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2 weeks with my egg, here are my first 4 cooks PICS

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My first cook was actually burgers and brats but I didn't take any pics of those, but here are my first "real" cooks.  I'm a Weber Smokey Mountain convert so I'm trying to adjust to the intricacies of the egg.

First cook: Pork Butt and Baby Back Ribs.  The butt took around 16 hours total, which is what I'm used to coming from my WSM  background. I do think this turned out more moist than usual however I feel there was less smoke flavor than I'm used to.  It was still good.  I didn't notice the amount of temp control that I had been reading about... my temp fluctuated a lot throughout the night.  I am guessing this is because I had a good amount of chips and chunks in the firebox, so I'm assuming that caused it to get hotter/cooler as the wood ignited. I was shooting for 250 dome and checked it 3 times over about 8 hours (after the initial stabilization) and saw anywhere from 200 to 265.  Not unmanageable but a little surprising. 

The ribs I did roughly 3-2-1 method although it was probably more like 3-1.5-.75 but whatever.  They turned out good, about on par with what I'm used to.

Second cook: Pizza.  I actually used this pretty versatile bread dough that my wife originally bought for a calzone/pizza roll type thing but we decided to try pizza instead.  I was a bit nervous about either the top or bottom cooking too fast but it turned out great.  I used the pizza stone and also put a couple bricks on top of the grate (under the stone) to get it higher in the dome.  Surprisingly good flavor.

Third cook: Spatchcock chicken.  I had never heard of this until I read about it on this forum.  To be honest I was a bit skeptical about how everyone was raving about the juicy/moistness of the chicken but holy cow they were right!  I have literally never had juicier chicken in my life. I followed some of the posts here suggesting olive oil and rub on the outside.  I didn't have time to  dry out the skin in the fridge but I will do that next time.  My only complaint here is that I didn't get enough rub on the actual meat.  Next time I will try to brine the chicken and I will cut more holes in the skin so my fingers can get more actual spice on the meat itself.  I think that plus the already juicy chicken will be a solid winner/favorite.

Fourth cook: Steak.  I got some KC strip steaks on sale.  They were nothing fancy and probably less than an inch thick, but I still figured I'd give it a shot using the cast iron grate. I had 4 and decided to do one at a time to try to not ruin the whole batch if I screwed it up.  With the egg between 650 and 700 dome, the proper time on these skinny steaks is probably something like 45 seconds, 1/4th turn, 45 seconds, flip and repeat. I overcooked these a bit but not bad for first shot.

This is a great community and I've definitely learned a lot.  Thanks!

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