It's not always the best

henapple

The first time I heard that was in Salado from @Foghorn‌. @cazzy‌ also taught me the egg is just a cooking vessel.

Several people have commented on the lack of eggs at brisket camp. This is all my opinion of course. Does the egg cook pulled pork and brisket well? Yes. Does it cook chicken well? Yes. How many chickens can you cook on a large? 2-3? @SGH‌ said his smoker will cook 45 chickens at one time. How many large eggs would that take?

Can an egg cook a pizza as good as a $4000 brick pizza oven? No, but it does cook good pizza. Brisket as well as AF's smoker? No but Centex and others cooks a damn good brisket on the egg.

To me, the great thing about the egg is versatility. Ribs on monday, pizza Tuesday, 800 degree sear on Wednesday. .. I dont need a $4000 smoker but the only way nola's party could've fed all those folks was with a smoker or with about 12 eggs.

I learned a lot in NO despite drinking rather heavily. Enjoy and love your egg but be open to other methods. @Foghorn‌ could cook a good meal in a shoebox.

DMW

Couldn't agree more. For a backyard cooker, the egg is the perfect choice. If I had unlimited budget, real estate, and control of the weather, not sure I would have eggs.

Here's an example of a cook that wouldn't fit on an egg, in a cooker I don't have room for at home, and that would be useless in the rain and snow.

NPHuskerFL

Right on the money. And perhaps it's pride but, I think a wood fired egged pizza is better than a pie off of even this 46 yr old SS brick oven.

Or even this new & close to $150K set-up.


But, then again they can get fairly consistent results rolling 12 pies on one oven and they run 4 of them.

A huge reverse flow can obviously kick out massive amounts of proteins in comparison to a single or even multiple eggs.

The egg is my personal choice of cooking vessels. But, you're right on...it is just another cooking vessel.

bud812

Well said brother Apple. 

Dobie

Its the best in my back yard, thank you very much.

henapple

Dobie said:

Its the best in my back yard, thank you very much.

It's the best in my yard also.

Fred19Flintstone

Wait. Are we talking about SGH's unit?

Eggcelsior

Mine too. If I had any more space, I'd be taking @sgh up on his tester discount.

buzd504

bud812 said:

Well said brother Apple. 

+1

buzd504

Fred19Flintstone said:

Wait. Are we talking about SGH's unit?

You are.

henapple

He has 6 units... His wife calls him "insect".

cazzy

Hen, don't be ruining the honeymoon phase for these folks!!!  It's incredibly enjoyable seeing someone fire up their egg to make some soup!

Mattman3969

cazzy said:

Hen, don't be ruining the honeymoon phase for these folks!!!  It's incredibly enjoyable seeing someone fire up their egg to make some soup!

Well hell, there goes the pics for half of the winter!! My wife says the same thing I and agree to a point but cooking over fire be it the egg or wood on the ground is most always more fun for me than electricity. More so it's my quiet time. But I do get what you are sayin @cazzy Just don't make too much fun of my soup pics over the next few months
@henapple - what's your next unit gonna be?

cazzy

Mattman3969 said:

cazzy said:

Hen, don't be ruining the honeymoon phase for these folks!!!  It's incredibly enjoyable seeing someone fire up their egg to make some soup!

Well hell, there goes the pics for half of the winter!! My wife says the same thing I and agree to a point but cooking over fire be it the egg or wood on the ground is most always more fun for me than electricity. More so it's my quiet time. But I do get what you are sayin @cazzy Just don't make too much fun of my soup pics over the next few months
@henapple - what's your next unit gonna be?

That wasn't a dig at you but...if the shoe fits.   :P

Botch

henapple said: Can an egg cook a pizza as good as a $4000 brick pizza oven? No, but it does cook good pizza. Brisket as well as AF's smoker? No but Centex and others cooks a damn good brisket on the egg.   

 

Sir, I agree with most of your post, except the above.  We don't know that.  It hasn't been tested.  The only thing we know is a brick pizza oven or AF's smoker can crank out greater quantities.  This is something I figured out pretty quick at my first barbeque contest earlier this summer, I was handing out samples as fast as possible, about the size of a quarter!    ">  The guys with the big grills were handing out whole wings, whole ribs, etc.

Reading through the Brisket School thread, I kept thinking, there's no way that number of attendees can eat that much food, even with SGH there!   :P  Yet, it sounds like you were turbo-ing all your briskets, and could barely keep up; did you have radio ads/billboards/flyers screaming "Free Barbeque!!" all over the city?!?!  )  Glad the big smoker kept up!  

 

Regarding brisket, I'd love a side-by-side test of a lo-und-slo, 230 overnight, versus a turbo briskie; but I know from personal experience, two briskets can be different cooked exactly the same, at the same time, just based on the two pieces of meat!  

Likewise, a perfect pizza from a Large versus a perfect pizza from a $4,000 Italian oven, who could tell?  It's all about the cook, the ingredients, the relative humidity, the phase of the moon.  

 

@Dobie said it best: Its the best in my backyard, and I couldn't afford either of the other options  

NPHuskerFL

cazzy said:

Hen, don't be ruining the honeymoon phase for these folks!!!  It's incredibly enjoyable seeing someone fire up their egg to make some soup!

) ) )

cazzy

Botch said:

henapple said:

Can an egg cook a pizza as good as a $4000 brick pizza oven? No, but it does cook good pizza. Brisket as well as AF's smoker? No but Centex and others cooks a damn good brisket on the egg. 

 

 

Sir, I agree with most of your post, except the above.  We don't know that.  It hasn't been tested.  The only thing we know is a brick pizza oven or AF's smoker can crank out greater quantities.  This is something I figured out pretty quick at my first barbeque contest earlier this summer, I was handing out samples as fast as possible, about the size of a quarter!    ">  The guys with the big grills were handing out whole wings, whole ribs, etc.

Reading through the Brisket School thread, I kept thinking, there's no way that number of attendees can eat that much food, even with SGH there!   :P  Yet, it sounds like you were turbo-ing all your briskets, and could barely keep up; did you have radio ads/billboards/flyers screaming "Free Barbeque!!" all over the city?!?!  )  Glad the big smoker kept up!  

 

Regarding brisket, I'd love a side-by-side test of a lo-und-slo, 230 overnight, versus a turbo briskie; but I know from personal experience, two briskets can be different cooked exactly the same, at the same time, just based on the two pieces of meat!  

Likewise, a perfect pizza from a Large versus a perfect pizza from a $4,000 Italian oven, who could tell?  It's all about the cook, the ingredients, the relative humidity, the phase of the moon.  

 

@Dobie said it best: Its the best in my backyard, and I couldn't afford either of the other options  

You don't have to do a side by side...a brisket cooked conventionally will have better texture than one that is cooked turbo.  

Lit

We moved into our new house April 1st. Still haven't turned on the oven. I even cook my store bought pizzas in the egg. I have looked at several models of the backwoods just to have something else to use but eggs are cheap compared to alot of other units. Wife would make me sleep in it if a $5k smoker showed up at the front door.

NPHuskerFL

Lit said:

We moved into our new house April 1st. Still haven't turned on the oven. I even cook my store bought pizzas in the egg. I have looked at several models of the backwoods just to have something else to use but eggs are cheap compared to alot of other units. Wife would make me sleep in it if a $5k smoker showed up at the front door.

For that kind of scratch you could probably fit in there & sleep in it comfortably with a flat screen watching the game of the evening with a smokey incense smell.

SGH

@henapple‌
Preach on brother Apple. The big units can not be competed with when it comes to sheer volume. It would take 23 large eggs give or take a egg to even approach what Unit 1 can handle. To approach Unit 4's capacity it would be in the neighborhood of a 100 or so eggs. When Unit 7 is complete and online she will easily hold and handle over a ton of meat with proper loading. No egg can approach this, little lone challenge it. The big live fired units more than have a place in the bbq world. When it comes to sheer capacity and volume, they stand alone at the top and are unchallenged in this arena. Nothing can come even close to their capacity and total output. We proved this at brisket camp with just unit 1. The egg is a very fine cooker for sure. I own 3 of them. But volume is it's weakness up side the big units. The big units are king when it comes to capacity. No question of it my friend.

tarheelmatt

Absolutely correct.  I love cooking on the homemade rig all the time.  This has a gas insert that drops in for steaks, chicken, etc.  Remove that and it is a coal cooker.  Love just sitting around throwing wood in the burn barrel and spreading coals every 15 min on a pit full of shoulders.  

I will get flamed for the picture I know, but this was a fundraiser at a church.  The fellowship hall was on the back side where the cemetery is.  On this night, 275 12oz ribeyes and 24 pcs. of chicken breasts were cooked.  

hapster

Right now my large egg fits my needs... I'm sure that I could add another cooker to the fold; but I'm thinking at most another large or XL, most likely a mini though as they are growing on me...

And stop referring to everyone's cookers as their "units" )

SGH

@tarheelmatt‌
Preach it brother Tar!

tarheelmatt

@SGH, love those nights and days when cooking. Very valuable time between the guys helping. We eat, shovel coals, throw wood in the barrel,  shoot skeet, hit golf balls, listen to some Cash, and just BS around.  

SGH

An example of capacity. Two 14 pound packers in the corner of Unit 6. Easily room for 100-120 more whole packers. Easily.

tarheelmatt

Now this cook was a lot of fun... Big fund raiser that I helped cook for some Masons.  750 chicken halves was on these pits.  Could have easily went 900-1000!  There were more pits along the row but the phone didn't capture.  These guys had one of the biggest burn barrels I have seen.  Dump truck load of hickory and oak for this cook!  

henapple

The honeymoon isn't over. I do all my chili and stews on the egg, fry and bake bread on it.

While building a house years ago the Hispanic brick layers had a women that cooked lunch for them every day. Two cinder blocks and a grid over an open fire. Damn good fajitas.

SGH

I like what I'm seeing brother Tar. Please allow me to:

SGH

tarheelmatt

SGH said:

I like what I'm seeing brother Tar. Please allow me to: SGH

I love cook brother... 

Botch

tarheelmatt said:

I know where I want to be buried now.   :-bd

tarheelmatt

@Botch, I estimate that about 1250+ ribeyes have been cooked at that location alone.  This was the fifth year of this fundraiser and we cook at least 250 each time.  Last time was 275 as noted earlier.