Medium BGE users let me hear your opinions

asuckiel · April 2014

In my other thread I stated I was looking at getting a medium and everyone said it was the bastard of Eggs & go with the large. I personally thing the medium will suit my needs now. Like everything things change, but I will be using this as a addition to my gas grill, will primarily use it for low and slows not nightly BBQ's. The price difference is close to $200 which is significant to me others may not think so. I am looking for opinions from Medium egg owners, has there been times where you wish you had the large. How many times could your medium not handle what you threw at it.

Thanks,

Adam

nolaegghead · April 2014

Got a large first, then a medium. I use the medium for almost all of my direct cooks. Love it. I don't have any indirect accessories for it and I don't know anything about the availability of said accessories, but the size is really sweet for us.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · April 2014

nolaegghead said:
Got a large first, then a medium. I use the medium for almost all of my direct cooks. Love it. I don't have any indirect accessories for it and I don't know anything about the availability of said accessories, but the size is really sweet for us.

I Think the lack of accessories has been the big gripe in the past but with a Platesetter, grid extender, and small grid you can do indirect and multi level cooks. Don't know what else you would need.

gdenby · April 2014

I guess I'm a double bastard, I have 2 mediums. The first one helped me produce enough good stuff that my kids started asking me to cook for their birthdays. Pretty hard to do on a single medium. And I also became the chief cook for family holiday gatherings. So I bought a 2nd. Easy to do a big hunk of meat, and a couple of sides, serve 12 or more.

Now that the kids are out of the house, and my wife and I find ourselves eating smaller portions, I rarely use both at once.

There are fewer accessories, true, but I can usually figure our a way to cook what I want using some ingenuity. I did a whole pig head, and it took me about an hour fussing w. drip pans, fire bricks, grills to find a set up that worked, a large would have saved me that, but I rarely have that much of a problem.

nolaegghead · April 2014

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Got a large first, then a medium. I use the medium for almost all of my direct cooks. Love it. I don't have any indirect accessories for it and I don't know anything about the availability of said accessories, but the size is really sweet for us.
I Think the lack of accessories has been the big gripe in the past but with a Platesetter, grid extender, and small grid you can do indirect and multi level cooks. Don't know what else you would need.

We've been cooking on fire since our knuckles dragged on the ground (6000 years ago). You don't need anything fancy to create a shadow for indirect cooks, it's in reach of even the least mechanically inclined humans to MacGyver something. I use a plate of core10 for my large to do indirects. Beats the plate setter (which I use to hold it).

bo31210 · April 2014

Have a medium here. Never had an issue. The size is good and I can cook a butt for 20 hours if I want. Some folks will tell you to get a large or XL but I can tell you I have never been unable to cook anything I wanted. Sometimes bigger isn't better. Kind of like building the church for Easter Sunday ya know. I will tell you the gasser will become a nice pot holder or something. The quality of the food on my medium more than offsets the few extra minutes of start up time with a gas grill. And SWMBO agrees with that so it must be a law or rule somewhere.

fishlessman · April 2014

i can pretty much do any type of cook on any of the eggs, low and slow ribs or 20 wings on a mini on up but if i were to have one egg it would be the large. your fooling yourself if you think your only going to use the egg for low and slows, by mid summer you might be kicking that gasser to the curb

im actually surprised they still make the medium

Chris_Wang · April 2014

I have a medium and like it. I wish I had thrown down the extra $$$ for a large, but my medium has not let me down at all.

RRP · April 2014

My wife surprised my with our medium as I had no intention of buying one as I already had a large and a small. Well it sat there never used under a cover for a month and then it dawned on me...make that my dedicated baking egg! Here is is 13 years later and it has never had meat nor wood chips in it, it still has the original felt gasket and the walls inside are still just tan in color! It bakes cakes, rolls and even pies but no pizzas. I love my medium and though it may look like a trailer queen it has had its share of use!

jhl192 · April 2014

I have the Medium and an XL. I use the medium when I am cooking for just the 3 or 4 of us. Chickens, steaks, a single pork butt, burgers. I have the platesetter and the WOO2 for it for indirect and raised direct respectively. I also have the CI grid. I LOVE IT. It is quick, cooks great and is not over kill. When I am cooking for guests, its the XL as its hard to do more than one spatchcocked chicken or a full rack of ribs without the edges getting toasty on the medium. My guess is you will use the gasser less as you perfect your technique on the BGE. If money is short the Medium will fit the bill. If you have the cash, go large. BGE's are long term investments so think ahead.

Theophan · April 2014

I have a Medium and a Large, and on one hand, I do very much more cooking on the Medium, and I love it, but on the other hand, sometimes it's just not big enough, depending on what you want to cook.

Like someone else who replied, I think you may be underestimating how much you may want to cook on the Egg and not the gas grill, once you get used to the Egg, and if you have more than a couple of people over and you want to cook a bunch of burgers or steaks, gosh, there just isn't much surface area on the Medium's grill for that. Maybe you think you'll just cook stuff like that on the gasser, but once you get used to the Egg, I can't imagine that you will. I cooked a whole ribeye "prime rib" roast, once, when I had a bunch of family in for Christmas, and I cooked a little less than half of it in the Medium and a little more than half of it in the Large, and it was perfect. A half of that piece of meat wouldn't have fit in the Medium. I was a little surprised when I was able to cook two whole chickens in my Medium not long ago, but they were pretty small chickens, and they weren't spatchcocked, just roasted/smoked, whole. If they'd been much bigger, they wouldn't both have fit.

So for me, the bottom line is that I use my Medium MUCH more than my Large, and I love it, prefer it to my Large most of the time, ... but if I only had one Egg, I really do think the Large would be more versatile. My two cents.

ShadowNick · April 2014

I have both, my medium at my apartment in Chicago and the large at the family lakehouse, so I never get to cook on them side by side. That being said, the medium is a total workhorse, and given the option i prefer cooking on it. Capacity wise, I've never had an issue cooking apps and a main course for up to 5 people, and for low and slows I think the quality that comes off the medium is better. I think it may be due to the reduced volume and relative humidity and stuff like that, or it could just be my own bias. Plus I can run it 30+ hours off of one load of lump I can fit two eight pound pork butts or 4 racks of ribs on it with some creative stacking. Personally, were I in your boat, I'd get the medium then drop the extra 200 on a sous vide setup. Then if you need to do a lot of burgers or steaks or chicken breast or whatever and don't have the surface area, you can sous vide the whole batch then run them all through a quick 3-4 minute sear on the egg and have everything ready together. And that opens up a whole new branch of culinary options.

RRP · April 2014

ShadowNick said:

I have both, my medium at my apartment in Chicago and the large at the family lakehouse

Just curious, Nick..is the family lake house in IL, or across the border in WI or even down South in IL. LOL - I guess I should just be more blunt and ask if you are a FIB or you might be interested in attending the eggfest in Peoria!

travisstrick · April 2014

I have a med and an xl. If I had to pick one, it would be the largest I could afford.

I use the med more but there are some things I just can't do on it.

The xl is called the "no regrets" model for a reason.

tcampbell · April 2014

I have all 5 sizes and they all get used.I cooked chicken legs on medium tonight.I love it it has its place and I can control temp.on the medium better than any of the others

td66snrf · April 2014

I have the XL, large, medium, Mini and two kubs. I'm partial to the large but that may be from the years of cooking on a #5 Imperial Kamados which is the same size as the large. They're all great but if my choice was between the large and the medium it would be hands down I'd take the large.

FearlessTheEggNoob · April 2014

I dont have a medium egg, but I do have a grid for a medium that I use that for raised direct cooking, and it is significantly smaller. I did the math just now and the Large is just shy of 50% larger surface area than the Med. It seems like to save $200 you give up a lot of capability.

reh111 · April 2014

I've had my medium for several years. I wish I had bought the large. I can certainly do all types of cooks on the medium including indirect and pizzas. But the accessories are limited - even though they say they will fit a medium, they're just a little too large for it - e.g. "V" rack. The three pack racks of ribs that come from Sams won't fit without cutting in half, standing up and placing at least one half on top. On a large butt there's a problem with the thermometer hitting the meat with the dome closed and not being able to get a true temperature. A brisket flat fits fine but a whole brisket won't.

There are just the two of us and even when the kids come over the medium is plenty big for steaks and burgers but I do wish I had bought a large (and may still yet) for the other cooks.

Skiddymarker · April 2014

It all comes down to grid space, the medium is ideal for the two of us and works just fine for up to four or five adults. No regrets. Never had an issue with accessories needed to get a cook right, I only have the swing rack bracket and a setter. I also have a Grill Dome extender for two levels and raised direct.

Like you, I have a 12 year old gasser I would not be without. Not that the egg can't cook up some hot dogs for the grand kids, the gasser is just much faster and better at it. The gasser also makes a great warming oven or a place to do foiled veggies and spuds. The side burner is ideal for sauce reduction or to use with a CI skillet for a sear.

tjv · April 2014

Since you plan to use the medium for bbq you might hit the grocery store with a small tape and measure some meats. The medium's cooking chamber is approx. 16 inches in diameter. I owned a medium for several years and think you'll find for bbq, the medium can be a little challenging, especially for ribs, brisket and multiple meat Q.

t

Skiddymarker · April 2014

@tjv - good point, depends what you cook. On my MBGE I've found for things like ribs and brisket, the usable size is probably closer to 13" or less, to stay in the shadow of the setter or deflector. A rib rack is a must to get two full racks on, and then they must be cut in half or coiled. (some foil the ends even on a large)

For us, SWMBO and I usually only cook 1 rack for the two of us. Just fits our lifestyle. For other cooks: brisket - almost always a flat - 5-7# average; butts - 7# average; chicken - two at a time 3-4#.

ElCapitan · April 2014

From what I can tell on this site, the goal is to own 4-5 eggs so start with what you can and give nothing back until you get there.

FearlessTheEggNoob · April 2014

One other thought comes to mind on considering oversizing...

You would be surprised how much good will an accomplished egg cook can acquire by sharing samples of your food to neighbors and coworkers.

cookingdude555 · April 2014

I have all the current sizes, and the medium is by far my most used. I have a family of five, and it is the perfect size for us. The medium is the most willing to hit high temps. The only egg I would recommend against is the small (too many people have temp issues with it, including myself).

I would tell anyone that doesn't have a egg to get an XL. Once you have that, get a medium or mini max.

tksmoke · April 2014

Perhaps I'm not qualified to comment, since I don't have a medium. That's never stopped me before. Remember all those with multiple eggs may use the medium more, but they have other options available. For a one egg family (poverts) get the largest you can afford, and have the space for. I agonized over the choice of large/XL. Now after a year, I am convinced that the XL was exactly the right choice (and most of the time I cook for only 2). That is not to say that I wouldn't like to have a medium. I've been about to pull the trigger on one, but waiting to see what the MiniMax brings to the table.

As far as the gasser, I used mine a few times each week, pre-egg. The cover hasn't been off post-egg. Night and Day difference - more than worth the small amount of extra time required. Jump in and enjoy!!!

Cymbaline65 · April 2014

+1 on Medium. It suits my family of four perfectly. I'd like a large but $$$ got in the way. I think my next purchase will be (possibly) the new mini max..depending on price. I find the medium is much more frugal on the charcoal than the larger ones too.

Gator_Man · April 2014

I have 2 LG, 1 Med, 1 SM and a beloved Mini! use them all and love them all sure wish I had an XL! Don't tell KayNOcook but some day!!!!

If you want a medium go for it, just get an Egg and you will not regret it.

Gator Man

khristyjeff · April 2014

We have only one Egg, and it's a Medium. I cook for a family of 4, and there has only been a handful of times in the last 3 years that I needed to use the Weber kettle to supplement. Sometimes i've wished for a large, but even if I added one to our collection, I would still mostly use the Medium since it's the right size for our family.

TFols · April 2014

I've had an XL for almost 2 years and just bought a medium. I wanted to be able to cook at different temps and I entertain a lot. The MBGE is a great size, I've cooked on it about 5 times and it is very fuel efficient and heats up fast which is good for week day cooks. One of the other reasons for buying this size as my second was portability. I can lift this one myself. As far as accessories, I have a grid extender, woo, 10" stone, 12" drip pan. I really don't see needing much more. All in all I'm very pleased with it.

BYS1981 · April 2014

I have a medium and an XL, family of 4, but there are 2 little ones. I owned the medium for 2 yrs before I got an XL. I would say I'm really cooking for 2, and for 2 it is fine.

I use the medium A LOT more than the XL right now, but that's also because I don't do sides on the egg right now. While the medium fits most of my cooks, you will have to cut ribs in half and have a hard time fitting larger briskets without using some way to manipulate it.

You say you will be using the medium in tandem with a gasser, but I will be extremely surprised if that happens once you get comfortable with the egg. I put my gasser on craigslist within 2 months of purchasing my egg.

Dragonwmatches · April 2014

I have only a large, but my experience is that I can get two racks of St Louis cut spares to fit front to back with no more than an inch or two to spare on each end. So comfortably, not snug. Also, I can fit three pork butts strategically. Any smaller grid and I'm guessing you'd be more limited or would need to break things up from their original size.

Medium BGE users let me hear your opinions

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In the Hinterlands between Cumming and Gainesville, GA
Med BGE, Weber Kettle, Weber Smokey Joe, Brinkman Dual Zone, Weber Genesis Gas Grill and portable gasser for boating

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Medium BGE users let me hear your opinions

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In the Hinterlands between Cumming and Gainesville, GAMed BGE, Weber Kettle, Weber Smokey Joe, Brinkman Dual Zone, Weber Genesis Gas Grill and portable gasser for boating

Categories

In the Hinterlands between Cumming and Gainesville, GA
Med BGE, Weber Kettle, Weber Smokey Joe, Brinkman Dual Zone, Weber Genesis Gas Grill and portable gasser for boating