  Using this approach would probably increase the cook time by 10 -15 minutes.

I purchased a set of GrillGrates for my Weber Jumbo Joe and am having a great time playing around with them.  GrillGrates are excellent for laying down some ridiculously serious grill marks.  They also allow you to grill directly over high heat without worrying about flare-ups.  GrillGrates are one of the best kept secrets in grilling and are routinely utilized to win steak cook offs.

GrillGrates are sheets of anodized aluminum with ridges raised about an inch above a perforated sheet.  As food cooks on the grate the ridges impart spectacular grill marks while the sheet prevents grease or oily marinades from dripping directly onto the charcoal.  As juices collect on the sheet they either vaporizes as smoke or drip through the holes onto the coals.  When the dripping grease does ignite under the sheet the GrillGrate serves as a protective barrier so your food doesn’t burn.

I sprayed mine with a little Pam before each use until they were  fully seasoned and became naturally non-stick (about five cooks).

I was able to grill these choice ribeyes directly over high heat for twelve minutes using GrillGrates.  If I had tried this directly on the grill the flare-ups would have had me running in circles.

 

These things actually made me want to grill some boneless, skinless chicken breasts just so I could lay down some grill marks.  GrillGrates just raise the overall “fun” level of grilling.

GrillGrates really won me over when I used them to grill some catfish filets.  Not only was I able to get some sick looking grill marks but I was also able to baste the filets in Italian dressing while grilling without the oil causing any flareups.

GrillGrates come with a very handy “spatula” that fits into the grate grooves.  This makes it extremely easy to lift and flip your food; priceless when grilling fish.

 

It can be confusing trying to figure out which of the GrillGrate configuration options will fit on the Jumbo Joe.  I am using the two 13.75 inch panel configuration which fits perfectly.

Something to keep in mind; the two panel configuration I have can be used on my 22.5 inch kettle and on my old Genesis gasser.  They are too large for my Smokey Joe but they will can be used (and will improve) any other grill out there.    These can make a cheap gas grill start looking like a high performance machine.

Click Here To Buy GrillGrates!

Heck, they can even make high performance machines better!  Just to prove it  here is a nice video of the GrillGrates in action on a Big Green Egg from my buddy Steve over at BBQBros.net.  Subscribe to his YouTube channel!!

Click Here To Buy GrillGrates!

Making pulled pork on the Weber Jumbo Joe is very possible but stretches the vertical limit on this little cooker.  I was cooking a 6.5 pound butt in this cook and the top of the butt was about half an inch from the top of the dome. If you find your butt won’t fit on the Jumbo you might need to slice it in half.  That’s okay, it will cook faster and you’ll get more bark. 🙂

This butt was injected with Dale’s low sodium marinade and apple juice before it got rubbed with Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub.  I score the fat cap to help increase the bark and get more flavor into the meat.  I filled a charcoal basket with unlit Kingsford, placed a drip pan beside the charcoal and added some hickory.  The butt went on the indirect side of the grill, both vents were set to 50% open and the lid was placed with the air vent over the pork.

After three hours of smoking I opened the Jumbo Joe and flipped the butt 180 degrees to help it cook evenly.  I gave the charcoal basket a little shake to knock off the ashes and filled it back up with unlit Kingsford.  The lid was closed for another three hours.

Three hours later (six hours into the cook) I repeated the process.  The charcoal was freshened up and the butt was flipped.  I used a little stick to knock some ashes through the bottom vent and onto the ash pan.  I don’t think I was having any problems with spent ash blocking the air flow through the bottom vent but I did this anyways as a little insurance.  I added a little more rub to the fat cap to keep myself entertained.  The lid was closed and I walked away for another three hours.

Here she is after nine hours.  Real pretty!  A word of warning..if you wrap your butts in foil while you cook then you will have a problem on the Jumbo Joe.  This is a seriously tight fit and the extra bulk of the foil would probably keep you from closing the lid.

 

Be sure to check out some other Weber Jumbo Joe Upgrades!

This was my first attempt at using the Weber Jumbo Joe as a smoker.  I kept a log of time and temperatures for this cook and found that I got very similar results on subsequent efforts.

I started with three and a half pound of real pretty beef short ribs.  I coated the ribs with a standard beef rub (turbinado sugar, salt, black pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion, chili powder) and let them sit in the refrigerator while I prepped the Jumbo.

I placed an 8 inch aluminum pan on the left side of the charcoal grate and banked a pile of charcoal on the right.  I lit seven Kingsford briquettes in a chimney and placed them on top of the unlit charcoal in the grill.  Three chunks of hickory were added as well.

I added a quart of hot water to the foil pan and placed the beef ribs on the grill grate over the pan.  I added the water to add some moisture and act as a heat sink to help hold temperatures steady.  The more I have played with the Jumbo I have realized that adding the water is a waste of time as the heat flows around and across the foil pan and not through it.   You can add liquid to the pan if it makes you happy; I don’t bother.

The top and bottom air vents were set at 50% open; the lid was placed on the Jumbo with the air vent over the beef ribs.

Here are the ribs at two hours.

And here they are at four hours.

I should have let them cook for another hour or so to get them a little more tender but it was getting dark, I was hungry, they looked spectacular and the aroma was killing me.  Here one is plated up in better light.

I used a digital thermometer and measured the temperature at the dome and the grate during the course of the cook.  I consistently found the dome to be running about 30 degrees hotter than the grate.  Below are the temperatures I recorded during the cook as well as afterwards when I wanted to keep playing.  All temperatures were measured at the dome.

• 2:30 – Start
• 3:00 – 211F
• 3:30 – 246F Opened the grill to peek.  Since it was open I added 3 unlit briquettes.
• 4:45 – 248F Added ten unlit briquettes.
• 7:00 – 276F Ribs looked delicious and I took them off the pit.
• 7:30 – 275F Just playing around now.
• 8:00 – 267F I stirred the coals and restacked with tongs.
• 8:30 – 257F Quit checking the grill and started playing with my family.

The big takeaway here is that you can easily pull off a six hour cook on the Jumbo Joe by setting the vents to 50% and doing a little basic charcoal management.

I had assumed that I would have a problem with ash buildup clogging the bottom air vent.  In all of my low and slow cooks with the Jumbo this has not been an issue.  I am using blue Kingsford; if you use an off brand of briquettes that has a higher ash content you might have problems.  If I ever decide to try for a ten hour cook I will almost certainly switch over to lump charcoal.

You can perform long slow cooks on the Jumbo Joe with the standard charcoal grate.  However it is easier to manage your charcoal if you upgrade your grate to either the hinged grate or, if you want to go high end, the Craycort.

Be sure to check out some other Weber Jumbo Joe Upgrades!