Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Big Green Egg

I am in the market for a new grill. This ones promises the ability to cook low and slow as well as sear at high temps.
Does anyone own one?

Several of the members here own them, I would also like to join that group someday. Not going to happen right now though. Be patient and I am sure they will join in..

Yup. I love mine. After many years in professional kitchens I would call it the single greatest cooking tool I have ever used.
Period.
It's that good.
Depending on where you live there are other ceramic cookers to consider as well.
I can't imagine ever not having one again. I can grill in ten degree weather with the wind whipping. Smoke low and slow for 24 hours straight with out hardly touching the egg.
You can also sear a steak at uber high temps and get a real char crust just like a top quality steak house.

BWalker,
I wrote a bit about my Big Green Egg, and really can recommend it, no matter the price. If interested, see the review here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Real-Big-Green-Egg-review

and also, there is a site with whole bunch of great pictures and recipes from Big T:
http://bigtsbge.blogspot.com/

Take a look how much effort and cooking Big T put over there

Cheers,
Rocco

how long does it take to heat that thing up to cooking temp?

B, check out the egg's forum. It is a great website. I looked long and hard before getting a new grill a few years back. At the time I had no interest in a "charcoal Grill". I googled "best grill" and came across the BGE. I was impressed by all the raving reviews from people who have owned them for years. I then researched "ceramic grills" and found primarily 3 similarly priced brands. 1. Big Green Egg, 2. Primo, 3. Grill Dome. After a lot of research I chose the Grill Dome (comes in different colors, stainless steel standard, and thicker ceramic and about $150 less than than the other two. Plus I live an hour from Atlanta so I could go get my hands on one and just picked it up.
Bottom line is that you will not go wrong with any of the big 3 ceramics. I can easily smoke a 9lb butt and 12 lb beef brisket at the same time and won't have to open it once till they're individually done. Can easily slow smoke (BBQ) for 20+ hours on one load of lump charcoal (about 4Lbs). Look at all the options and go with what works for you. They all use the same principles of smoking grilling, etc. It will be one purchase that you will NEVER regret. It will make you a "master Q'er, griller, baker (Pizza and breads, baked potatoes etc all can be done on the ceramics). I guarantee it will lead to the best food you've ever eaten. Going out for a steak will soon be, more often than not, disappointing. I can't recommend the ceramic dome grill concept highly enough. I only wish I had another one, but that will be coming before too long no doubt. There are very few things I would highly recommend as much as the Green Egg type grill. They are not cheap but worth every penny. No buyers remorse from people who get one of these, for sure.

GB In normal temps with a fresh pot of charcoal you can go from zero to 400+ in about ten minutes. The great thing about the ceramic cookers is that you can cook on them, shut them down and they go right out. You get a lot of burns from a single load of charcoal. They also reach mighty high temps if you want them to.
Fair warning. Once you eat food cooked on a ceramic cooker there is no going back.
There is a ton of info available on the forums at the BGE web site but the format is kinda odd.
You may also want to wonder around this site and check it out. Lots of great info about ceramic cookers and some great info about cooking pulled pig etc.


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

As Stetson said, it takes up to 10 minutes to bring it up to a higher temperature. May be a bit longer than a gas bbq, but if you are planning to do lot of cooking, like 4 hours run, with turkey, bread, veggies etc, you don't have to worry about reloading the charcoal. One load will go a long way.

Also, what I really like is cooking in winter. I cook even at -15C (Toronto, ON) and it works perfect.

I've got one and I LOVE it. Would recommend them very highly. Be sure to shop around on the BGE though, prices varied by as much as $300 for the same model at a couple of shops within 30 miles of each other.

I don't know about any one else but I never had a home gas grill that was up to 400 degrees plus ten minutes after lighting it on any thing but a perfect summer day. Really there is just no comparison to gas. I agree with shopping around. Prices varied by about $100 here dealer to dealer for a Large. My gas grill wouldn't even burn this time of year.

Haven't cooked in the kitchen since we got a lg BGE, except for soup and a coupla canned veggies....






Just a coupla pix to gitcha to lick yer lips!!!!!!


George

You haven't even wore the new off your egg yet and your cookin like that?
Welcome to the club but don't say I didn't warn ya.
You may never want to go to a restaurant again.

O wait. I don't want to tell people that. Don't buy buy a BGE.....They Suck.....Honest.

good pics! i don't have a bge, but would like to own one. some of them have gaskets, don't they?? how do the gaskets hold up when one is cooking steaks and such. heh, i'm a novice.

are replacement parts easy to obtain?? i know we're speaking of brand-names here, are there good clones on the market, at a fair price??

looks like a great product, for sure.

LOVE my egg!!! We cook on it several times a week, rain or shine. I start it with a 30 second blast from a MAPP gas torch and I'm cooking in 10 minutes. You will be amazed how versatile they are, you can cook anything on them. Go to the "Big Green Egg" website and find an eggtoberfest near you and put it on your calendar, lots of great food, great people and new ideas.

I just got a pizza stone and love it, pizzas and breads are out of this world!!

Starting it



30 + lbs of pig butt on a Large


crown roast


wings, bacon wrapped water melon rind & tomato pie on an XL


makes GREAT bread


Ever see a whole hog cooked on an egg???

what is the weight of that ugly beast, with his eyes open, looking around??

Gus
I've had Big Green eggs for several years now and no issues with gaskets. I sear steaks at 800F and I've run them up to over 1100F. Gaskets are readily available and I understand they are easy to change.

There are other brands out there but I can't speak to their quality or lack of. Do a search on warranty service, I hear a lot of displeasure with the warranty service on a few of the knock-offs. We do competition cook-offs and quite a few years ago I started noticing a lot of eggs showing up at events and I liked what I saw. I shopped around before I bought mine but ended up with the original Big Green Egg and have no regrets. Sure I could have saved a few bucks but the support you get from BGE and the new family (or cult :-) that you become a part of gives you instant access to 1000's of people who have "been there done that" and all are willing to share their knowledge and experience. Also accessories are endless for the BGE and if you live near an eggfest you can sign up prior to the event and get a new (cooked on once) egg with a bag of lump and an ash tool at a huge savings.

If I remember correct that beast was 62lbs, cooked at Atlanta Eggtober fest

OK you guys all offically suck because you didn't invite me over for those feasts! Very nice! That whole pig is the greatest pic yet!

good to know. i've cooked on a few Hibachi's of various flavors. and of course the old standby, a Weber, but it's quite old. newer ones are out there, just haven't visited them recently.

i like the concept of the bge. back in the day, we saw komoto? advertising. seemed good, saw it displayed at some of the home & garden shows, i beleive?

i lke the product, the price might skeer me a little? the fact it can roast a whole pig is good to know. we're overrun with pigs.

Short Answer:

All BYC competitions entered and won have been with ceramic cookers.

The BYC competition team cook trailer consists of:

5-XL BGE's
2-LG BGE's
1-MD BGE
2-Primo Oval's

Only problem with the current market offerings of ceramic cookers is that I cannot do whole hog. But then the whole hog turn in, which is what matters, will fit in a take out container. Therefore, I can cut up the whole hog before cooking and still maintain. Frankly, I believe the blind judging of whole hog is a waste. Therein remains my biggest rant with competition involving whole hog---and garnish. I mean who eats raw kelp?

All of my personal outdoor cooking is done using ceramic cookers. You name it and I can cook it using a ceramic cooker.

Should you move to a ceramic cooker? IMO yes! However, it does require a short learning curve and some patience.

Regardless of the brand----if I could only have one outdoor cooker it would be the very proven Kamado aka BGE and others.

David
Team: Backyard Club
a.k.a byc
---------------

PS--

The below is the big dog and originator of the line from thousands of years ago. Not the ones we use but definitely cool.

The Kamado.