First cook on the old school clay egg

cmclean

As several of y'all know I got my hands on a vintage clay Kamado from the original Pachinko house era last week.  After spending some good time cleaning it out I tried my first cook on it today.  I went with ribs to keep temps low I'm happy with how it turned out. I used Taylor Grocery BBQ rub, if you haven't had the pleasure of coming to Oxford/Taylor and eating there you need to add it to your bucket list. I'm still getting used to taking photos as I cook so I missed the money shot right as it came out of the egg.  

Keeping a steady temperature on this thing was dang close to impossible with the top and bottom vents I have "red-neck" rigged together so there was quite a bit of variation in temp but I kept it between 200-275 for the most part.  I'm not sure if it was temperature issues, or if the clay doesn't hold moisture as well as the ceramic, but I had to battle more than usual to keep the ribs from drying out.  The temperature swings sped the cook up but overall the meat was delicious and I'm happy to add this vintage unit to the family.  


Served up with baked beans, mashed potatoes, parmesan noodles, and a rebel yell/dr. pepper mixed drink.  Certainly not as good as the rest of the rib cooks I have seen on here the past few weeks, but zero complaints from the girl friend or my sister which is enough for me.  

cookingdude555

Nice cook. Did you have to replace any parts on it? Do bge parts fit?

500

Props for the Rebel Yell. Haven't had that in awhile. I've been on an Evan Williams Black kick lately. 

cmclean

cookingdude555 said:

Nice cook. Did you have to replace any parts on it? Do bge parts fit?

Fortunately all the clay parts are still there and for the most part in working condition, but they don't have the same design as standard BGE equipment now so I couldn't just use a small plate setter with this.  

The cooking surface was pretty covered in gunk and I was able to clean most of it, but I also found a cheap grate on amazon that fit perfectly.  I think I can get a BGE daisy wheel and just use a ton of gasket to make it fit properly but in the meantime I have just been using a metal circle I stamped out at work that first the top vent.  The bottom is trickier since the curved fit is hard to get right, but the opening hole is so small it doesn't really matter.  

As a replacement plate setter I picked up two 12" pizza pans that I trimmed up to a triangle shape and wrapped together with aluminum foil to deflect heat up and around.  They held up to the heat just fine and the foil made it easy to clean.  

cmclean

500 said:

Props for the Rebel Yell. Haven't had that in awhile. I've been on an Evan Williams Black kick lately. 

Wild Turkey 101 proof is my go to.  I think the quality and alc % for the price is perfect, but I enjoy changing it up every now and then.  With Ole Miss football kicking off last weekend I felt Rebel yell was appropriate. 

Evan Williams black is a great alternative though, but when I think of Evan Williams I get dreams/nightmares (not sure which) to by days as an undergrad when Evan Williams green label was a luxury.