Big Green Egg

[Too Tall]

It begins.
I've been waiting all summer long to score an lightly used Big Green Egg from a local "eggfest" and will take delivery tommorrow. This is going to get ugly.
Who has experience with these ceramic cookers and suggestions for various tools of the trade. I *think I'm set for charcoal, Cowboy is working well for me.

[Shoogs]

Subscribed.

I'm very intrigued by the BGE...

[robin3mj]

I am still getting the hang of mine but the big thing I have learned is to not let it get too hot to begin with, if you are going slow and low. I was originally coming from the mindset of lighting an old kettle grill, you let the charcoals get hot hot hot and then tamper down. But the egg holds heat so well, it takes years to cool down if you let it roar out of the gate.

For spare ribs (~5hr on 225F), light it and leave the vents open until it gets to maybe 450, then put in the stone and grate, close vents and take it down to 250ish.

I'm still on the first jumbo bag of BGE branded charcoal but have heard good things about Cowboy and will try that next.

Gonna try a couple birds this weekend- duck and chicken.

[atw]

The BGE is a wonderful thing. Some of our best days have started with a ride int he morning and bbq and a few beers in the afternoon.

That said we have a large egg and have used it for a couple of years. I agree with robin, if you a re going to go low and slow it does take a long time to get back down to 250 once it is up to temp. Lighting is preety quick using one of those tubes that you put newspaer into the bottom. Lighting luids or the lighting blocks tend to leave a bit of residual flavor.

You may also want to get a spare seal, this comes in a roll and takes about 10 minutes to insatll. I usually change the seal once a year. After a few months the existing seal tends to get brittle and break off in small pieces. This results in more air getting in and temperature control using the dampers is less effective. I also clean all the ash out of the bottom before each use, otherwise airflow through the grate tends to be poor and temperature control is less effective.

If you are doing ribs get the rib rack and the porcelain plate otherwise they will burn with direct exposure to the coals. I am still experimenting with different types of wood chips for smoking, these can have a big impact on flavour.

Make lots, the neighbours always seem to come by when they can smell the real charcoal and wood smoke.

Have fun

Tom

[Ken C]

No experience with the BGE, but I would suggest using Wicked Good Charcoal Lump over Cowboy. I use it in my Webber, I think it is superior to Cowboy in all respects. If you can't find it locally, you can purchase it and they will ship it to you.

For a complete list of Charcoal reviews

The Lump Charcoal Database -- Naked Whiz Charcoal Ceramic Cooking

[WadePatton]

lots of egg users over at bbq brethren.

i'm not one...besides, i'm working on this rice thing.

[maunahaole]

I have been watching the Bobby Flay show BBQ addict on food channel - he uses a BGE pretty frequently on that show - in which he makes a bunch of killer looking grub. Worth a watch if you get a chance. My neighbor has a kamodo [sp?] which is a traditional japanese version of that. He has done chickens on that, in sort of a slow smoked style and they come out great - nice smoky flavor and super moist, a great way to do chickens.

[Too Tall]

I am still getting the hang of mine but the big thing I have learned is to not let it get too hot to begin with, if you are going slow and low. I was originally coming from the mindset of lighting an old kettle grill, you let the charcoals get hot hot hot and then tamper down. But the egg holds heat so well, it takes years to cool down if you let it roar out of the gate.

For spare ribs (~5hr on 225F), light it and leave the vents open until it gets to maybe 450, then put in the stone and grate, close vents and take it down to 250ish.

I'm still on the first jumbo bag of BGE branded charcoal but have heard good things about Cowboy and will try that next.

Gonna try a couple birds this weekend- duck and chicken.

Skip the cowboy charcoal. I started with it and the stuff is cotton candy compared to the BGE brand.
I got mine setup a few days ago and made pizza for Queen. It did not go well. The folks who assembled it did not align the firebox properly with the lower vent and I could not get it over 350F booo.
Next day I disassembled the firebox and made all right than fired it up to over 700F holy cow.
To secure my man card for one more day I covered a nice fresh organic chicken with my own garam masala mix and put that ontop of the BGE "sitting bird" holder with an entire dark beer poured in + more spice.
The cooking temp was rock solid at 325. I used the plate setter legs up and set the bird right on top. Terrific bird served with 1/2 1/2 mixture of Quinoa and green beans.
I'm going to like this BGE.

*Tell me about the duck. I've owe a pal ONE crisp duck in payment for a bet I lost.

Rico, great tip. I'm going to replace the grate asap since pizza is my stock and trade.

[robin3mj]

For the duck…I was thinking as follows:

Plate setter legs up. Disposable aluminum tray on the setter. Grate, with the duck directly on it.
The idea behind the tray to catch the fat to keep on hand for cooking. However, I wonder if the aluminum being directly on the stone will just cause the fat to burn rather than pool, so maybe I ought to be putting my roasting pan (with turket grate) on the grill grate if it fits?

Not sure if I’m trying to accomplish too much at once? The goal being to have a nice slow cooked/smoked duck that will yield:
• Nice duck breast for dinner #1
• Shredded-style rest of the meat for dinner #2
• Fat for future cooking
• A nice carcass for stock

[clweed]

The key to low and slow is figuring out your bottom and top vent openings. For me it is about 1/8 - 3/16" top and bottom.

Be sure to remove all the ashes from the fire box, you need to remove the inside pieces periodically to clean around the holes.

Start a small fire in the center of the LUMP charcoal and forget about it, when the vents are set properly it will reach 245 degrees and cruise forever. I have had mine last 23 hours.

The EGG is a beatiful thing

[Shoogs]

http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great...-a-phenomenon/

Nice article. Still on the wish list... wife's on board so that's a plus.

[dgaddis]

Stoked to see this thread pop up. Our new house came with a big BGE (the stand is built into the deck, so they left it - score!). I have no idea how to use it yet, but we've bought a book and I'll read through this thread as well. Looking forward to learning how to cook with it!

[Shoogs]

stoked to see this thread pop up. Our new house came with a big bge (the stand is built into the deck, so they left it - score!). I have no idea how to use it yet, but we've bought a book and i'll read through this thread as well. Looking forward to learning how to cook with it!

score!

[gt6267a]

Stoked to see this thread pop up. Our new house came with a big BGE (the stand is built into the deck, so they left it - score!). I have no idea how to use it yet, but we've bought a book and I'll read through this thread as well. Looking forward to learning how to cook with it!

Having just acquired an egg this year, a few items I would not have minded someone telling me. The first three I had at purchase but am confirming you have them:

* If the egg didn’t come with an ash tool (chrome deal about 1.5’ long with a little L looking tab on the end), go buy it. Its very handy for stirring up left over coals and getting ash out of the bottom.

* If the egg didn’t come with a clamp like tool to move the grill surface in and out of the egg, go buy it.

* If the egg didn’t come with a conveggtor, go buy one. Its borderline mandatory for all low and slow cooking. I cover mine with al foil which gets nasty after every cook. Its easier to replace the foil than clean the conveggtor.

* I use the Charcoal starters. They come in scored boards (like chocolate). You break off a square to light the egg. Do not break squares off with a clean edge. A fuzzy edge makes is easier to light.

* There are some egg lighting videos on their website. Def worth a view.

* After the first few uses, you’ll be dying for some feedback about temperature of the grill and meat. Get yourself something like this … (Robot Check)

* Poultry is probably the easiest to get a quick win. TT’s chicken is a great start. Turkey has been a hit.

* When cooking low and slow … I normally get the charcoal starter square going and then close up the grill after 8-10 mins. When doing this, you will notice the burn area starts small and moves out in a ring. I take advantage of this and sprinkle wood chips throughout the charcoal surface. As the fire area moves inside-out, it burns up the wood chips. This allows for continuous smoking and we’ve had very nice results.

If you let the grill get hot and then try to drop it down, you will have two problems. 1) once the full surface of the charcoal is burning, you’ve blown the smoking plan as the wood chips will burn right away and 2) if you get the thing very hot, its hard to bring the temp down during your cooking time without effectively turning the thing off. Note: I’ve heard people say this technique doesn’t work for them, but I think its because they let the fire get rather hot which burns up all the wood chips. I never let it get that hot so my chips burn as desired.

[Too Tall]

That's gold Jerry pure gold.
My Conveggator mysteriously cracked and is now a two legger!
Smoking a chicken as we speak. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get rolling papers that wide?

[maunahaole]

That's gold Jerry pure gold.
My Conveggator mysteriously cracked and is now a two legger!
Smoking a chicken as we speak. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get rolling papers that wide?

Scour the used record stores for minty copies of Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu.

[Tamu8104]

* If the egg didn’t come with a conveggtor, go buy one. Its borderline mandatory for all low and slow cooking. I cover mine with al foil which gets nasty after every cook. Its easier to replace the foil than clean the conveggtor.

Just to throw an alternative to the conveggtor, check out ceramicgrillworks. They sell a Woo and combined with their ceramic stones, you can mix and match to create more options and set ups than with the conveggtor. I have a Woo with two stones in my XL, stones stacked work great for slow cooks. Move one stone up on the grill for high heat pizzas at 600 degrees. The space between the two stones keeps the bottom of the pizza from burning and delivers an amazing thin and crispy crust. Also, the adjustable rig is nice if you are prone to doing big cooks.

[dgaddis]

Used ours for the first time last night. Did steaks. Found a marinade recipe and let them marinade for ~24hrs, cooked at 600*F for two minutes per side with the vents fully opened, then closed the vents and let them cook for 4 minutes, then moved out of the grill onto some tinfoil and 'tented' them for another 10mins. We needed thicker steaks, or less heat, or less time on the grill. The very center of the steaks were pink, but everything else was a little too well done. Medium well instead of medium. Still tasted great though.

A few thoughts.

1 - CLEAN YOUR DAMN EGGS PEOPLE. Our grill was nasty and I spent a good hour cleaning it, removing ¼” layer of soot from the inside of the lid, scraping the cast iron grill forever, and used a screwdriver to chisel 3/8” of soot/ash off the top of the upper ceramic piece and clearing the holes in the lower piece. I don’t know if the previous owners ever cleaned it. The lower ceramic piece has some cracks, and I can’t get either piece to budge to get them out of the egg. A riding buddy of mine owns Fireside Outdoor Kitchens (do yourself a favor and browse his site and sign up for the newsleter!) so I’m going to see him this evening and ask for recommendations to get the pieces out and price new ceramic.

2 – I forgot to ‘burp’ the egg. Read about it several times, had two different folks tell me to do it, still forgot. Opened it at 500*F without burping, big fireball, and singed the hair on my hand/arm. Didn’t get hurt, but it was a great learning experience haha.

[BSUdude]

Stoked to see this thread pop up. Our new house came with a big BGE (the stand is built into the deck, so they left it - score!). I have no idea how to use it yet, but we've bought a book and I'll read through this thread as well. Looking forward to learning how to cook with it!

If I was putting an offer on a house that had a BGE built into the patio I would definitely put into the purchase agreement that it had to stay!

[robin3mj]

Hey that charcoal. Hmmmm. Local source?
How are you keeping that Smokeware cap clean? I'm a bit weary of it constantly gumming up altho it works well I'm going back to the orig. cap.

The charcoal is made in PA and I bought it at the butcher in McLean. A quick google search brings up a link to a Maryland BBQ retailer as well.

First cook with the cap yesterday and yessir it is surprisingly dirty. Also the little silicon sleeve that attaches to the slide tab is less than worthless and came off multiple times already. Have not tried to clean it, yet (the beauty of house arrest is plenty of time betwixt now and next weekend...)
Per instructions it seems the base piece of it should stay on the egg since it presses down on the gasket it came with. And you can clean the upper piece as you wish. Do you agree or should the whole thing come off after each use?