Is food on the egg always so much better?

WileECoyote

I have only been using my large egg for a few weeks now. I am not a chef or even a good cook, and prior to getting the egg I would just cook very basic stuff in the kitchen and some occasional meat on the propane grill. When a friend talked me into trying the egg I figured it might make grilling a little better but I mainly wanted it for smoking meat.

Well I haven't had a chance to smoke any meat yet but every single thing I have grilled on the egg has come out perfect, about 200% more flavor, juicier, more tender, crispier, etc. than what I could have ever done in the kitchen or on a gas grill. It has made such a huge difference that I am wondering if part of this isn't just a psychological trick. I am still buying the same old ingredients and using the same spices that I always did, and I am still learning how to use the egg so I am sure to be doing a number of things wrong or sub-optimal, yet everything tastes so good!

Does the egg alone really make that big of a difference or have I just been lucky? Or maybe things just taste better since I am expecting them to be better. If this level of improvement is typical of the egg then I can hardly wait until I learn how to use it better. I never would have dreamed of cooking for a crowd before but with food this good I would confidently cater any event, assuming that I could bring myself to share the food...

Rollocks

Its the power of egg! Welcome to the cult!

Michael B

Kitchen oven -
- Does not hold a stable temp. Swings can be as much as 50 degrees.

Gasser -
- You’re pumping a *lot* of dry air through there.

BGE -
- Very stable cooking environment.

ChefRD

Nope!, not always.
In my many years of using the Egg, I have had this happen:

I tried cooking a brisket fat side down ONCE, and it had the texture of a brand new cowboy boot. Wife was not happy.

I cooked a country ham that I purchased in Sikeston MO., once, and it came out tasting like a salt lick, even after soaking overnite in water, and it was only slightly more tender than the new boot brisket.

My first couple of pizzas had crusts of pure carbon due to not having a "plate" setter under the pizza stone to prevent charring of the crust.

So, with 10+ years with my Eggs, I can practically count on one hand, all the meals that sucked! I have never once regretted getting them and I highly recommend them to anyone.

I'm telling you this, so you will understand that for some reason, sometimes things just don't work like you were hoping for, even with good intentions.

Later,
ron.

JLOCKHART29

The Egg is VERY FORGIVING! Unless you burn it food comes out pretty good regardless grilled. Smoking or indirect is a little more easy to screw up IMO as you can over cook and dry out the "sacrifice" if you do not pay attention to internal temps. DRY MEAT IS AN UNACEPTABLE SACRIFICE. DON'T DO IT!!! The more you are on this forum the faster your spriral toward obsession. :woohoo: :woohoo:

Beanie-Bean

Yes, and it will spoil you to the point where you won't be eating food in a restaurant that you can cook on the BGE. Welcome to the EggNation!

Michael B

My in-laws took me to a BBQ place just north of Austin, a couple weeks ago. $30 a plate and I'd rather have had burgers off the Egg.

ArvadaMan

Yes. Assuming you have not made a tragic mistake, even my failures come out better. As beanie said, it will soon spoil your ability to eat out ever again. When you can take a ribeye out of your local grocery store bargin bin for $4 and kick the butt of the $20 dollar ribeye at your local steak house, then you are done for. Just giving you fair warning.

Pork Butt Mike

I am sure we all have stories of a few bad cooks we have done on the egg. But you can't beat the egg for flavor, texture and taste as far as I am concern. If you have questions on just about any type of cook or recipe here is the place to find it. Eggers will go out of their way to help you out. If they don't know something they will search it. It just don't get any better than this.

lowercasebill

Is food on the egg always so much better?

yes

lowercasebill

well that did not work so the answer to your ? is YES.
kids thought the first chicken was undercooked, it was so moist. they won't eat boiled asparagus anymore. the younger one does not want salad he wants grilled romaine. and i never was a fan of ribs or pulled pork till i made my own. your perceptions are accurate everything does taste better cook on the egg. trust the egg, luke

Chef in the Making

I am fairly new to using the Egg but I agree with the above posts. The pizza is phenomenal and the meats are grate.

Eggtucky

Two answers..
1. You have not just been lucky
2. YES

stike

it's also that you may have a changing mindset.

whether it's an egg, or a giant viking gas range, or a nice set of knives, copper pans, etc., you are likely also thinking about and considering how you cook, and feeling a bit more serious about it.

though i do think ceramics also "add" to the cook rather than just facilitate it.

Jeffersonian

That's very true. I didn't realize it until my wife and I went to a pretty decent restaurant a couple of weeks ago and I got a NY Strip that was far below in quality than what I do every day on my Egg. There are only a couple of places in town that make steaks I consider at or above what I can do on my Egg, and it's hard to walk out of those joints for under a C-note.

PhilsGrill

TROLL ALERT! TROLL ALERT! This guy is trying to make us believe that anything cooked on the egg is so much better! Wait.... it is. Uh.... never mind.

WileECoyote

Well I decided to test the theory.

I made a very simple pizza from scratch: Pilsbury pizza dough mix in a can, Hunts tomato sauce from a can, and sliced provolone cheese. Only the most basic ingredients thrown together in 3 minutes then placed on a stone above the plate setter. Cooked at 550 for 14 minutes. It came out wonderful. The charcoal seems to introduce a unique taste, not quite smoked, but something you can taste just the same. The stone did a nice job of making the crust brown and crispy without burning it.

Then to push the limits of the experiment I tossed a really cheap Digiornio frozen pizza on the stone. It cooked just fine but still tasted like cheap frozen pizza, albeit with a slight flavor added by the charcoal.

So I guess this experiment confirms that the egg can in fact do wonders with any decent ingredients, but if you feed it junk food then it is isn't worth burning the charcoal.

milesofsmiles

Semi-ho-made works for me. I sometimes use rice ILO dough. Diff. flav Deep dish loaded with what ever we're craving at the time.