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How did you become an Egghead?

Meat
Meat Posts: 233
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
This Waldorf Fest will be two years since we got our first Egg and I can't imagine being without the two we have now. I started thinking about the food and the friendships this piece of ceramic has brought into our lives and thought back to the "I gotta get one of those" moment when I first heard about it.

I was working the midnight shift and an episode of Unwrapped on the Food Network was doing a show on barbequing. The Egg clip only lasted a few minutes and really piqued my interest. I started searching the internet, found this forum, and the rest is history.

How about you? Did you stumble on it by accident, a friend told you about it, ate some food off of one and couldn't live without one? Just wonderin'? ;) Have a great Monday.
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Comments

  • I had a guy from Texas tell me that "if you want a good brisket, cook it on an Egg".

    That was all it took (and, he was right!).

    Good eggin'
    -Paul
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,665
    i asked a dealer a question on one when i first saw one. he tried to get me to buy a gasser, i knew right off he didnt know one thing about lump and i was looking for a new kettle at the time, it looked like the ultimate kettle grill :laugh: i didnt buy from him but had one a few days later, i was sold, he couldnt sell
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • reelgem
    reelgem Posts: 4,256
    Hi Joe, that's a great story!! For us it all started down in Islamorada in the FL Keys in May of 2008. Our nephew invited to his house for dinner and he made a pork tenderloin on his egg for us. We had never seen and egg before and we were amazed at how delicious the food was. As soon as we got back to Milwuakee we purchased a large and 2 yrs. later are a family of 7 eggs.
    Hope to see you guys soon somewhere. Probably Tiki fest. :)
  • Car Wash Mike
    Car Wash Mike Posts: 11,244
    Went to a dealer, talked me out of an egg 15 years ago. Next dealer, sold me one in 5 minutes. 12 years ago. No looking back. And I'm so happy to have helped so many people learn. Miss the one I taught the most to. The Rib Queen.

    Mike
  • Boss Hogg
    Boss Hogg Posts: 1,377
    Joe-I was going to buy a new gas grill and a buddy of mine said I should look at a BGE over at Fred's Music & BBQ, which is only 20 minutes from my house. Went to see Fred, aka Smoking Guitar Player, and bought my first Egg in July of '08. I now have 2 larges at my house and a Mediu, at my hunting camp. Made many friends on the furum. just had lunch with Zippylip, whom I didn't even know two years ago. BTW, that buddy that told me to buy an egg finally replaced his gas grill with an Egg last June.
    Brian
  • Kenny 13
    Kenny 13 Posts: 321
    I've been into BBQ/grilling for quite some time. I've used gassers, kettles, offsets, and homemade drum smokers. I always blew off the eggs as a fad, or even as an overpriced and overrated cooker.

    Around this time last year I was reading some posts on another board from some guys who cooked on BGE's and really started thinking about what they were saying - low fuel consumption, versatility, etc. and I couldn't help but research a little more. After a short amount of research I decided that I had to have an egg, and it took some time before I finally would be able to get one but after just a few months of cooking on one I am totally hooked.

    BTW, lurking here did more to sell me than any dealer ever could.
  • Joe,

    We had been the 'bbq' people for some time. Loved entertaining and cooking outside. Even back in my gasser days I was at it in the rain and snow. Believe it or not we never tried any food off of an egg prior to buying one. Research and this forum are what made me take the plunge. I had the money and thought 'even if it's not as great as they say, I'd better use it a lot.' Now that thing barely cools off before we start another cook! Looking at hitting the bbq circuit (as complete amateurs of course) and we'll be an all egg team when we do it!

    Joel
  • Ripnem
    Ripnem Posts: 5,511
    Joe,

    A few days before Christmas of 08' my whole immediate family had dinner at our long time friends house. While dinner was cooking and drinks were enjoyed, our friend Ted told me to come check out his grill. The glow of the coals, the solidness of the egg was pretty sweet. Then they served up a whole beef tenderloin and I couldn't believe the flavor. After dinner I went back out and kicked the tires and my wheels started spinnin. :woohoo: Gotta have it.

    6 days later, the egg my wife had ordered (surprised) up was being put together on my back deck.

    First cook was a spatchcock, my 'last' beer can chicken, a few Ribeyes and an Apple pie. Only problem was a slight shortage of lump and the pie had to finish in the oven. :P
  • Interesting thread. My brother-in-law and his wife had mentioned an article to us in 2002 espousing how the Egg was an amazing cooking machine. I did not think too much about it at the time yet a couple of years ago, we had a rather rough winter where we had almost 15 feet of snow. Towards Spring, we dropped by a store looking for fireplace utensils and we noticed the egg and that got me thinking :evil: . I just had to do something to make me forget the winter. So, two weeks later I took the plunge and am forever thankful :woohoo: .

    Tom

    Tom

    Charles is a mischevious feline who always has something cooking

    Twin lbge's .. grew up in the sun parlor of Canada but now egging in the nation's capital

  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
     
    Thirdeye, Max, Fidel, and the rest of the forum members sold me on the egg.

    I had been grilling, smoking and bbq'n on gasers, propane water smokers for ages. Food was good but I was looking for something better. I had been looking at some horizontal drum smokers.

    My daughter was talking to a food consultant and in the conversation about my search for a better cooker. The guy told my daughter there was a group of people who raved about this green smoker that looked like an egg.

    I went to google and searched for green smokers and couldn't find anything. I was about to stop looking and I happened to type in 'green egg'.

    That got me connected to the forum. I began reading the posts. I then started reading archives and stopped about 3:30 in the morning. I got up the next morning and brought up BGE home site, went to dealers. At 5 pm I was cooking my first hot dog and then for desert did my first T-Rex Steak and gasket replacement.

    Thanks to the folks on the forum.

    GG
  • deepsouth
    deepsouth Posts: 1,796
    i had heard good things about them and talked my dad into buying me one for christmas a couple years ago. he also bought himself and my bro in law one. sadly, my bro in law still uses his big gasser, but i've finally gotten my dad off of his. took about a year and a half, but he is a believer now.

    i'm going to see if i can't "steal" my bro in laws LBGE for a couple hundred this year.
  • SSN686
    SSN686 Posts: 3,500
    Morning Joe:

    In 2002 we did some remodeling and my plan was to put in a Jenn-Aire downdraft grill. I really wasn't into smoking all that much. My son told me I should check out the grill that a friend of ours used (my son had seen it, but I hadn't). I went on the Internet and did some research. I decided the Egg looked interesting and a few weeks later bought a medium. I now have two larges, a small and a mini (the son who told me about the Egg has the medium), plus had an outdoor kitchen built to hold everything. I also eventually got a large for my other son. But even more than enjoying the Eggs is enjoying the new "family" that came with it by way of the forum and EggFests!

    Have a GREAT day!

       Jay

    Brandon, FL


     

  • I'm a just-hatched version myself. We were looking for a way to do smaller amounts of bbq butts and briskets with less fuss and attention to the fire, and a quicker and easy way to get real grilled or smoked flavor on a few burgers or a chicken or two.

    We were just tired of doing the big cooks.
  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
    Just remember YOU asked the question. Here's my answer. The first part of this post was written about August of '08.

    I first learned about Big Green Eggs less than a month after I sprang for a Weber Gold Genesis, a big stainless gasser grill. I had special ordered it through a local Fred Meyer (Kroger) and after they completely screwed up the delivery date I had a deeply discounted grill with $150 dollars in gift cards. This was in my prehistoric, don’t know grilled from BBQ or shinola period.
    Imagine the discussion:
    “Hey, Hon, I want a ’nother grill. This one is made outta clay or something”
    “Well, no, they’re just a little more than the stainless steel one.”
    “Well, what if we wanna have a really, big party?”
    Every married man knows when to duck.
    I found the website right after the Internet was invented in ’04 and began to pine for that green thang.


    At home I put up a brave front and began to produce burgers, frozen from Costco and chicken and even tried ribs and quesadillas. But honestly nothing really grabbed me like, “I can’t live without this.” As a matter of fact I could comfortably live without most of it. I played with rubs and sauces but had more fun making them than using them. I discovered chops with rub and mastered at least those. But I was far from famous. Think about it, the King of Chops? I bought every Weber and Raichlen book known the world of grilling and some even mentioned BBQ. The muse was born.


    Somewhere we even acquired a WeberQ, because you wouldn’t expect a man to have just ONE grill, woudja?” “Hon, whatifwewannagotothebeach and GRILL” The “Q” has never seen sand, but a lot of burgers and chicken. It is faster to light and easier to control than BerthaGasser.


    Every now and then I would stop at a dealer and listen to all the “too good to be true stuff” and leave with a brochure that I read until it ripped along the fold lines. What a beautiful Green that is!
    About a year ago I started snooping around the forum. I was amazed at the sheer volume of traffic. It was a prodigious bit of production--these guys are a little crazy. After all it is just a grill. Okay, so, its ceramic and everything always turns out great—got pics and the pecs to prove it!! I am not run off, in fact they don’t even know I am there. I learn that I want a large—for my first egg but the jury is still out about the second and third egg. I begin to internalize the true difference between BBQ and grilling at least in concept. I establish the foundational differences between lo and slo and sear that sucka.


    I have known for more than a half a year that the dealer cooks every Saturday and rolls some lovin’ outta the oven, so to speak, about 2-3PM. I always seem to have lesser duties to perform that preclude my being at the dealer during prime (rib) time or is it Happy Hour? I don’t know. I don’t drink anymore and I am easily muddled in my old age.
    Three Saturdays ago my son asks me to pick him up from work. Pay attention now—its Saturday, about two miles from the dealer, about 1PM. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, we did stop at the dealer.


    I run into Chip, Great Guy. He remembers me. Super Guy. He begins talking about all the fine qualities of EggFood and twiddles with the Large Egg, running the temperature up and down while he talks without any chalance, you know, nonchalantly, while he runs the Green Queen through her paces.
    “Big Party comin’up.” PNW Evergreen EggFest. You might want to pick up a “Demo Egg” for a discount,” Chip offers.
    I am no dummy. I know what an EggFest is. “What’s a Demo Egg?” I ask. WHAT WAS THAT!!! I think it was the trap springing SHUT! Nothing hurts but my throat is dry, hands sweaty and my knees don’t feel real steady.
    “Yep, put your name in a hat and if you are lucky you might have a shot at a Demo Egg after we are done cooking with it for the day. Sometimes we have 25 or so. Just get one call, though, gotta be ready to pull the trigger.”
    “Well, sure, if you think I have a chance. How much are they reduced?
    “Usually a couple hundred dollars.”
    “Wow, Sure”


    Well, about a week later, on schedule and while the iron is still hot, Chip calls to find out if I was still serious about that Egg or just blowing smoke, so to speak. “ We only have 4 in our allotment this year—read scarce resource, you still interested?”
    “Well, yes, I am.” I was thinking there is still a lot of time left-- its still July and September 6th is in the next century, right? But I want to insure that I am one of those lucky ones that gets picked to buy an Egg so I naively say, “would a little green buy me favor with the committee?”
    “Why, yes,” says Chip,”we can generate an order now and you just have to complete the sale by coming up with the rest of the money prior to the EggFest.” Hook set and reeling it in. “We need a deposit. When would you like to make that?”
    “This afternoon,” I said. Unbeknownst to Chip I had just negotiated a sweet little sale of my own, minutes before his call to the tune of $400.00.
    The actual sale of the Egg didn’t happen until the next day. I have been in sales in some capacity all my life and I honestly didn’t see the “Demo Egg close” coming. I am not complaining really. I am getting exactly what I want at a discount price. What I am really getting, is excited!! In fact, I am going nuts.


    Since then I have been glued to the forum. The mouse is attached to my hand and I rarely release it except to eat and other necessary functions. I want a Stoker, convinced its expandability is in my best interest. I have watched butchering sites. Knot tying videos—roll a roast without tying knots. Plastic bands? Yuk!! I am paying more attention to low and slow cooks for a new Egg and Egg operator figuring to start with pork and graduate to beef brisket. I have nearly worn out the search function at the forum with pork butt, brisket, steak, rub, sauce, DigiQ II, Stoker. I even looked up Souvlaki, so don’t mess with me. I just need as little experience and I will show my pics and pecs.
    I began today to clean up the gassers for a fire sale on grills at my house. All proceeds to be donated to the Egg cause.
    The handle? ‘Q Bruddah. Q for BBQ and Bruddah is surfer talk for brother like, Watcha’ know, Bro. I mean, Bruddah. Nope, never surfed, go figure. I am keeping the handle.



    That was back in 2008. As it turns out I had a financial setback and canceled the Demo egg deal and stayed away from the PNW Eggfest and the forum my pain was too great. But I was so fired up I talked to everybody about the World's Best Smoker. One of the people I talked to was a guy I barely know from church. On my recommendation even though I didn't even own one, he bought an LBGE. On Easter Sunday, a few weeks ago, he asked me if I wanted it. Sure, I'd give my right arm for it. "How much do you want for it?" My jaw dropped to the deck when he said, Well, its got a table and you just have to come pick it up.

    I have been cooking nearly everday since.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    It was late 1999 near Christmas when I heard two men arguing over 3 bags of charcoal. One guy had driven over from Iowa, but a local guy had just bought the last 3 bags that the dealer had. The Iowan asked if he could buy 1 bag and the local guy said no - and a loud argument followed. This piqued my interest what was so special about this type of charcoal and this thing called a Big Green Egg. I bought my first in early 2000 and have bought 3 more since then.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • Cruezn
    Cruezn Posts: 317
    I have a large I bought just about a year ago. I had never heard of BGE, but read an article on CNN about them and eggheads. I was enamored, and begged and pleaded for my wife to let me get one. Now, I want two! She loves the egg (if for no other reason at all other than I cook all the time on it, and she doesn't have too). :evil:
  • Wise One
    Wise One Posts: 2,645
    The Egg HQ store was only about 3 miles from my house. For about 25 years I had passed by "The Big Green Egg and Pachinko" store. When my sister reclaimed her Brinkman smoker she had loaned us, I mentioned to my wife that I would like a new smoker for my birthday/Fathers' Day gift. I also said that we ought to look at the Big Green Egg smoker to see what it was about. My wife went and purchased a medium Egg for my gift. After getting over the initial "sticker shock", I found that this was much more than a smoker and after 25 years of cooking on gas grill, I began my life on the Egg. I could never have imagined how much pleasure the food and friendships the Egg would bring. In 25 years, I never visited the Charmglow forum and I never met another 'Glowhead' much less attended a Glowfest.
  • Capt Frank
    Capt Frank Posts: 2,578
    I love GG's reply about the steak & gasket! :laugh:

    My son bought an XL about 5 yrs ago. I loved the food on it but was not really ready to take the plunge, still dedicated to my Ducane gasser, no messy charcoal for me, no sir!. About a year ago my buddy here in FL decided he had to have one and I went with him to buy it. An Xl. Talking to the dealer, eating a meal or two off my buddies, and I was hooked. I now have two larges and love every minute. This forum is an added bonus, informative, entertaining, and I have met some great people here. Where else can you buy a stove and get a thousand friends in the process? :cheer: !

    Capt Frank
    Homosassa, FL
  • BillHill
    BillHill Posts: 109
    Heard about about it on 620wdae sports talk radio show here in Tampa. One of the hosts of The Ron and Ian show, ex Buc Ian Beckles was always bragging about the food he cooks on his Big Green Egg. I googled it and here we are!
  • Bacchus
    Bacchus Posts: 6,019
    Wise One, we were neighbors. I grew up and lived off of Ashford Dunwoody Rd, just a few miles from the original store, near the Old Frito Lay plant. Arrived there at age 4(1970), and have never left the Northern Burbs. My Father just sold that house 3-4 years ago.
  • Richard Fl
    Richard Fl Posts: 8,297
    I first bought a kamado in SE Asis in'68. It died 5 years later. Fast forward 2002, my lady friend and I had been talking about a new Q unit as she had had a kamado in the late '90's, hers became a planter when the top broke.
    She sells real estate and came home from a listing appointment and the folks had a large and table that had been used twice iun two years. They were elderly and it was just too much work for their age and health. She asked if they would sell it and the large came home with the table for $350. Now we have 2 larges, a small and a recently won at Sunshine Fest a medium.
  • Spring Chicken
    Spring Chicken Posts: 10,255
    I was never a smoker or a griller. Only bought a couple of $100 gassers and did a few bad burgers on them but it just wasn't my thing.

    Then sometime around 1995 I kept seeing a postage stamp size ad in the Houston Chronicle that simply showed a BGE and had the caption "Worlds Best Smoker and Grill" and a local phone number. Nothing else.

    I was tempted many times to call the number but it wasn't until 1999 when my wife got a bonus and asked me if there was anything I wanted. I said I'd like to take a look at a Big Green Egg. We called the number and it turned out to be BarBQues Galore. We drove there and bought a large. They didn't tell us anything about it because they didn't know anything about it. In fact, they didn't give us the Daisy Wheel top and we had to pay for the dome thermometer. No mention of the Nest either. They threw in a bag of BGE lump and an ash rake. There was a book that contained the warranty but he didn't know what else was in it.

    They delivered and set it up on my wood deck and left. Here I am on one of my first cooks.

    LeroycookingonnewBGE.jpg

    I could tell real quick that cooking on the ground wasn't for me so I built my first table. I had the good sense to include my $139 gasser in it.

    BBQCenterWithouttiletopcooking.jpg

    It was then that I had come to enjoy cooking on the Egg and decided to toss the gasser and install a small Egg.

    EggingInTheRain-2.jpg

    Then someone's house burned down and we decided to build an outdoor kitchen. The result was the Chicken Coop.

    CoopatNigthwithGrilltable10-31-09.jpg

    Now we have four Eggs, all girls, (one of which I just won in Oklahoma City on Saturday) and things are nice.

    And as they say, the rest is history.

    Spring "Progressive Egghead" Chicken
    Spring Texas USA
  • FlaMike
    FlaMike Posts: 648
    About 5 years ago, I went to a BBQ dealer to buy a Traeger wood pellet smoker. The dealer also sells high-end gassers and BGE's. After looking at the Traegers for a while, my wife wandered to the egg section. The dealer/owner went with her and began to expand on the eggs versatility over the traeger. When they called me over to see this egg thing, it didn't take long to see the obvious advantages the egg had to offer. The clincher was when the dealer said he had his choice of any grill in the store, and he used his egg more than the high end gasser on his own patio. That did it. I bought a large on the spot, and never regretted it.
  • Judy's Egg
    Judy's Egg Posts: 104
    The in-laws were moving and couldn't take it. Took only 3 days before I pushed the gasser to the curb (tank full). Lucky me.
  • JBUG99999
    JBUG99999 Posts: 263
    We enclosed our lanai with concrete block and made an air conditioned exercise room in March of 2009. We threw our gasser away since it was in such poor condition.

    Around November, we started really missing having home-grilled steaks and such. We were considering another grill, but weren't convinced about brand/style. One Saturday afternoon, we went grocery shopping at Publix. There is an Ace Hardware in the same shopping center, and as we were driving past, we noticed there were having a demo on some kind of grill (we saw smoke and food!), so we stopped. There was a couple guys who owned a catering business cooking on their own Eggs to demo them. We LOVED the food and our interested was piqued. We went inside Ace to get more information. Unfortunately, they only had a little tiny one for sale, but they were taking pre-sales. :(

    We didn't want to wait as long as it would take for them to get one in to even look at, and the salesman wasn't exceptionally helpful, so we went home. I did a little surfing on the Internet and found a LOT of helpful information. And, low and behold, PinchAPenny was also a BGE dealer and just down the street from the house. We drove over and talked to the manager, who was MOST informative. Most of the guys in the store have Eggs and all of them were very happy and eager to share stories. My husband and I were nervous about committing that kind of money to another grill, so we went home to think about it. After many more hours of Internet research, we decided to head back to PinchAPenny with a few more questions. The manager answered them all, and finally said, "Look if you guys get this home and hate it, I'll take it back. I promise, you'll love it!" I asked him if he was serious, and he insisted he was. We figured if he was willing to give us our money back if we didn't love it, we couldn't go wrong.

    He was right--we love it! Two Eggheads were born... :woohoo:
  • Ripnem
    Ripnem Posts: 5,511
    WOW!!!!

    You have some real self control. :laugh:

    Even though it was FREE...don't ya feel silly for not getting one at your first chance? :whistle:

    Great story
  • Mike in Abita
    Mike in Abita Posts: 3,302
    I had a customer give me a mini egg. Cooked a 4lb butt on it that weekend and went the next week and got the XL. 2 years later we added the MED. Haven't looked back since.

    BTW sister got the gasser, brother got the kettle and the WSM. Still have the offset, just can't find anyone who wants it.
  • Plumbr44
    Plumbr44 Posts: 212
    I had been craving an Egg for years, even not knowing that much about their versatility. At the time, I thought the price was rather stiff, but after buying a few gassers and a few kettles that rotted and burnt away from 5-times-a-week use I decided to rat-hole cash away for an Egg...Sadly, the fund was depleted a few times by life's surprises but I never gave up!!! I drove to my local dealer and promptly found out I knew more about the Egg than them. Honestly, I still have no idea as to why they are a dealer! I drove 64 miles to a quality dealer that "had all his Eggs in a basket". It was not until then that I met most of the "regulars" on this forum and have been learning and sharing with others that I know and meet since then. Thanks for the idea of this thread, and thanks to all the kind folks that have guided me to the outdoor cook I have become! I can only pray that there are Eggs in heaven...

    Matt the Plumber
  • EGGARY
    EGGARY Posts: 1,222
    I was listening to Jim Phillips on the Phillips Phile on XM Radio. He would talk about the Big Green Egg and how it was the best grill. I kept that thought in my mind. Two years ago I was at Barbeques Galore and wanted to get a charcoal grill and I did look at the EGG but stupid me picked up the Charcoal Grill with the grill crank. Then last year I was curious about the EGG and went on the website to check it out. That is where I asked a lot of questions and from there I decided to get a BGE, an XL. I picked it up almost a year ago.
  • cookn biker
    cookn biker Posts: 13,407
    That is a terrific story Steve!! Thanks for sharing! :)
    Molly
    Colorado Springs
    "Loney Queen"
    "Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it."
    Bill Bradley; American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, former U.S. Senator from New Jersey
    LBGE, MBGE, SBGE , MiniBGE and a Mini Mini BGE