First BGE cook -- success!

Buzz

After weeks of waiting, planning, and hoping... my brand spanking new Large BGE finally arrived this morning-- Thanksgiving day.

I ready and waiting with about 30 lbs of lump. I was really relieved to see that it hadn't gone all Humpty Dumpty on me during shipping. It was all in one piece. I assembled the nest, but decided to wait on the Egg mates.

Since we live in Switzerland right now, Thanksgiving isn't a recognized holiday and I had to work. I followed some good advice given by TideJoe (thanks) and decided that a pork tenderloin was a good choice for the first cook tonight. (I'm going to do a turkey breast Saturday for my families T-day dinner.)

I just used a rub that I had on hand and some sassafras pellets. Worked absolutely wonderfully, but I had some SERIOUS smoke rolling for about 10-15 minutes. I was afraid the neighbors might call the fire department since it was kind of settling to the ground.

It was about 30 degrees F outside. The lump lit easily using some parrafin (sp?) starters and the Egg was ready to rock in 15-20 minutes. I was worried that I might have trouble getting the temp stabilized at 325, but it was no problem at all.

I planned for 45 minutes, but it took about an hour and I took it off at an internal temp of 179 degrees F.

End result? Awesome. The rub was a little hot, but the tenderloin had a fantastic pink smoke ring, excellent flavor, and very moist.

I'm completely delighted to have had a reounding success on my first Egg outing! Even my visiting Mother In Law was impressed.

I'm sure there will be some spectacular failures in my future, but I'm glad to know that I didn't fall on my face first time out. (Especially since my wife knows how much I paid for this thing!)

I look forward to Egg'ing for years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Buzz