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tnsquint
tnsquint Posts: 3
edited May 2015 in Forum List
Full disclosure; I am at best, mediocre grill cook.  For years I have struggled with steaks, burgers, the occasional skewer and perhaps taking a stab at salmon.  My results were always haphazard and I never seemed to be able to quantify the process or learn from the experience.  Some things came out great while many others were over done, under done.  I just never had any confidence of being successful behind a grill whether gas or charcoal.  

This season I decided I was going to get good at it.  I checked out some online help pages, got my Weber grill out and ready and started at it.  I had a few pretty good cooks, but still, my family and I would sit at dinner and spend an inordinate amount of time discussing how to better go about grilling, what I learned in the process and how to go about replicating the occasional success.  

A neighbor has a BGE and is always raving about it.  In my mind I assume that means he just happens to be really good at grilling and the BGE is his weapon of choice as it were.  He walked across the street last weekend to offer my wife and me some of his dutch oven cherry cobbler (which was great by the way) and ended up staying for about 45 minutes discussing how great the BGE is and why it makes such a huge difference in his cooking.  Needless to say my wife and I purchased our Large unit the next day.  It was delivered and installed on Monday.  In the meantime I spent some time on this forum.

Monday night I came home, put in some lump charcoal and lit it up.  I spent some time learning how to manage temperature keeping it under 400º.  I was amazed at how sensitive it is and how accurately you can set temp on this.  Once I felt like I completely had a handle on the temp and had it stable, I put in the platesetter, a drop pan and did a spatchcock chicken.  Now, I had never even considered grilling a full chicken before so this was a leap of faith for my less than mediocre skill set.  My neighbor came by to offer suggestions, tips and just generally offering moral support.  The chicken came out about an hour and fifteen minutes later and it was fantastic.  Crispy skin, moist and smoky meat flavor.  My son commented that this was the first time he could remember eating bar-b-q with the family that we weren't criticizing or figuring out how to do it better next time.  It was fantastic!  I did do my own butchering as you can tell.  In the future, I'll just let the store butcher handle that part.  :-)

Tuesday night it was the same process with cedar planked salmon along with baked potatoes.  Again, it all just came out great.  Easily the best baked potatoes I have done on a grill and the salmon was tender, juicy and flavorful; certainly better than any salmon I have ever attempted to grill.  

Unfortunately, we have had commitments Wed - Fri so no more experience.  Perhaps today as the refrigerator suddenly has a lot of meat in it.  I think that is my wife's seal of approval.  So thank you for all the help getting started and I am looking forward to many years of great grilling.    


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