1st Egg + 1st Eggsperience

I picked up my first Egg after getting off early from work this afternoon, got it set up, and the wife had oven-baked frozen teriyaki chicken planned for dinner, so I figured what the hey, I need to break the Egg in anyway.

Maybe I should say I've been BBQ'ing and smoking for a very, very long time, and the BGE has been on my bucket list for almost as long as the Company has been in existence...at least as long as the first time I laid eyes on one in the '70s at the local BBQ store. I finally gave up on trying to score one on eBay or CraigsList or a garage sale for cheap and coughed up the money for new. This is an itch that had to be scratched while I can still scratch, if you catch my drift...and at this point, I don't think one BGE will be enough. We will see.

So I fired it up with a weedburner, using Best in the West lump mesquite, which is plenty sparky, like everyone who uses it already knows. My wife is intimidated by the sound and fire that the weedburner puts out, and nearly forbade me to use it while under the patio cover, but I showed her how docile and manageable it can be with a little thoughtful application of the throttle, so while I still got the stink-eye, I won't be sleeping on the couch with the dog for companionship tonight.

It took less than a minute to get the charcoal going, and I closed the cover and quickly brought it up to 350 deg. I might say that prior to this I took the time to calibrate the thermometer against boiling water, so I know that 350 degrees is spot on.

I put the chicken on a foil-wrapped cookie sheet, like the instructions said, and popped it into the Egg. I adjusted the shutters to hold 350 degrees and I was so proud and confident of how quick and easy it is to regulate the temperature that I came inside for about 10 minutes and chatted with her...then I beckoned for her to come outside and see for herself how well the BGE is able to accurately control the temp.

Well, she took one look and asked me why I was cooking the chicken at nearly 700 degrees...DOH!

I had the BGE set at 350C, not 350F! Two scales on the thermometer, dummy!

But instead of being cooked to a crisp, like you might expect, we subsequently managed to salvage dinner and, although it was a bit dry in the thin parts, still edible. I learned that it sure takes a bit of time for the BGE to cool down, especially when you are trying to salvage dinner, doesn't it?

The other thing that they might warn you about is this...because this thing weighs 140 lbs., and there is just her and me, I unpacked the shipping carton in the back of the truck, taking everything out of the carton except for the bottom section. I then grabbed the carton by the hand-holds and swung it out of the truck bed by myself, not knowing that without the straps there is nothing holding the bottom of the carton together! I heard my wife gasp when she saw the bottom start to drop out of the carton, so I set it down in a hot hurry...no harm, no foul, this time, but both of us having to take time-out to recover from the rush of adrenaline.

A very exciting and favorable experience, all in all, and I can't wait to try my hand at dinner tomorrow!