Large Egg for sale

Mickey

SaintLo said:

Thanks Mickey. Appreciate the kind response. Illinois. Been grilling a long time successfully. But don't think this is for me. 

Make an Egg Fest. Send me your #, be glad to talk: mjrawls@me.com
would send you mine but my iPhone is in day 5 of a rice pac after washing in the sheets. 

jhl192

Definitely a learning curve about temperatures, patience, VOC's and the need for a thermopen to cook to temp.  This forum will get you sitting pretty.  

Mickey

And sometimes **** just happens to all of us. Yes this is mine. 

Ladeback69

I did my second turkey on it today and it was better then last years that was good and I thought I over cooked it.  It was very juicy especially the breast.   I brinened it for 17 hours and dried in the fridge for about 18 hours.   As everyone said, go by temp not time.  Put your probe in the breast meat and it gets to 155 or so start checking the bird all over. Last year mine was early too, but I monitored the temp.  This year I got my timing down too.  Started it low at 250, then raised it to 300 then finished in the last hour at 360 to crisp up the skin.  The only thing I messed up was cutting my finger carving it.  I also cured and smoked a fresh ham.  That was great too.  There are money post on here about turkey, just check them out or ask for help.  It will get better, don't give up yet.

BBQJDUB

Did my first turkey today....The best advice I saw on the board was "cook to temp, not time."  I had a 21 lb. bird and it was done in 3.5 hours.  The cheat sheet said 6+ hours but everyone said check it at 3....The breast meat was slightly overcooked but no ruined by any means.  I honestly think the smokiness saved it!  I appreciate everyone's advice as I can now add turkey to the repertoire.  

BBQJDUB

I said all that to say this...SaintLo, keep at it and keep your own notes on your particular setup.  Hate this one sucked and hope the next one rewards you with greatness!

Scottborasjr

Keep at it @SaintLo I promise that you will get better meals off of the Egg then something made in the oven. It is a learning curve but you will get there. 

blasting

You said you're a weber kettle guy, so that tells me you enjoy outdoor cooking.  This forum is full of the most helpful folks you'll ever meet, and everyone will help out.  Glad you're mellowing out, and it sounds like you'll give it another go.  

Hang out, join the discussions, and make it a hobby.  Hope to see you around on here in the future.  Happy thanksgiving.

swordsmn

Just a few different techniques to master @SaintLo glad you will hang in there. I got this after having been UNsuccessful with a GenesisB couldn't even grill a steak right.  These guys turned me into the family hero of Ribs and pulled pork.  

Foremost is temp control on your low and slow cooks.  It takes experience to not overshoot and then the ceramic takes forever to cool back down. That said + or - 25 degrees is nothing.   

Mastering holding 250, 275, or even 350 WIll be a learned skill.  Its even worth doing with no or throwaway food to learn vent setting and firebuilding.  Persist... The old hands will help you.   

There are cheap ways to raise the grate above felt line  ( good for ease of access and low/slows.  That ceramic grill store does have sexy hdwe. But its $$ and right now with ur frustration is not the time to herd you toward more spending I suspect.

all that said, I never perfectly mastered Keeping 225-275 for my ribs or pork butt success - I eventually cheated and bought a temp controller that has a blower to feed the vent and a probe to detect temp inside at grate or dome clipped to existing thermometer.  

These use a small embedded computer with intelligence to just feed the fire enough air to maintain setpoints and they can sense an open lid and not go crazy.  Very good and cool stuff but serious $$$.  That's why everyone says learn it manually first. THEN if u desire you can pick one up.   Me, I sit in my easy chair for 10 hrs and watch a graph of my cook on the ipad as the egg stays put at 275 for 10 hrs and my pork butt gradually climbs to its ideal of 200F. Lol.  

I tell you this NOT to say that you need x or y now.. Just to assure you the end product on the egg IS worth the effort at gaining new skills for lump in a kamodo and that there ARE $ cheats that can relieve most worries should you decide to go that route someday.  

Ask questions, I asked and continue to ask some incredibly basic ones and most of these folks are incredibly dedicated to help new folks.  
Also search things like temperature control, fire building etc.  

Good luck and Welcome to a great forum!

Doug aka swordsmn

Ladeback69

@SaintLo, do you own a dual temp gouge?  If not I highly recommend one.  I have a cheaper version of the Maverick and has a wireless monitor you can carry around and keep track of you cook while doing other things.  Like I said up above, when the turkey gets to the 150's, start checking it and keep an eye on your monitor and you will be fine.  I have had 15 pound briskets cooking at 250 get done hours earlier then I thought they would.  I would rather it be early then late late, you can always hold them over.  I was able to pull my turkey and let it set for over 30 minutes before I carved it.  It was very juicy.  Try cooking just a small turkey breast as a test cook and monitor the temp not the time and I bet it will come out great.   Good luck and hopefully we have gotten you to keep going and not give up.

DaveRichardson

Time is the enemy.  Watch your temps more than time.  You can make up for a cook going too fast or too slow by adjusting your temps.  Sounds like an afternoon needs to be spent with a few cheap bags of grocery store brand lump mastering your vent settings to get a temp you desire.

Remember, the temp gauge in the dome is going to be hotter than the grate level on an indirect cook using the platesetter - mine is typically about 45-50 degrees hotter than the grate level where the food is.

Today you can probably get one of the igrill mini's for about 25$.....  I wad up some foil and jam the probe thru the foil and place that foil ball on the grate so I can see what temp my food is cooking at.  Works like a charm.  I set it for a range of about 25-50 degrees and I'm good to go.  My phone or ipad will beep when the egg gets out of that temp range.  Go make a small adjustment and give it 20-30 minutes to settle in.

I've used this method with an additional igrill in the meat and done boston butts for 20 hours in my Large Egg at 225 and never had to make more than 1-2 adjustments over the entire cook.

Stoker fans/Flame Boss/CyberQ/BBQGuru are all great items.  Will I buy one at some point, yes.  But knowing how the egg breathes and works is something you must know.

Get on here, search the website for things you want to do.  Play with the settings.  And cook to temp, not time.

You can call this GA Boy any time or email me with questions.  We are all here to learn and enjoy each other's food creations.  david.m.richardson@icloud.com or 678-592-0283.

Mosca

You've gotten some good advice.

I haven't been on this forum very long, but I've been egging for over 5 years. One thing I do have to say, sometimes the forum gives too much advice to a noob; not because the advice is wrong, but because there are actually many paths to a successful result (just look at all the different ways to make great wings on a BGE)! Once you have it figured out, you can understand how the different recommendations lead to results, and you can decide which way works for you. The kamado, at its heart, is just an oven. It's a really cool oven, that does a whole lot of things your indoor oven doesn't do, but that's all it is.

Clear your head. Here is some advice I wish I'd gotten when I started. I had to copy and paste, this is from someone who calls himself CeramicChef:

"Open the lid of your BGE and fill the fire bowl full of lump. (Forget briquettes ... too much ash.) Always fill the fire bowl full before every cook. Don't try and guess how much lump a specific cook will require. You will be wrong! Just fill the fire bowl.

"You need to learn how your kamado responds to changes in vents settings. The best way to do this is by learning which vents setting yield which temps. You need to be able to hit common cooking temps, i.e. 225, 250, 275, 300, 325, 350, 375, 400, 425, 450, 475, and 500+. Make note of the setting that yield those temps. Generally speaking, vents settings will not change for your kamado. So take pics of vent setting, write them down, whatever it takes, just have notes somehow of what vent setting yield which temp. Also note that the bottom vent is for gross temperature adjustments and the top vent, the "daisy wheel" is used for fine temp adjustments. [Note: you can use either vent for either gross or fine adjustments, they are just venturis. One is an intake venturi and the other is an exhaust venturi. But the upper vent is easier to see, easier to reach, and easier to manipulate, so by default is it the better choice for fine adjustments.--Mosca] Also note that if you overshoot your temp, ceramics don't easily shed heat. Rather, ceramics absorb heat readily and it's take a long time, compared to your kettle, to get the temp back down. Forewarned is forearmed.

"Now light your lump in a single spot. Just a single spot. Leave the lid open for about 7-10 minutes to make certain the fire is well established. Then when your fire is well established, close the lid and fully open the top and bottom vents. Watch the temp gauge. When the temp hits about 100°, shut the top and bottom vents by half. Then when the temps hits 150°, shut the vents by half again. When your temp hits 200°, shut the vents by half again. Notice how fast/slow temp changes with changes in vent settings. You want to hit 225 so creep up on it slowly at first. Fine tune temps with the top vent, the daisy wheel. Again, the bottom vent is for gross temp ranges. Once you have settled in at something close to 225°, sit down, pop the top on your carbonated beverage, and let your BGE dwell there for about 30 minutes or so.

"Next you need to hit 250 or so. Open your daisy wheel a bit (leave the bottom vent alone) and watch how your BGE responds to increased draw. Temps will climb. Try not to overshoot 250° so sneak up on it slowly. Remember your top vent is for fine tuning temps. Hit 250, let your BGE dwell there for 30 minutes or so, chill with some good music, and rehydrate! Repeat the drill for 275° and 300°. Within a given range, leave that bottom vent alone! O ly adjust the top vent to increase temp.

"For temps between 325° and 400° open the bottom vent a bit more, maybe close down a little on the top vent, and watch how temps climb. Stabilize at 325° for 30 minutes, stay hydrated, and listen to some tunes. Note those vent settings. To get to 350°, open the top vent a little and watch what happens. Repeat for 375° and 400°.

"To hit 425° open the bottom vent a bit more and maybe close down a little on the top vent. You know the drill from here. Note vent settings, stay hydrated, top vent fine control to 500°. Once you get to 500° for 30 minutes, open up the BGE vents and sear some steaks for you and the family!

"I know this sounds like a lot of work, but once you figure out what vent settings yield which temps, kamado cooking is the simplest thing on the planet. You won't have to adjust vent settings for temp changes between seasons. There's no muss, no fuss."

Mosca

I hope that helps, and I welcome comments that will fine tune that recommendation. Knowing your tools is a key component of successfully mastering a job.

henapple

One of the most important things is to watch the political Friday night threads....

logchief

SaintLo said:

Appreciate all the helpful comments. Thanks all. With the amount of enthusiasm/expertise displayed here, looks like I better keep at it.

You won't regret it.  One of the first things I did was buy that damn book, it just takes up space with a lot of other cookbooks.  This is the place along with a few other informational websites mentioned above along with amazingribs.com.

Just one piece of advice cause I'm no expreet, drink the beer while you cook, it's a lot more fun that way and you won't get blotted drinking beer after dinner.

Do some more cooks and post some pics.  Try some short ribs low and slow, they are fantastic on the Egg.

Beavercreek_Smoker

About the recipe book. I received that as a gift. I saw the recipe for the smoked chili and sounded good. I followed the recipe but instead of ground beef I bought a chuck roast and did a course grind, I like that texture. It wasn't good, it was freaking amazing!!! That one recipe is well worth the price of the whole book! I've taken it to chili parties and mine gets gone while the other pots are near full. Shared it with neighbors and family, same thing, get thanks for the best chili they ever had. This is the only thing I have ever made from that book so maybe the rest is crap, I don't know, but before burning the book, rip out that page! (Page 286 I think). Just be warned, it makes a pretty big batch. I use a camp Dutch oven 6qt and it fills it to the brim. 

as far as the OP, im sure it's frustration that posted a pretty useless comment. What happened? Why was it ruined? No question and no explanation. What's the point? I come from decades of using a Webber kettle, loved it! Got used several times a week. After using my egg for a couple months, I gave the old tried and true Webber away to my neighbor. I still have my Webber gasser but I think I cooked some corn on the cob on it last year. I'm scared to open it now, can't imangine what living in it now... 

It it seems if you have $1800 invested, you would take the time to learn and ask a few questions if your having issues. There was t really much of a learning curve for me outside of temp control. Picked that up after a dry run on the first load of charcoal and a couple of cooks. But you know, I found a lady who bought a small with all the accessories and never used it. Sat in the nest all summer unused. I picked up the whole package for $400. Even the small bag of bge charcoal unopened. She was intimidated I think. When I pulled out the grate, plate setter and fire ring and fire box to lighten it up before lifting it out of the nest to haul it off, she said,"you obviously know what your doing". I guess some people consider that complicated. I guess it is over a kettle but whatever. When I got home and set up the small next to my large, I fired it up and put a couple marinated chicken breasts on. I texted her a picture of it in its new home and thanked her again. She texted back that it defintly belonged with me...

My point is, the egg is the best grill, smoker, brick oven and bbq ever made but it may not be for everybody. So where you at and how much you want for it?..

robnybbq

Listen to the people here.  They have gotten me to be able to cook on the Egg.  My family and guests love everything that I cook on the Egg.   I am my worst critic.

If I can cook on the Egg anyone should be able to.  I hate cooking anything on the stove/oven now.

Mosca

Also, calibrate your dome thermometer. Boil some water, stick the probe into it, and turn the nut on the back until it reads around 210-212. You could adjust for your altitude, but that is an unnecessary amount of precision, +/- 5* is fine.

Dos_Eggys

All I can say is hang in there...I am a newbie to my Egg (bought in April) I have had my ups and downs, frustrations, the darn thing getting away from me temp wise. Keep practicing....practicing, because when you nail it and that pork shoulder comes off and pulls like butter, its worth it! Good luck, stay positive.