WillG wrote:So can I still look myself in the mirror if I keep using it (it is cheaper than lump, and has a lot less waste in the bag), or should I repent?

I occasionally use Royal Oak natural briquettes, if I remember correctly they are held together with potato starch, or is it corn starch. Briquettes burn longer, and at a slightly lower temperature, and in the past, though not for quite a while, I've used natural briquettes as a base, topped with lump, when I wanted a long unattended burn in a WSM. Lump charcoal tends to burn unevenly resulting in interesting textural highlights, I've also noted a (slightly) more complex flavor when using lump and there is less ash residue.

I have a fairly good supply of both lump and natural briquettes on hand, unless there is a specific reason, long unattended WSM burn, testing a recipe/method, I always reach for lump charcoal. I should note I've gotten 14 + hours on 7-8 lbs of lump in my large BGE which makes using natural briquettes to increase burn time in a BGE moot.

You are not a sinner, simply a thoughtful BBQ man on the road to perfecting his craft.

Enjoy,
Gary

My next thought would be.....if my BGE can keep 200-225 for 20-24 hours, is there anything that I would want to smoke that long? Half a pig? A whole Beef shoulder, if that exists, or at least the biggest chuck roast that I could find (yikes, according to my handy dandy NAMP guide, a Chuck shoulder (clod) would weigh in at around 18 lbs, which might be more reasonable than a chuck, square-cut, at 80 lbs)? A ham?

Any ideas?

Thanks, Will

Will - an extra large pork shoulder (often w/ the butt and picnic attached) may require 20 hours or so of cooking time. I normally cook my shoulders for about 1.5-2 hours per lb at around 220 till they are about 190 internal temp.

WillG wrote:My next thought would be.....if my BGE can keep 200-225 for 20-24 hours, is there anything that I would want to smoke that long? Half a pig? A whole Beef shoulder, if that exists, or at least the biggest chuck roast that I could find (yikes, according to my handy dandy NAMP guide, a Chuck shoulder (clod) would weigh in at around 18 lbs, which might be more reasonable than a chuck, square-cut, at 80 lbs)? A ham?

Any ideas?

Thanks, Will

Steamship Round

=R=

I just got a generous birthday gift of any Big Green Egg I want. I have decided on the XL as the local dealer has a 25% off sale. Is it worth it to have it assembled or is easy to do it yourself? Thanks

mrbrowncanmoo wrote:I just got a generous birthday gift of any Big Green Egg I want. I have decided on the XL as the local dealer has a 25% off sale. Is it worth it to have it assembled or is easy to do it yourself? Thanks

Its not that difficult if I recall. It took me about an hour and I had no choice since I bought it mail order but if I was doing it today, I would pay the extra cost. The large BGE weighs about 140 lbs.

I got my XL fully assembled and delivered. It is supposedly 225 pounds, so I was not going to try to mess with it. Once it is on its nest, it is relatively easy to wheel around.

-Will

mrbrowncanmoo wrote:Is it worth it to have it assembled

Yes.

My large Big Green Egg was delivered in a crate by the BGE Midwest rep, he put it together quickly and efficiently, but he has done it hundreds of times. He specifically commented that the real trick to assembling a BGE was the proper tightening of the bands. Too tight you can crack the ceramic, too loose the top comes loose after 3-4 months.

The large was heavy/awkward to assemble even for him, a pro, an xl by a novice does not seem a wise choice, unless there are no other options.

Enjoy,
Gary

My XL came off the small feet it rests on in the grill cart and I 'bout busted a gut trying to get it back on. It's heavy, awkward and huge - I'd definitely spend the money for assembly and I'm notoriously frugal (cheap, says Mrs. D).

Davooda

I made a go of it and put it together myself. The nest was a pain in the ass, due to lousy instructions and took twice as long as the egg to assemble. The egg was fairly easy, but, because of it's size and different spring arm than in the instructional egg video, it took slightly over an hour to assemble.

Even though the setup took longer than expected, I was still able to cook 2 Empire Chix with applewood and apple slices. All in all, the payoff was terrific. Despite this, there is no way will I ever set up another one.

BTW, finished up the weekend with thighs and leg quarters with a little maple and birch while knocking back several 2 Brother's Ebel Weiss. Great way to end the weekend.

Thanks for the advice!!

mrbrowncanmoo: one of the best things, for me, about the BGE is that you can cook on the same bed of coals for hours by closing down the lower vent and top vents to let just enough air through to keep them lit.

This way, you can do some ribs and chix low and slow for 3-4 hours, bank the fire by narrowing the vents then open them up again letting the fire get back to 400 to grill burgers, dogs, brats, etc. Then you can bank it again and finish the evening with S'mores on the last of the low coals.

Have fun with the new toy!

Davooda

Cedar Hill is having Big Green Egg demos again. See http://cedarhillon22.com/eggfest2010.htm for more details. I am not sure if this belongs in this thread or in a new thread.

All -

Wanted to solicit some advice about temperature/restocking the coals.

Two years ago we gave my father a Green egg. Since then we have consistently had a variety of issues all revolving around not being able to get it hot enough or keep it at a temperature long enough.

So I figured I would start here as there are some supreme grilling ninjas that might be able to chime in with some thoughts. He has a Large green egg. Typically uses some sort of wood charcoal.

Questions:
1. If I want to blaze it to 750-800 on a full load, how long should I be able to hold that temperature??

2. Over thanksgiving we had to refill maybe 2-3 times and were having trouble keeping it at 300 ish. Doesn't that seem odd?

3. When you use the grill, how much charcoal do you put in? My assumption is this will vary on expected time of cooking / heat, but am curious how you set yours up.

Thanks for any input!

jpeac2-

1. I have never done it for more than about 30 minutes, but I would think that you could keep 750+ going for at least an hour or 2.

2. Yes. I find that after an hour or so tinkering with the vents, it will keep a relatively (+/- 25 degrees) constant temp for the duration. As I mentioned above, I have kept 225 for 12 hours with plenty of coals to spare. I would think that a full load could keep 300 for at least 10 hours. Note that a full load is not just 1 chimney starter full.

3. I am not as opposed to reusing coals as some here are, so I l tend to use a lot of charcoal, and then just close it off, and reuse later with a fresh chimney full to start it.

--- On a side note, I did burn through the felt gasket after about 6 months, so I am going to need to replace it. I ordered 1 from amazon that is from Gasket Specialties, described at a replacement gasket for ceramic grills, and appears to be the same material as the original. If anyone has any experience with this, can you tell me if this is adequate, or should I get something else?

Thanks, Will

Will - see my post of June 29 on page one of this thread. I called BGE after burning through the felt gasket on mine and they sent me a "high heat" gasket - I think it's Nomex - gratis. Maybe you can get a freebie too.

I routinely hold 250-300 degrees for 12 hours but also can do the "multi-task" thing and open the vents for a while for higher heat and then close them to bank the fire for later use. One day this past summer, between noon and midnight, I did two rounds of spares (ten slabs), banked the fire, cooked brats, dogs and burgers, banked the fire again, then did s'mores on the last coals. It was truly a full load of lump charcoal (to the bottom of the fire ring) but banking the fire prevented it from blazing too hot and the coals ended up burning from the center outward. I did pull the coals together a couple times with the coal too - carefully so as not to make much ash fly.

The beauty of this kind of cooker.

Davooda

Davooda-

I had seen your earlier post, and thought that what I had ordered was for high heat, but it is the same as the original. I will give it a shot, and follow the directions about not getting it too hot the first couple of burns. If it doesnt work, I will go with the nomex next.

Thanks, Will

jpeac2 wrote:2. Over thanksgiving we had to refill maybe 2-3 times and were having trouble keeping it at 300 ish. Doesn't that seem odd?

Odd, yes, though I have heard variations of this any number of times. While BGE suggests simply brushing out ash/coal build-up from the firebox every once in a while and does not seem to address removing the internal components for complete cleanup, in almost every case ash build up interfering with air flow is the cause of temperature stability problems.

Remove all the parts, cooking grid, plate setter, fire ring, fire box, you will be surprised at the amount of ash build-up under and around the fire box. Air flow is key to a happy BGE, ash build-up impedes air flow.

When reassembling make sure the vent hole in the fire box lines up with the lower BGE vent.

I never reuse charcoal, ever. Charcoal is an absorbent, it soaks up moisture, grease odor etc. Used charcoal that looks fine may, in fact, have absorbed enough moisture to cause it to burn unevenly. A 20-lb bag of Royal Oak lump charcoal is $8 at Berger Bros, a large BGE will run 12-hours on 5-7 pounds, you really want to chance it for $2?

Gasket wise, my large BGE gasket burned off almost immediately, took me a few singed eyebrows to get the BGE "burp" down, and I have not replaced it. I have grilled, smoked, high heat roasted, done dozens and dozens of pizza at high heat no gasket, no problem. No problem getting 12-14 hour low slow burns with a full load of lump either.

Far as how long a large BGE will go at 750, not sure, but at my pizza sweet spot of 650 I have been getting 1-1/2, maybe slightly longer, with a full load of lump. I am opening and closing the cooker for multiple pizza during, timing would be different if you left the lid closed. What do you intend on doing at 750 for over an hour?

Two excellent resource web sites, one with info, the other with useful aftermarket add-ons, in particular the Woo3.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramicfaq.htm/
http://www.ceramicgrillstore.com/

If you take nothing else from this post please take the BGE apart and clean it completely, you will be surprised at the difference.

Regards,
Gary

Bought a Green Egg a couple of months ago due to inability to smoke on my WSM during cold winter months. So far I have smoked ribs, pulled pork and brisket......all with great success.
It holds temperature even in the cold winter and is extremely easy to use.

I can also highly recommend the "Spatchcock Chicken" recipe from:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/spatch.htm

Tonight I seasoned two unbrined chickens with only salt, pepper and the Italian seasoning mixture from Costco. The Egg held a temperature for 330-375 for the hour and the chicken was outstanding!! I have made this chicken with lump charcoal and applewood chips but frankly just using only lump charcoal was better.

This is one of the easiest, simple, tasty versions of chicken I have come across.

The only downside to the Egg is the relatively small cooking area and the initial cost of the Egg itself. I initially hesitated to purchase an item that pricey....but so far I have been very happy with the results.

Jerry D wrote:I can also highly recommend the "Spatchcock Chicken" recipe from:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/spatch.htm

Jerry,

I've found WSM to work quite well in cold weather, though if wind is combined with the cold some sort of wind break is needed. That said, I have developed a real appreciation for the BGE.

Speaking of spatchcock, a fun word to both say and type, I did a couple of spachcocked cornish hens on the BGE this evening, mainly because your post reminded me of a technique I had not used in a while.

Spatchcocked Cornish Hen

back to the Big Steel Keg. we got one for Christmas and have had decent luck with it so far... but the caveat being the weather is still a bigger factor in how well it works than we would've liked. we have it on a 14th floor open roof deck (overlooking Belmont harbor if you're still looking for an invite to come use a BSK! ) so not only has it been cold often but the wind is a big factor. we can kind of shelter it a bit but it's not ideal. reports online have been that you can keep it going at a steady temp for a good 8-10 hours without adjusting your lump or wood, we haven't been able to do that yet. There's definitely a learning curve and that and the fact that the weather is different every time we fire up isn't helping. summer weather will be a great help for that cause.

bought it on amazon; it was cheaper there though than anywhere I had found locally. their link is http://tinyurl.com/6f7mxt3 but it's not in stock now apparently

One of the bigger reasons we went with the BSK over the BGE is the BSK being made of steel makes it virtually indestructible, whereas I'm told if the BGE falls over it becomes a paperweight (which granted is very difficult, but we move a lot and you never know what 70+ mph winds are capable of doing). the lid itself can be closed with a hinge that has a lock on it even... I think this is really designed for tailgaters, but there are very few other options i'd be willing to let operate unattended on a roof for 8 hours without worrying. (as far as tailgating... it can be quickly mounted on a ball hitch with a $35 kit, seems pretty cool if that's your thing).

we had previously had a water smoker on a different rooftop and that thing was a POS trying to keep temperatures.... the BSK doesn't lose much heat, you can hold your hand onto the outside and even if it's 800 degrees inside it will barely be warm on the outside it's so well insulated. the problem with heat loss is the venting, and frankly I don't think we've mastered the art of compensating for heat loss due to severe [cold] wind vs just regular venting if all else was normal. One thing I'm really interested in is an automated temperature control system. In theory you don't need to even adjust the vents in normal conditions, but with this it'll sense the internal temperature and basically has a computer fan that blows more or less to accommodate whatever is needed (and can hook up to computer and can log temperatures over time, etc.). there are two major makers I know of BBQ Guru being one ( http://www.thebbqguru.com/ ) and there's another one that's slightly cheaper but the name escapes me... even with the guru (or whatever alternative) outfitted it's less $ than a BGE. Does anyone have any experience with the guru or alternative? i've seen one or two "home brew" options which actually look fairly easy for someone with moderate skills to do.

we don't have any "official" diffuser plate so we've been trying out various implementations ourselves. ... you can buy what's either now an official BSK diffuser or a third party one (can't remember) but it's $50-60 so we thought we'd try out some other ideas first... a cast iron pan namely. i was going to try using my pizza stone (perhaps drilling a hole or two in it), but i just cracked that so that's out until I get a new. might just buy the real deal though but i don't think it was out until recently if the real one from BSK is even out by now

we have a weber grill but that's taken a back seat even as a grill... you can get this thing up to temp in 10 minutes if you want, and 800 degrees if you want. made some amazing "wood fire" pizza last week on it.

Does anyone recommend this product and/or know a moderately easy way to get my hands on one?

THANK YOU!

"Search" is your friend. There have been several discussions of this device. I know GWiv had one, maybe still does.

Geo

Heck Yes I can recommend it.
Mine got smashed when a large tree came down on it last year, I'm getting a new one for next year. I am really missing it. I used it year round even cooking the christmas turkey in it.

You can get it so hot that you can use it to season cast iron at a far higher temp than a standard oven - I used to do that as a service in my area.
Great as a smoker as well.

As to getting one - well, I had a really bad experience with a mail order place out of KC. Mine arrived piece by piece, and I ended up disputing the charge. The place never answered the CC company, so I essentially got most of one for free. The customer service folks at Green Egg are great. I'm sure if you wait a little while, there will be end of season sales. If memory serves, one of the larger Egg dealers is in Rockford. It has been a long time since I went there, but they had a whole floor devoted to BBQ/smoker units.

There are other komodo cookers on the market, but most of them use cheaper ceramics. The one sold by cabellas for instance breaks easily I am told. The Egg is made in the US, the other major market unit (komodo) I am told is now made south of the border.

I got one about 2 months ago and highly recommend it as well, although everyone is going to have their own opinion on the price/value trade-off and they are expensive.

As far as where to get one easily, off the top of my head, in the northern suburbs they are sold by Abt, Plass, The Backyard Barbecue Store in Wilmette, and Ace Hardware in Highland Park. I got mine at Plass Appliance in Northbrook.

FYI, I believe these days the Egg is made in Mexico.

Got an egg last October and just finished building a table for it...



used the nakedwiz plans with a few modifications
Pretty sure the table/grill cover will fit, will see after Father's Day....

My egg was smashed by a tree that landed on it. It will be replaced. The egg is just fantastic for high temp finishing of souis vide steaks, my real use for it.

I use the egg for a lot of low and slow cooks but also plenty of 350 chickens

mhill95149 wrote:Got an egg last October and just finished building a table for it...

Beautiful!

Don't know if you have one, its not shown in your picture, but one aftermarket piece of equipment I find useful is the Woo3 from Ceramic Grill Store. I like the idea/simplicity of the Woo3 to raise the cooking grate in direct mode to BGE felt level for more distance from the fire for chicken, sausage, fish fillet etc.

I've been using the indirect thing a lot but the only thing I want to maybe get higher in the dome is the pizza stone. So I've been flipping over my grill basket and putting the pizza stone on it over the grill, plate setter. When I want to lower the grill level I replace the grill with the grill basket and cook closer to the coals. I'd like a smaller grill grate that sits on the fire box with out the grill ring

Can anyone here recommend a cookbook or web resource for BGE recipes? We are especially curious about techniques for smoking ribs (dry rub? sauce? when? etc).
Thanks!