Big Green Egg

[dogrange]

I'm happy to try any kind of wood. Just had no idea where to start. Where are you putting the chips or chunks? Direct with the charcoal or closer to the meat?

Anwhere on the fire will do. The smoke fills the grill cavity and since you will be cooking with the lid closed, it smoulders rather than catching on fire. If using chnks, it's good to put the chunk on a little in advance of putting your meat on to give it a chance to get a-smouldering.

[Too Tall]

I'm a fan of green fruit tree wood. Seems like I'm always near a wayward tree someplace and my pocket knife handy so.....

[gt6267a]

Egg arrived Friday night. The first spin was the TT chicken with salt and paprika. Instead of the coals on one side and chicken on the other, I went with the conveggtor. Temp stabilized around 290 and held there for the cook time of about 2.5hrs. I tried getting the temp down to 275 but after every adjustment it stayed at 290 and I was getting the evil --> seriously dude, its 10:30 and time to eat, if the temperature is going to change, how about up <-- eye. Chicken and skin were excellent.

Spin 2 = ribs. One day, I’ll work on my own rub but until that day, we’ll suffer through Rendezvous rub from Memphis. Its currently at 245 and will hopefully be there or a little lower for another 2 hours before the first peak. We currently only have pecan chips which are in there. I'll get some more interesting wood for next time.

The setup:
IMG_3030.jpg

This photo is appropriately rotated on my computer but is not after upload. not certain what to do about that:
IMG_3031.jpg

[Too Tall]

Let that seal break in, helps with low low temps. Also, I find it is difficult to get temps below 200 if they ever flair above 300ish. Nice work :)

[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?

[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!

[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.

[Too Tall]

I am so busted.

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

[Too Tall]

Smoked Duck rehashed (erk erk). Took the leftovers, shredded them and added to homemade Dan Dan noodles. Mmmm.

[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.

[Cookietruck]

on a grille that hot, unless you are cooking 1.5" steaks. 2 mins per side is probably perfect...that's it...

[Too Tall]

LOL the fireball burp. Can't tell you how many of my guests were warned and still....

If you want to clean it just light a hot fire and let it go nuclear. After the egg cools, go to town with a ball of tinfoil.

Thanks for the WOO link, that looks great.

[dgaddis]

Meal #2 on the BGE. 5lbs half pork shoulder. Off the shelf Butt Rub to keep it easy. Foil packet of soaked Apple wood chips, four large chunks of hickory on top of the fire as well. Put it on the grill at midnight at 230°, went to bed. It was really windy last night, and I didn't have the vents set just right, so when I got up at 7am the grill was at 275° and the meat at 165°. Closed the vents down more, temp went down to 250°, and a little after noon I pulled it off when the meat hit 195°. Wrapped it in foil, put in in a cooler to keep warm till dinner time.

Super good! Very moist, very smoky flavor.

Changes next time: set the vents better to maintain the lower temp and let it cook longer, and only use 2 hickory chunks. It was a touch too smoky I think.





I also installed a new gasket. Tip for removing the old one: use a razor blade. Trying to scrape it off with anything else is way, WAY, more effort.

[robin3mj]

Good tip. When I replaced my gasket I used one of those scrapers that holds an exacto knife blade. Piece of cake.

[Too Tall]

Good tip. When I replaced my gasket I used one of those scrapers that holds an exacto knife blade. Piece of cake.

Same here, used a fresh painters razor. After that I used a wire brush and dremel to get the surface porous, than added the new high heat gasket. Perfect.

PS. We grilled during 2016 Snowmageddon much to the horror of our neighbors.