The Heat Deflector 16 inch, also known as a plate setter, turns your Grill Bill 16 inch Medium into an oven. It sits between the fire and your food and shields it from the direct flame, so you can cook, smoke and bake indirectly at both high and low temperatures. It's the part you need the moment something shouldn't sit right above the coals.
What you can do with a Heat Deflector 16 inch
Without a shield, the fire radiates straight onto the bottom of your food: fine for a steak, disastrous for a four-hour roast. With the shield, warm air circulates around your food instead of hitting it directly. That's the basis for low-temperature slow cooking, for smoking, and for anything you'd normally put in the oven.
- Low-temperature slow cooking, such as pulled pork and ribs
- Smoking without burning the underside
- Baking bread, cakes and oven dishes on the kamado
- A base for a pizza stone, with an air gap in between
- More even heat distribution across the whole grate
How to place it
Light the kamado, let the fire burn through properly, and only then place the shield in position above the fire basket. Close the lid and let everything come up to temperature before adding food: ceramic needs time to heat through completely. Want to bake pizza, place the 16 inch pizza stone on top with some space in between, so the base doesn't burn.
Care
Let the shield cool completely before moving or cleaning it. Burn off caked-on fat by firing up the kamado hot once; scrubbing it with water and soap isn't necessary and isn't wise, since ceramic soaks up moisture. More parts for this size are in our 16 inch accessories, and the matching kamado is in our medium kamado BBQs. Got a bigger kamado, take a look at the 21 inch version.
