Big Green Egg
I’m tired of hydrogen and diesels, so I’ll talk about my barbecue! I have a Big Green Egg, and I think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. As you can see from the cut-away, it is a ceramic container with an opening at the top and bottom:
Both of those openings are adjustable, and with a little practice it is easy to “dial in” a temperature. The standards are 225F for ribs, brisket, and pulled-pork. I use 350F for chicken and pork roast. And hot hot hot (up to 1000F!) for searing steaks. With the vents wide open it will run like a blast furnace and peg the thermometer.
It is “green” in the other sense, that it burns just enough charcoal (pure lump, not briquettes) to do the job you want, and then you cap it and stop the burn. A full firebox of charcoal will do several normal runs – or about 12 hours at 225F.
As to what I cook and how it turns out … I’m not ready to go on TV, but sometimes it tastes pretty good. Slow cooked ribs (4hrs @ 225F, with hickory chunks, sprinkled now and then with apple juice) can come out darn good. A chicken sitting on a vertical roaster cooks pretty good at 350F, with apple wood .. all good.
The BGE works pretty well, and is widely available … but if you want the Cadillac, go for the Kamado with custom colored tile!
May 20th, 2005 at 7:08 am
I had a komodo some years ago. Somehow it never seemed to deliver on its promise. I found it hard to light. The lid was a nuisance. For the grilling that constitutes the bulk of our outdoor cookery, it wasn’t very practical.
May 20th, 2005 at 7:24 am
I guess that’s a reminder of my non-green starter ;-). I use an electric one. Vents open. And leave it there until I see real flame. That’s bullet-proof, but I suppose my time-to-temperature isn’t great … maybe a half-hour.
I’ve gotten into the non-grill stuff quite a bit … probably cooked 50 whole chickens, but right now I’m being lazy and keeping a bag of frozen breasts on hand. I’ll probably just do the long slow ribs a couple times this summer. That is a production!
May 20th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
1/2 half hour is not bad so long as you can count on it. What frustrated me was unpredictability. {pst on your grilling. I have to buy another outdoor cooking device soon.
May 20th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
Amazing what you can find on the internet by accident, isn’t it? In this particular case it’s only the most beautiful barbeque grill I’ve ever seen. If Tolkien elves did barbeque, they would use a Kamado. You could fit an…