Capacity on LGE vs. XL

You can easily fit about a dozen NY Strips on the large.  

On two levels, I've done 6 x 8 or 9 pound boston butts.  4 on the cooker on the left and 6 on the right hand cooker. 






I don't have a pic, but I've done 9 slabs of babybacks with the Adjustable rig shown below.   Only 4 on that cook, but I did three levels of three on another occasion. 



Hope this helps,

Joe

I'm pretty sure you could cook them on the stock 18" grid. My steak of choice is the ribeye and I think I've had 7 or 8 of those on at once. I would likely never go multi-level with steaks.

I usually hot tub them in food saver bags and get the Large good and hot at about 650° dome and sear them for 90-120 seconds per side for a nice char and a good medium rare throughout.

A few ribeyes:



A filet that was done on the mini using the same hot tub method:



In a nutshell, unless you will be routinely cooking for a large group of people, the Large BGE is a helluva lot of cooker with a few accessories, purchased or home built.

Thanks for the kind words on my cooking. I've spent some time learning how to cook well and would give anybody a run with some fuel, tools and a coffee can, but the BGE and the tremendous amount of knowledge on the forum will make your food the envy of everyone you know who appreciates the finer chow in this world.

Additionally, I would rather have multiple cookers than one huge beast. You then have the ability to set up for multiple courses and dishes simultaneously, i.e. One steak searing station, one roasting potatoes au gratin or veggies, one with a Dutch oven full of chili. The possibilities are endless.

Just food for thought. No pun intended.

Joe

Adding to 3andsomedust...

I cook burgers and sausage on the XL with coal on the back 1/2 using Ceramic Grill's dividers. Semi indirect for the sausage on the front and burgers direct on the back. Warms up the sausage without the heat needed to cook the burgers.

You'll find yourself branching out into pizza(like I did). Store bought pizza crusts fit well on the XL.

In Texas it's difficult to find a small brisket, so the XL works great for smoking.

Go with the XL, the extra space is a blessing.

i like the large egg with a second one down the road over one xl, but everyone is cooking differently and for different crowds. did 5 bone in strip steaks this weekend, could have fit maybe 3 more, boneless maybe 4 more. for a larger crowd i would have cooked them differently. hot water bath in a ziplock for an hour, then its just searing and slipping them on a plate covered loosely with foil, in 12 minutes, maybe a little more you could have 20 steaks sitting on the plate resting before serving. if i were doing really big cooks every weekend thru the year i would need either two larges or an xl, i would want the 2 larges. seems every time you step up an egg in size the lump used goes up and its significant when your burning 400 pounds a year, my lump usage went down to maybe 250 when i bought a small to go with the large, its a lump miser



some other bigger cooks

turkey about 18 pounds, can easily do a 20 pound plus bird


beef ribs and baby backs

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/fishlessman/DSC_0539.jpg

some more ribs, plenty room for more racks, the record was over 20 racks posted by chef will



this was a thigh cook on one level



loin casserole and potatoes, thats a full size lasagna pan



about 32 pounds butt and brisket

Holy moly, did you feed the 8th Air Force? LOL that is an impressive pile of feed.