Gimme the Scoop!!

Unknown

I have had my eye on the BGE for several years but haven't bought it yet. I am very close to buying it, but I wanted to make sure it was right for me. I have read many of the posts in this forum, and I want to make sure that eventhough many of you have great experiences to share on how to get the best results from the BGE, that it is still easy for someone (newbie) to get great results from the BGE, without going to some of the lengths I read about. Is it easy to get fork tender pork shoulder in 8-10 hours? Is it easy to tame a tough brisket into succulent beef in an afternoon? Is it easy to get ribs fall off the bone tender in a few hours? The things that I have read that concern me are the different tricks people use -- grill extensions, lots of turning, flipping, foil, fire manipulation, etc. If I buy the BGE and find out that it does take a lot of practice and inside knowledge to get great results, than it will not be a good purchase for me. If what all of you guys write about is just the different between great results (easy) and superb results (more effort, more individual tastes), than I will buy my BGE tomorrow. One final question, is the Weber Smokey Mountain in any way comparable to the BGE? I read that real BBQ competitions are full of these.

Wise One

Tim Dixon, you will find that the BGE is probably the easiest and most forgiving cooker you can buy. In two years I have had one bad cook. With a basic setup you will be able to do great pulled pork in 10-12 hours (as long as the butt size is reasonable) and great chicken in under two hours. You will also cook ribs, turkey, fish , venison, etc that will impress you and your guests. [p]I don't have a WSM but I am sure it is a good grill. From what I know I think you will find the meat in a BGE to retain more moisture as it cooks but otherwise would probably be similar. Ceramic cookers are not the most convenient items to haul along for BBQ contests (although there are a few folks that do it). Metal cookers are far more forgiving as to an accidental slip or a bump in the road. However, all that being said, I would never consider having another metal cooker at home. I am extremely happy with my BGE. You can probably try any of the recipes for the BGE on a WSM and it would turn out fine - but not as good. I cook at 225, at 350 and at 750 on my BGE. I don't know if you can do that on a WSM or not. But whatever, your choice, keep hanging out on the forum and keep us apprised of what you are cooking.

Spring Chicken

Tim Dixon,
If you had both a Big Green Egg and any other style cooker you wanted, you would quickly select the Egg as your favorite. The others would become plate warmers or cobweb farms. Mine did.[p]You won't go wrong with a Big Green Egg. You can easily go wrong with other types of grills and your disappointment will show in your cooking. Get the Egg.[p]Spring Chicken
Spring Texas USA

Prof Dan

Tim,[p]The quick answer is that excellent results are very easy to achieve on the Big Green Egg. Don't be put off by all of the technical stuff that you see on the forum. When you see all of the "tips and tricks" posted on the forum, that is just because us Eggheads like to "eggperiment." Judging from what I've read (and looking deep into my own strange self), we tend to be tinkerers and devout barbecuers, rather than people who are just content to do things the same old way, time after time. I don't know why the BGE would attract that sort of a person; maybe just the active participants on the forum are like that, while the "lurkers" are normal people.[p]I've gone on to the other websites for the competing ceramic ovens, and the participants on their forums seem to be just as enthusiastic as we are. I would guess that all of the ceramic products are pretty similar, but I don't really know. [p]
I do know, however, from personal experience that the metallic smokers are not as good. Here's why: the metal walls lose a lot of heat. So the heat source has to produce more heat during the cooking process, to replace the lost heat. That means that the food is exposed to more heat during the entire process, and it is much less juicy as a result.[p]I have to add this: after 20 years of really serious barbecuing, I finally treated myself to a Green Egg, and now I'm really sorry that I didn't do it sooner. Recently, my entire family was on vacation, and we went to a regionally famous "award-winning" rib joint. [Not one of the chain outfits, but a real home-style hickory pit.] We ordered their famous ribs, and everyone in the family agreed that my Egg ribs were infinitely superior. [And this is a family that does not dispense praise lightly.][p]What's that worth? To me, a lot.

WudEyeDoo

Tim Dixon,
I see others have given great feedback already. I would add that there IS a bit of a learning curve that you will need to work through to get all those type of results you mentioned in your post. The good news is that with this forum you will shorten the "curve" drastically. You will gain all the know-how you will need right here and in my opinion, that is a huge positive to taking the plunge and getting your BGE today! This forum is one of the great benefits of owning a BGE.[p]The other big plus (the main one) is the meals you will produce. I have never cooked better stuff, ever. I would like to think it's because I have suddenly become a master chef but it just might have something to do with my BGE. [p]As far as all those tricks and gadgets you have been reading about, here's my warning: You may THINK you want nothing to do with all that, but this Q'n on your BGE will soon get in your blood and before you know it you will probably own every gadget mentioned on this forum and love eggsperimenting with all of 'em. Don't get me wrong, you don't need all that to have great results but about a year from now you will see what I mean.[p]Anyway, you are on the right track if want to cook some great BBQ and you certainly are in the right place. Let us know what you do![p]Bob

Unknown

Tim Dixon, I can't answer your question about the WSM but I can tell you for me the decision was based upon the fact that I couldn't Q in the winter with my other smoker. The egg is VERY efficient. Even with the temps around 10 degress (BRRRR) I was able to slow smoke a couple racks of ribs at 225 for several hours with virtually no need for me to help out. When the ribs where done I brought the temp up to about 725 with, using the same lump charcoal with no problem, so that I could nuke a couple of steaks. If you live in cold weather climate a ceramic cooker is the way to go, IMHO.[p]Even if you deicde to go with something else, have fun with it and stop on by anytime you have a question.[p]Matt.

Unknown

Tim Dixon,
I have two eggs, and 4 WSMs.. If you would like a comparison on how they cook, feel free to e-mail me..[p]
Dylan

The Naked Whiz

Tim Dixon,
Hope I'm not to late to convince you to buy! I cook on the egg about 2-3 times week. I grilled on my gas grill no more than 1 a week and that was only in nice weather. My website is devoted to doing simple things on the egg. I've played around with ribs a bit and haven't mastered them, but I've been smoking fish and jerky and doing pizza's and spatchcocking chickens (contrary to popular opinion, NOT illegal in NC, although most everything else is...) and doing steaks and chops and it has been wonderful!! I did Mr. Toad's pork loin which was pretty simple and it was incredible!! Maybe you can do all this on a WSM, don't know, but I've been having the time of my life and I haven't used any deadly secrets (we can tell you but then we have to kill you) yet. Check out my website for a little bit of what I've been doing. Of course, you'll need to make a cart, and it will have to have lots of bracing... (Sorry, in joke around here....)[p]TNW

The Naked Whiz

The Naked Whiz,
What happened? I put the link in... Here it is again....

[ul][li]The Naked Whiz's website[/ul]

Unknown

Hi Tim,[p]When I compare my old grill to my Big Green Egg....it's like graduating from 8th grade and going directly into college.
[p]My father-in-law has a Weber, my best friend has a gas grill, and I have a New Braunfels Smoker Grill.
We would generally cook out a couple of times a month (not frequently).
Our cooking experiences on these grills was typical:
1) We'd grill burgers (they would shrink quite a bit & often burn....we'd smother them in Kraft BBQ sauce).
2) We'd grill steaks & smother them in steak sauce (they were ok, but easily burned or dried out, we always wondered if we'd ever cook a steak as good as the expensive steakhouses).
3) We'd grill chicken, mostly soaking it in Kraft BBQ sauce (it REALLY dried out if we were not careful, especially the breast....and it burned pretty easy).
4) We tried ribs once, but they didn't turn out.
5) We talked about cooking a brisket or maybe something else, but we never seemed to get around to it. I'd have to stay home all day and 'monitor' it. [p]One day I saw the Big Green Egg....it attracted my attention because it was, quite frankly, the ugliest excuse for a 'grill' I had ever seen. I initially thought someone would have to be nuts to fork out $600 on a ceramic grill that looked like a green oblong golf ball.[p]A few things prompted me to actually buy an Egg:
1) To my wife's dismay, the main reason I wanted it was because it looked really strange & I though it would look pretty cool in my back yard (it was almost a novelty).
2) Word of mouth was that it was a great grill.
3) This thing will withstand temeratures of about 2000 degrees....I have no idea what you'd cook at 2000 degrees, but it sounds cool.
4) It was my Birthday....I had to get something....why not an Egg.[p]From my experiences above you can see that I've never been a particularly good cook.[p]I've had the Big Green Egg for about 7 months now.
The Egg turned out to be a great purchase....The stuff I learned so far:
1) I cook on the Egg two or three times a week now. I'd like to cook more, but I have to go to work on weekdays
2) The Egg is VERY forgiving....I like to say it corrects my mistakes.
3) Food (burgers, steaks, chicken breast, etc) does not shrink or dry out the way it does on other metal or gas grills. The best steaks I've ever had were the Ribeyes I've been cooking on the Egg at 650 degrees for about 5 minutes....these steaks don't need BBQ sauce (my old grill is lucky to get up to 450 degrees).
4) I've gone beyond what I used to cook. I've recently cooked ribs, pork loin, pork roast, etc....I'm trying more stuff each week.
5) So far, I've NEVER had a bad meal cooked on the EGG.
6) The Egg can get to temperature in 10 minutes and maintain it for MANY hours before you add more charcoal, and it produces a handfull of ashes (my old grill took about twenty minutes to get hot and lasted about an hour....I had to time my cooking just right or I would lose all my hot coals, and it produced a gallon if ashes).
7) The Egg is warm to the touch (the surface of my old grill is hot enough to cause injury....especially to a child).
8) You can cook so much more than meat on the Egg....breads, pizza, vegetables, etc.
9) There are some great resources to help me learn even more....this forum is a good example.
Note - You don't have to be a great cook or have alot of 'secrets' to cook good with the Egg. It comes with a great little cookbook that's easy to follow.
Also....I've never seen a similar product with a dedicated forum like this....it's almost like a cult
These folks actually get together in Atlanta each year for something called Eggtoberfest so they can show off their Egg skills.
Simply reading this forum will give you all sorts of ideas.
If you have a question, then simply ask and this forum should provide some good replies.[p]There is one negative I've noticed about the Egg......it's more fragile than a metal grill. If you slam the lid or drop it, then it will break into pieces.[p]After seeing my recent cooking results, my father-in-law, and two of my friends are also considering purchasing an Egg. They are meeting heavy resistence from their wives. Their wives think they are nuts to spend $600 on an ugly green golf ball. It will be interesting to see who wins [p]I wish you the best whichever way you decide to go.[p]tcpool
[p][p]