New to Primo

If you’re new to ceramic grills or a new Primo owner, a Primo Ceramic Grill is one of the most versatile outdoor cookers in the world. You can use it as a grill, an oven, a roaster, or a smoker with a simple adjustment to the air flow and cooking configuration. Here is an overview of our grills and the basics for using and enjoying our ceramic grills.

Grill Components

Cooking Configurations

Primo Ceramic Grills can be used as a grill, an oven, a roaster, or a smoker.

Grilling & Searing

Use this configuration for grilling meat such as steaks, chicken breasts, or any foods that benefit from cooking directly over the charcoal fire.

Grilling & Roasting

Use direct and indirect cooking zones to grill meat on the direct side, while roasting tender foods like seafood and vegetables on the indirect side.

Baking, Roasting & Smoking

Use this configuration for indirect cooking such as an oven or smoker. Cook at low to medium temperatures for baking pizza or smoking meat. (Heat Deflectors/Racks required).

Instructions

Lighting the Grill

Build a mound of natural lump charcoal. Use full fire box of charcoal for smoking and searing temperatures (Figure 1), or half a fire box of charcoal for two-zone cooking (Fig. 2).

  1. Light the charcoal with a fire starter cube or two, and you can also use chimney starter or electric starter. Leave the dome open.
  2. Wait 5-10 minutes for the charcoal to build a small bed of embers.
  3. Close the dome, then fully open the draft door (Figure 3) and fully open the top vent (Figure 4) by sliding the top disk all the way to the right.

Tip: Charcoal can be relit 2-3 times for multiple cookings. Use the ash tool to stir the used charcoal, so the ashes will drop through the fire grate. Add 30% new charcoal to the existing charcoal and build a new mound. This works well for roasting and grilling temperatures.

Tip: You can’t have too much charcoal, but you can have too little.

Advisory: NEVER use lighter fluid or any other combustible liquid to light the charcoal. It will be absorbed by the ceramics and impart a “fuel” taste to food.

Controlling the Temperature (Grilling)

  1. Close the dome and fully open the top vent.
  2. When you are 25°F (14°C) from your target temperature, close the top vent down to one-third open.
  3. Wait 1-2 minutes for the temperature to stabilize. Increase or decrease the air flow of the top vent as needed. A 1/4” (6mm) move can change the temperature by as much as 25°F (14°C).

Low Temperature Cooking (Smoking)

  1. For “low and slow” temperatures like 225°F (107°C), start with a very small fire in one area of the charcoal.
  2. Close the dome after 5 minutes with the draft door and top vent fully open. Allow the temperature to come up slowly until it reaches 200°F (93°C), set the draft door to 1” (25mm) open (Fig. 5) and the top vent to 1/2” (13mm) open with the daisy wheel holes fully open. Adjust the top vent as needed to maintain the target temperature.

Tip: Allow the temperature to rise slowly up to your target temperature. It is easy to raise the temperature, but very difficult to lower it.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5