At Christmas I bought a Big Green Egg. I read all the marketing blurb in the brochure and it captured my imagination, I’ve already written about how good it is and posted some kamado barbecue recipes, but I was still intrigued to find out more about the origins of such a versatile piece of cookware. equipment. I wrote an article about it, but since posting it, I’ve done more research and found that some of my original findings may have been creative in their origins.
My preliminary internet research determined its origins to be found in clay pots from China that were later adapted by the Japanese a few hundred years ago. The end result was the Mushikamado and looking at the pictures on the internet it’s pretty clear that this part of the story is well defined.
Where things become a little less clear is in the 1960s when the kamado as we know it today came to the United States. There are many published works that refer to Richard Johnson, a man who founded the Kamado company, who brought the kamado to the US, and who first called it the kamado and patented the name. Further research leads me to believe that some of these points are not true.
The first point is that kamado is, in fact, an actual Japanese word and not invented by Johnson. The word kamado is actually part of the Japanese language and means stove, and to dig deeper, there are many derivations of the word in the Japanese language as well:
yukikamado – A pot with a stove attached that could be transported
tsukikamado – Another word for the stove, built with stones, tiles and mud.
magatamagata kamado – A large kitchen with polished black tops, a base and a curved or horseshoe-shaped stove with up to eleven cooking holes.
ishikamado – a steel rice cooker that is inserted into a stone frame.
niwakamado – A temporary kitchen installed on the dirt floor of the houses from January 1 to 3 as part of the New Year festivities.
Kamadodono – A building with a fireplace or stove for cooking.
Koujinsan-no-kamado – In some districts, such as Saga Prefecture, a wide variety of cuisine is used mainly for special occasions.
kamadomatsuri – Kitchen and Well Festival
mushikamado – rice cooker
Johnson’s second claim is that he trademarked the word kamado, but careful research at the US Patent and Trademark Office has shown this claim to be false as well.
So who are we to believe and do we really care? Looking at how many companies use the word kamado and past evidence on how well the word is used in the Japanese language, it seems that some of the claims made by Richard Johnson may well be considered good marketing rather than a statement of fact. Having said that, I really enjoy cooking on my kamado year-round, I’m excited about the results I get when using it as a BBQ grill or meat smoker and all the smoker grill recipes I use are contributing to the proliferation actual internet.
