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How many folks here were foodies/cooks pre egg?

Little Steven
Little Steven Posts: 28,817
edited October 2012 in EggHead Forum
I've been cooking since I was a teenager and it has always been my responsibility and #1 hobby in adult life. I haven't had any training but read recipes and methods all the time. Have never seen this question asked on an egg forum so I thought I would give it a shot. You guys with lives and something to do on a saturday night can answer at your convenience

Steve 

Caledon, ON

 

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Comments

  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    Always liked to grill on propane bbq, did a lot of bread baking, made pizza in the oven and we have made our own pasta for years.  Use to do the home brew thing and made wine but it never tasted really good to me and the time from starting a batch to when you knew if it was good really killed my interest.

    Gerhard
  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    edited October 2012

    Gerhart,

    Gotcha! Just wanted to see who else had no life. Kidding. I did beer and wine myself but never had any results that thrilled me

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • I was a hamburger flipper for may years, starting on a Hibachi on my apartment porch, trying to impress my (now wife) girlfriend.  I thought I was a stud at outdoor cooking.

    Then, I got into the offset smoking arena, and made some (I thought) dynamite briskets for about 10 years.

    I don't remember what turned me on to a BGE, but after getting my Large, I haven't looked back. Best cooker around, by a long shot.  The Egg opened up a whole new arena for different kinds of cooks .... Asian ..... baking .... pizzas ..... grilling ..... smoking ..... etc.

    Without this forum and the internet, I'd still be trying to impress my wife with my hamburger flipping, except this time, on the Egg.
    __________________________________________

    Dripping Springs, Texas.
    Just west of Austintatious


  • FanOfFanboys
    FanOfFanboys Posts: 2,615
    I started grilling when I was 20 (first time living somewhere besides home or a dorm). I've had a couple Weber grills and one propane (an infra-red). Got my egg this past spring. Just turned 27 few weeks ago.
    Boom
  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    Oh I had a offset smoker as well and made some really good pork shoulders on it, smoked pork chops, sausage but every brisket I tried never turned out.  The other thing was that it burned a pile of charcoal.

    Gerhard
  • I've been cooking/baking as far back as I can remember.  I love to make everything from scratch.  I'm now teaching my fiance how to cook, bake, grill and smoke. 
  • Hashmaker
    Hashmaker Posts: 149
    Been cooking with fire most of my life. My grandfather taught me how to grill and low and slow while I was a teenager. I was taught how to cook soul/southern food as a kid too. I make some damn fine fried chicken! I've had too many grills of too many types to remember them all but I think I have found the last type I'll ever need.
  • Tjcoley
    Tjcoley Posts: 3,551
    I've had many a gasser and charcoal grill over the years, and fooled around with a Weber Bullet smoker.  Had some pretty good results on the Weber, but nothing like what comes off the Egg.  My wife and I always split the indoor cooking (whoever got home first started dinner) and I did all the outside stuff.  In 40 years of cooking, I never took a picture of the food - until I got the Egg and found this forum.
    __________________________________________
    It's not a science, it's an art. And it's flawed.
    - Camp Hill, PA
  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    Tjcoley said:
    I've had many a gasser and charcoal grill over the years, and fooled around with a Weber Bullet smoker.  Had some pretty good results on the Weber, but nothing like what comes off the Egg.  My wife and I always split the indoor cooking (whoever got home first started dinner) and I did all the outside stuff.  In 40 years of cooking, I never took a picture of the food - until I got the Egg and found this forum.
    That's pretty funny. I got my first egg in '97 I think and the idea of taking pictures of food was something I wouldn't have ever thought I would do. It seemed absolutely normal to me until photobucket went south on me a year ago. Miss it but haven't got to another program that is simple enough for me

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    edited October 2012
    Cooked for about 5 years through high school and college at a steak/lobster/seafood restaurant (Pelican's Wharf in San Antonio). Was the food manager and head chef for a while.  Cooked less after I quit the restaurant and graduated (burnt out on kitchens) but really got into cooking, including technical cooking, about 15 years ago.  Had a bunch of crappy grills and smokers through the years.  Mostly did kitchen stuff anyway.  Now I've got the egg, and more so because of this forum, my world has opened up many new interests, including charcuterie, and I've always found the history of food interesting but I've been diving into that more.  And I've been into just about every ethnicity of food since a teenager.  And I'm a sucker for food shows on TV.  Call me a wus, I don't care. :)
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • ChokeOnSmoke
    ChokeOnSmoke Posts: 1,942
    edited October 2012

    Came from a avid grilling/catering family.  Took over most (outdoor) meals when I was a teenager (45 years old now).  Literally dozens of charcoal grills over the years, more recently, 8 years on a Weber Smokey Mountain (with a Weber charcoal along side) and about 2.5 years on a XL egg now.  Over all those year, still have never cooked one single meal on a gasser.

    Packerland, Wisconsin

  • Doc_Eggerton
    Doc_Eggerton Posts: 5,321
    I've always done most of the cooking in the family.  Started when I was a high schooler.

    XXL #82 out of the first 100, XLGE X 2, LBGE (gave this one to daughter 1.0) , MBGE (now in the hands of iloveagoodyoke daughter 2.0) and lots of toys

  • I started cooking when I studied abroad in the UK.  Kept it on the backburner (Ha!) and then once I got married, she would cook during the week and I would do bigger productions on the weekend.  I'm a lawyer and work a lot of hours, but now I find that some of the best parts of my day are sitting on the back, when it's probably too cold to be out there, with a beer and watching the fire start.
  • ccpoulin1
    ccpoulin1 Posts: 390
    I have been cooking since i was a little kid.  It has always been something i enjoyed whether it was baking, grilling, broiling.......The egg just fits in naturally.  No turning back now!

    "You are who you are when nobody is looking"

  • Botch
    Botch Posts: 15,427
    I grew up eating well-done thin steaks and burgers cooked on gasoline-soaked briquets.  Became a foodie/chile-head during my second AF assignment in Albuquerque.  I really got into chinese, italian (homemade pastas and pizzas), dabbled in Cajun (not a good home cuisine for single people) and got to where I could do a decent brisket on my $50 electric water smoker.  
    The egg has certainly improved my briskets, and I'm still learning to update my pizza/wok skills with it.  Fun stuff!  
    _____________

    "I mean, I don't just kill guys, I'm notorious for doing in houseplants."  - Maggie, Northern Exposure


  • JalopyBob
    JalopyBob Posts: 175
    I started to learn on my dads original Weber Kettle, when I was 6. He liked to do corned beef  on it, and the smells in the air soon brought the neighbors over for a taste. I use an old small egg and have for about the last 10 years. It works well for me. So I have been playing with the charcoal for about 55 years now. Always will.
  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817

    Great thread LS!

    Botch, I'm a chilihead myself. Got well over a thousand hot sauces in my collection. I do Indian lunch 2 - 3 days a week. Sassik, my little buddy , puts extra chilis and chili powder in my stuff

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • Duganboy
    Duganboy Posts: 1,118
    I come from a family of cooks and I have done 90% of the cooking since being married and that is 44 years!!!!!

    Have had a BGE, before having a BGE was cool, over 15 years and I have no idea how I heard about them back then.

    Had wings last night, pizza tonight and tomorrow night is tri-tip.

    I too, love to watch the cooking shows and read recipes and buy cookbooks.
  • I learned how to grill from my Dad on a gasser when I was a teenager.  I've had a lot of gas since then.  I started cooking on my Weber kettle a few years back.  I bought the Smokenator three or four years ago I think which converts the kettle into a smoker.  It does a real nice job, but I've always wanted an Egg.  Got my large off CL last June and I'm not looking back. 
    Flint, Michigan
  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    Duganboy said:
    I come from a family of cooks and I have done 90% of the cooking since being married and that is 44 years!!!!!

    Have had a BGE, before having a BGE was cool, over 15 years and I have no idea how I heard about them back then.

    Had wings last night, pizza tonight and tomorrow night is tri-tip.

    I too, love to watch the cooking shows and read recipes and buy cookbooks.
    If I added up my marriages I would be at 44 years too.
    :P

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • My wife and I used to split the cooking 50/50 until I got the egg. She won't touch the grill. Now I cook about 75% of the meals.
    Mark Annville, PA
  • travisstrick
    travisstrick Posts: 5,002
    My dad let my younger brother and I live at his 5 bedroom beach house while he lived in town. I was 17 bro was 16. He gave us one of his credit cards and we could buy whatever food and home stuff we wanted. There was no limit but we had to keep the receipts to give him at his bi monthly visits to make sure we didn't have any hookers living with us or burned the place down. We never burned the place down.

    We figured we may as well cook good food since it didn't matter. We had a decent gasser but we took it to the beach and got too drunk and left it. After that all we had was a small webber. I ruined many a lobster and steak. Since then I've always been the cook and have slowly improved.
    Be careful, man! I've got a beverage here.
  • In my family and my wife's family I am the "chef" and I consider myself far from that title, but if you knew my in laws you would... when I had a charbroil "smoker" and can't believe that I could even call it that, I loved that and my gasser (Weber Silver, which I still have but haven't used except to cook baked potatoes in foil), my wife never liked anything i had "attempted" to smoke before and the first and best lesson I learned on this forum was that the smoke you typically want to see when cooking is "clear" and that the white smoke is normally the bitter part you want to wait thru.  

    To say the least she was very skeptical with the egg, especially when she saw what it cost me (plus all the eggcessories), but I have used the egg so much even when I didn't think she would want me to.  Our normal oven or gasser cooks are know getting done on the egg, the best is the pizza, ribs and spatchcoked chicken that my kids couldn't get enough of.  Just did my 2nd cook with spares and they were devoured (see pictures).

    My father in law is turning 80 next weekend and my mother in law asked me to cook two tenderloins, among other things and have the party at my house because of my skills. ( and don't worry, this week I will be asking more questions about the best tenderloin techniques)

    Best money I have ever spent on something, and just like everyone else, I am getting rave reviews with everything that I have done on it.

    Great weekend!!!
    Large BGE
    Camp Chef 4 burner Griddle

    Near Cleveland, Ohio
  • Austin  Egghead
    Austin Egghead Posts: 3,966
    edited October 2012
    Grew up in the kitchen. I listened and followed the "old people", great aunt, my mother and house cooks.  I was always sneaking out to watch the men working the pit and strategic placing the wood to get the smoke and flames to kiss the meat that was on the spit.  
    I have always loved to cook and experiment with mixing foods together to get new tastes. Food was probably the reason I went into science rather that following the family tradition of reading the law.
    I was really blessed when I married into another family of great cooks and learned another group of elders Texas German cooking.  (FIL was a professional cook and a wonderful teacher)
    Large, small and mini now Egging in Rowlett Tx
  • BakerMan
    BakerMan Posts: 159
    edited October 2012

    @Little Steven - Great thread.  Very interesting.

    Owned a Weber kettle for years but only cooked burgers and chicken parts.  Ended up buying a gasser from Costco with my year-end points and used that for  6 years (burgers and chicken).

    I worked at a pizzeria during high-school for several years but had no real interest in cooking unless it was a big breakfast. 

    My wife is a great cook and has done all the cooking for the first 29 years of our 30 year marriage.  Last November I was thinking of buying a new, expensive Weber Genesis gasser and she dropped an Egg brochure on my desk and said "this is the grill my brother is always raving about".

    The rest as they say is history.  I spent three weeks "lurking" on these forums reading about the Egg and decided to buy a large one.  I can honestly say that because of the Egg I have the cooking bug.  I now cook at least 1-2 meals a week, every week, on the Egg.  I am constantly looking for recipes to try, making "next time" notes after cooks to improve my techniques.   My wife, family and friends are impressed with the food I produce.  Cooking for me now is a hobby that I really enjoy and I owe to the Egg and this very supportive forum.

     

    BakerMan - Purcellville, VA "When its smokin' its cookin', when its black its done"
  • Lit
    Lit Posts: 9,053
    My fiancee gave me my first grill back in college. When I moved out of the apartment I got a cheap brinkman smoker and then a Weber smoky mountain. Then sold my gasser and got a Weber gasser which I used for awhile. A coworker had a small egg he didn't use and gave it to me and it was over. Sold both Weber's and bought a large egg and since then have bought alot of eggs.
  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    My background was pretty traditional. About the only cooking the guys did was outdoors. I was shown how to boil an egg, fry and egg, and then make "egg-in-a-hole" sandwiches, but otherwise there wasn't anything till I started scouts. I consider my first real cook a pork chop on a stick over a teepee fire, following instructions from my Dad's '30s scout manual.

    After college, me and my buddies were able to open cans of soup, bags of cookies and 6-packs of beer. A friend girl took pity on us, and showed us how to make re-fried rice. About that time, the first BBQ joints opened in town. I was stunned. Where had ribs been my whole life? (Usually in pots of sauerkraut w. dumplings. German and Polish-Americans make lots of great food, but BBQ is not one.) Started doing chicken in a pit, then got a little hibachi, a Meko grill, etc. Most of it was not very good.

    Over the next few years, I picked up more stuff, largely for economic reasons, and thru trial and error. By the time I met my future wife, I could cook simple meals, which was good, because she had even less cooking back ground than me. But cooking was still pretty much utilitarian, something to fix quick after work, or to satisfy the kid's endless hunger.

    About 15 years ago, my mother, who had handled all the big family dinners for years (she had 2 kitchens, and on occasion would cook for parties up to 40) became to ill to cook much. I and my wife found we needed to start taking up some of the duties. As I mentioned, my wife had few cooking skill, and fewer inclinations to gain them. I started trying to cook well.

    After a few years, I decided to "get serious." Began reading cook books, and gathering recipes and tips from the net. I was still frustrated with the quality of the 'Q I could make, and began to look around for an off set, even if it was just one of the one's I would sometimes see building in their garages out of old barrels. (On of the best rack of ribs I've ever had came from a guy w. a little home built offset, selling from under a shade tree behind a liquor stoe. If you know what your doing, even a basic offset will do the job.)

    Ended up getting an Egg. Whoopee! I still don't spend a huge amount of time cooking, maybe a couple of hours a day, and not for more than a dozen people. But I'm making progress. I've had a few genuine compliments. Was even a little embarrassed when one of my kid's friends said after a plate of my ribs, "I'll have to be quiet about this. My dad thinks he makes good ribs, but these are so much better."

    Still don't offer anything to company till I've tried it out on myself a half dozen times.
  • Botch
    Botch Posts: 15,427
    gdenby said:  About that time, the first BBQ joints opened in town. I was stunned. Where had ribs been my whole life? (Usually in pots of sauerkraut w. dumplings. German and Polish-Americans make lots of great food, but BBQ is not one.) 
    That brought a smile to my face.  I grew up with German/Norwegian cooking in South Dakota, so glad the Air Force exposed me to so many different areas and countries to try different things.  
    _____________

    "I mean, I don't just kill guys, I'm notorious for doing in houseplants."  - Maggie, Northern Exposure


  • jlsm
    jlsm Posts: 1,011
    My father got turned on to kamados in Asia in WWII and got one as soon as they were available in the U.S. in the late '60s. He never did low and slow, though. My mother was a fantastic cook (she served curry in the '60s), and I am an accomplished amateur, cooking everything from Vietnamese to Texan. (I'm taking a break from rolling pasta for lasagna Bolognese now.) I have the great fortune to live in a city with fabulous food resources. My husband got tired of me talking about my dad's kamado, my wistful discussions about the BGE and my hit-or-miss briskets on the charcoal Weber.He bought me a large egg a little more than a year ago. We got a mini in the spring for small quick cooks and keep it right outside the back door. We cook with fire at least twice a week. I usually do a low and slow on the weekend to give my stepson something to take home.
    *******
    Owner of a large and a beloved mini in Philadelphia
  • Been cooking since I was young. No training here either, other than lots of reading, researching, and failed attempts. Huge Alton Brown fan.

    I may offend some people here, but I'm the kinda guy that's not going to do something on the egg "just because it can be done"
    Killen, AL (The Shoals)
    XL, Small, Minimax, and Mini BGEs