How/why did you get your first egg?

Rezen73 · July 2011

I've been cooking/grilling/barbecueing/whatevering with charcoal for about 20 years, ever since I was in high school.

When I went to college, I really got into grilling - it was how me and my 4 other roommates at most of our meals... we'd roll out the keg and fire up the grill, and cook whatever meat we had handy. Usually burgers or hotdogs.

After college, I moved back in with my parents (and brother, another avid griller), and continued my barbecue journey... grilling in the backyard every weekend using charcoal and a bbq pit.

Fast forward 10 years.

My wife and I are in a backyard design store - they sell pools, patio furniture, etc. And on the day we were there, the proprietor of the place happened to have a rack of St. Louis style ribs on this large ovoid cooking device on the patio of his shop that he called an Egg.

What the hell?

Intrigued, I asked him about it. He went on to explain the whole ceramic cooker thing to me, how it keeps moisture in the food, easy to keep temperature, how it uses hardly any fuel, high temperatures, etc etc etc.

Then he offered us a sample. Crack dealer!

My wife and I both obliged, out of courtesy, as we both feel it's quite rude to turn down free food.

10 minutes later and half the rack of ribs gone, my wife is "egging" me on to buy one.

2 hours later (and $1200 lighter in the pocket) I'm home assembling our new large BGE with a boatload of accessories...

Our lives have been changed ever since

So how/when/where/why did you buy your first egg?

Every time I light it up, I truly regret not buying one sooner.

In my case, it was complete ignorance - I didn't know these things existed and the day I found out about them, I bought one. Really wish I had found out about them sooner!!

PattyO · July 2011

When the leg corroded on my Weber Genesis, after more than a decade of hard use, I decided on charcoal. I like the challenge and results of char grilled food. I remembered a feature on the Today show about ten years ago about the Big Green Egg. So it was now or never. That was one year ago. Yesterday I picked up egg # three, and yes, I live alone!

NibbleMeThis · July 2011

I was tired of using a Brinkmann SnP offset in cold windy weather. I originally wanted to buy a Lang 48, wasn't even considering an Egg. I stumbled onto this forum and the rest is history.

Rezen73 · July 2011

Wow, three eggs and you live alone?

What sizes are they?

We have a large and a mini. Love both of them.

Although, somehow, I feel that a small is in our future. hehe

PattyO · July 2011

I got the Medium last June. Within two weeks I ordered the mini. Med was just too big for me alone for a couple chops, chicken pieces or a steak. Now I am interested in a lot of Dutch oven cooking and cast iron which is a bit limited on the Med, so decided to bite the bullet on the demo large and a corner set up by "Southern Specialties" plus the cutest little mini table, an actual sales demo replica of their large table. Too cute. I'll get a pic up of it later. Ye, they do tend to multiply. Addictive.

PawpawEgg · July 2011

I won my egg in a dealer drawing. I wasn't too impressed with it at first but it is getting easier each time I use it.

Austin Smoker · July 2011

Wife gave me mine for Christmas 4 years ago....been a love story ever since!

Oh...yeah...loved the wife before the egg too!

Gator Bait · July 2011

I shouldn't reply as I didn't buy my egg. :cheer:

My medium egg was a Christmas present from my BIL and sister a few years ago. I am severely diabetic and have trouble finding foods that are not bad for me. Carbohydrates and starches are bad but proteins are OK so the egg is a natural. I have always loved grilling so I took to the egg with enthusiasm and never looked back.

Blair

MemphisQue · July 2011

Great Story. I had been hearing from friends who had the egg and proclaimed its greatness all the time. I was an avid griller and smoker and had multiple grills/smokers. I did not initially buy into the hype. However, my father-in-law bought one and I was able to play with the egg and try it out myself. I was hooked. I have not used my other grills since I purchased my egg. In fact my smoker has been donated to my hunting club.

transversal · July 2011

My bride surprised me with one for Christmas last year.....been wanting one for years.

Austin Egghead · July 2011

My old New Bruansfels smoker (circa 1980+) was not up to #4 move so I gave it to one of the packers. I was ready to put down some serious buck (north of 2500) for a custom smoker made by a company in Tomball TX.

Fate intervened and I met Bob at BBQ Outfitters. He showed me the Egg and challenged me to use it. I did and now I own 3 eggs.
The smoker was part of the outdoor kitchen, which was put on hold and the $ were put into the mechanic of the new house to make it more energy efficient.

The pay off of that decision has been seen this summer in the AC bills.

PattyO · July 2011

Not when you "egg" baklava as I do at fests. But yes, I do agree grilled food is good food in so many ways.

MemphisQue · July 2011

Wish I had won mine!

omgrph · July 2011

Well here I am. Went to a Christmas gathering my cousin had smoked two pork loins. I could have consumed both by myself. Fast forward to the weekend before Father Day kids (College Adults) ha are coming in. She says I want to get you something, but you may not want it. (I have a hard time spending money on myself)
What is it, she says A BIG GREEN EGG. So I say okay. Now here is the kicker the store is an hour away. And she is not felling good. So I HAVE TO go get it. ha
I love it. Food is so good cooked with it.

deepsouth · July 2011

good question...... i just remember wanting one and my wife told my parents and that christmas, me, dad and bro-in-law got large bge's for christmas. i later added a mini and then a small.

fasteddiem · July 2011

First...Great Thread!

I grew up in a household where the men cook. My dad has spent the last 40 years running/owning pizzerias in Cincinnati. He truly has a passion for cooking...but grilling...not so good. He makes the toughest ribs, "shoe-leathery brisket" and incinerated burgers...Apparently his talents in the kitchen don't transfer! After one particularly bad brisket session (last summer) I did some research on the best smoker...I believe that is the exact phrase I used in Google. BGE came right up with a link to a post in this forum...

Go back in time to every sumer over the last 10 years...My wife's family has a condo in Orange Beach, AL. We would go every summer and enjoy the amazing seafood at the various restaurants...Around most of the restaurants are stores called "Sand Dollar Shoes." One thing each of these shoe stores had in common (There must be 100 around the area) is they were also BGE dealers. I always thought they looked interesting but never gave much thought. It always struck me as odd the combination of shoes and grills...

Back to the present...After choking down the brisket and doing the search I started to hunt down local egg dealerships. There were a bunch around town but when I checked each one they were way too expensive for me...I kept watching Craigslist for a used one, but none ever showed. Until May...there was an XL BGE with a 8 ft. table with heavy casters, ash tool, Charcoal, starters, wood chips, and umbrella...for $950! Even better they were a dealer and this was their demo egg so they could sell with the Warranty! My prayers answered!

My dad though it was still too expensive...until he tried my Brisket! The rest is history! I love my egg and haven't looked back!

Grandpas Grub · July 2011

Bought many smokers and types of smokers over the years. My daughter was talking with a 'food designer' (a guy that gets paid to come up with good foods to sell in grocery store deli's) and said that here dad was trying to find a good smoker. The designer said he heard of a bunch of fanatics that cooked on green things that looked like an egg.

I wust about to buy an offset and a treager. My daughter called me told me about the conversation. I got on google and looked up egg, smoker, egg cooker and finally got the green and egg in the same search.

The link I looked at was the forum.

I read the forum from about 7pm to about 5 am, went to bed got up read a bit more. 10am I called the 3 dealers in town. The first two were clueless. The third didn't know a lot but he did offer to cook me something.

I asked my wife to go over and pick up a large, solely from reading the forum.

You guys sold me on it. I found a dealer that was interested in the egg and that became my dealer. $1,150 for a fest type egg and a V-rack. Wish I could have gotten it for less but I don't regret a minute of the bucks spent.

A medium, small and mini later and still happy.

No better sales people than what is here on the forum. Thanks everyone.

GG

gee · July 2011

Got My egg about 5 months ago.I bought mine becuaase of my brother in law and all the good cooks He was doing.Came to realize the an egg was not as expensive as it seemed after buy five other grills in the last ten years.Now I want another and the toys that go with them.

gee · July 2011

I'll take it since your not to impressed with it. :evil:

Mickey · July 2011

Started several years ago with a small paid by airline miles..... delivered to the front door.... Don't think you can do that anymore.

RRP · July 2011

12 years ago one Fall morning I witnessed two adult men squaring off at 10 AM after they got in a real p*ssin match because one guy had driven 110 miles from Iowa because he heard this retail store had "lump charcoal". Right before he arrived some local guy had bought the last 3 bags! When the Iowa dude asked the local dude to at least sell him one bag for his "Big Green Egg" and local dude said NO then it got ugly REAL FAST!!!

Since "lump charcoal" and "Big Green Egg" were a couple foreign terms to me I went home and started my research!

WokOnMedium · July 2011

I was an intern for radio station, and the interns are usually the ones who have to stand in the booth at expos and deal with the "Great Unwashed" (radio personality speak for the people who walk up to your booth wanting the freebies and lie about listening to your station while beating their children).

There were a couple guys going in and out the door all day. People would crowd around them and then they would be gone again. When the crowd thinned they made it to my booth with their giant cutting board. Pork tenderloin. Seasoned with? Salt and pepper. Divine. Many years passed and I could not even dream of affording one, but two years ago I won an award at work. The award came with a check. I got home on Friday night, had to go to my parents on Saturday and tracked down what turned out to be a crappy dealer on Sunday morning.

Now I have 3. 2 larges and a mini...I too live alone. :woohoo:

The good news is i've brought several others with me. 4 mediums to family and 3 larges to friends. One of whom has created a large owner.

cookingdude555 · July 2011

My quest to the egg started with the desire for the perfect steak. I had a crappy gas grill that was pretty old, and didnt have enough btu's to cook a steak properly. I then moved to a weber kettle and absolutely fell in love with charcoal grilling. Shortly after that, I bought a WSM and smoking meats became a passion. I learned about BGE's from other forums that I was on. So about two years ago, I posted an ad on a local online classified site that said "I will pay you cash for your big green egg today". I got a call a few days later from someone that had bought a large about 6 months before that, but never put it together. I promptly gave him the $650 he requested. I foolishly put it together, bought a nest, and threw away the box and everything else (yep, warranty card and all I came to learn).

I have enjoyed the egg so much that I bought three more. I have three family members that have eggs now, and I use the egg as part of an Internet assignment in one of my classes that I teach at a local community college. So every semester, 90 new people learn about it. Hopefully there will be someone posting in this thread that they bought an egg because their nerdy computer science teacher taught them about an egg ...

Beli · July 2011

A present, I got a large as a present. Fell in love with it right after my first cook a beef tenderloin. Then my dear friend Little Steven came to México from Canada, stayed at home & glued it shut with his hot talent :woohoo: Oppened it with a knife, not so bad but I always keep a close eye on him since.

meat03man · July 2011

I cooked in a restaurant for a few years and was fascinated with bbq cooking. A guy who's mom also worked there had a egg and his bbq was always so much better than anything I had made. I have cheap barrel smoker bought for like 20 bucks at a flea market and a refrigerator smoker that I built myself out of an old stainless fridge. And my bbq was always good but not great. I made a deal with my wife if I could save the money without neglecting the bills I could buy one. 3 months later I went to the egg store to purchase, I was debating between a large and xl and they sold the last xl and were loading it up that morning and I didn't want to wait a week to get my egg so the decision was made for me. I bought the large and brought it straight home, put it together and into my table. (Yes I did build my table before I bought the egg) I had everything put together and ready to cook about 8 that evening, I started the egg up and never looked back. And now I make bbq that blows anyone else's out of the water. I go to award winning bbq joints and I leave thinking mine is actually better than theirs. So now all I do is bbq when I am not at work, I buy cook books make rubs and sauces when I am not cooking. I cook at least 3 times a week and I love my egg. Next up is a small. I have considered a mini but I just don't think I would be using it enough.

Dave in Florida · July 2011

I was at the Bar-be-que and Bluegrass Fest in Sevierville, Tennessee last year. I was enjoying some mighty fine food as I listened to some great music. As I walked around talking to the competitors, I noticed that just about every booth had a Big Green Egg that had something cooking. These folks were big time competitors from their awards displayed, trailers and setups. I mentioned it to my wife and the more we visited the different tents the more we noticed Big Green Eggs. And the only complaint was the cheap felt gasket. I knew there must be something to this BGE. Got home started researching and pulled the trigger on a Large. Wife says my cooking from the gasser to the Egg has went to another level. I guess it's a good thing, she hasn't left,stopped eating my cooking or suggesting things for me to cook.

jzcc · August 2011

Our purchase was purely spur of the moment. We had an old gasser that I was afraid of igniting because the lighter button didn't work. The evening before the purchase, we were grilling chicken breasts and ran out of propane. Last November, we were out buying Xmas presents and noticed a BBQ vendor in the area and decided to run in to buy a regulator for the propane tank. The sales guys approached us with the pitch of "what else can we show you. Have you seen a Big Green Egg?" All it took for me was to take a whiff of the charcoal scent. That was it for me! Cary said, "don't you want to sleep on it? That's an awful lot of money." I said "nope" and 30 minutes later a large was loaded into my Jeep. After several cooks on the large we were sold on the product. Not six months later, we bought a small to augment the large. After attending a couple of egg fests, we will never look back! The BGE has been a life changer for us!

TheHandleGuy · August 2011

For me, I retired and had the time to cook things right. I tried other smokers and was unhappy with the results.
I did research and found out that the Egg was hands down the best and most versatile smoker out there.

Since I am an analytic sort, it was pretty easy. Done, buy Egg. Probably the best purchase I have ever made.

James MB · August 2011

I grew up grilling stuff over camp fire embers as a kid, later in life they became synonymous with good times be they celebrations, family gatherings or just being outside.
I went through a cheap rickety charcoal grill each year but my BIL had a Weber go-anywhere grill that was their only cooker while they had their house built(!). I then splashed out for a Weber kettle, they're not cheap over here. I was disappointed about the ferocity of the kettle as it seemed hard to stop roaring away and the grate was too close to the coals and the one touch vents hard to set.
I looked for something substantial with a bigger coal gap - then I came across the WSM, avidly read TVWB and Naked Whiz. Finally pulled the plug on a WSM and got hooked on cooking larger cuts of meat - roasting or hot smoking rather than grilling.
Came across a tiled Kamado - the White elephant sitting in my garden shedding tiles and making passers by curious - and off the back of that came the egg by another coincidence. The egg will be my last cooker - it's what I was after all along, I just didn't know it and they weren't available over here.
I had planned a built in masonry grill, having used them on holiday in Spain but luckily never got around to it.

BigDaddy - OCT · August 2011

My dad and both grandfathers were military and I grew up with the old green clay cookers but every time we were transferred they broke. My dad swore, when the price went from $8 to $12 he would never buy another (yes, he now has a BGE large).

I had been away from them for some time but went to visit my ailing grandfather one January and was able to use his old clay one to cook him a steak. He couldn't speak but gave me a very big smile so I knew I was on to something.

When I got home I found a used one in the local paper for $200. It was a medium and got me hooked. The next spring I attended the first OKC eggfest at the new location and bought a large demo. Now I'm saving for a small to add to the family.

Bruce

asianflava · August 2011

We saw them at a home show when we lived in TX. I asked a few people about them and everybody I talked to loved them. We didn't have the money so I just got a regular New Braunfels charcoal pit. I ended up giving it away when we moved.

When we got to Colorado, we had a hard time finding a decent brisket or good pork like when we lived in NC. I figured that I'd better learn how to do it myself. I was going to order a Kamado because the blue tile looks really nice. Found out that the lead time was too long so I got a BGE locally.

Started with an XL to do those big briskets, but I hated firing it up when I was just grilling a couple steaks. Ended up getting a Lg a year later. Just a few weeks ago, we got a Med to take camping. So we got 3 eggs in about 3 1/2 years.

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