First post -- 6 cooks under my belt

cnconner

Happy new year! First post here and I wanted to thank everyone who posts to this forum for the wealth of advice. That and the forum search function (and the Naked Whiz) and you can learn a lot.

My wife and I got each other a large egg for Christmas. Since then, I've make 6 meals on the egg. I've cooked with a Weber Genesis gas grill for the last 10 years, so this was bit of a change but the results have been great despite my screwing things up a few times.

Here's what I've made so far and what I've learned.

1. Center cut pork chops. Everything was good except I learned you really don't need 2 cups of soaked wood chips for the egg and flashback is real. The hair on my right arm will grow back eventually ;-)

2. Pizza. 650 degrees was a little too hot for the bread recipe I used (Peter Reinhart) with cornmeal on the stone. I'm pretty sure this fried my gasket too.

3. Spatchcock chicken. Turned out great but I'm not going to bother cooking it skin side down for any amount of time next time.

4. Fillet Mignon. I used the sear and dwell method and they turn out great.

5. Boneless skinless chicken breasts. They taste a lot better than they do on my gas grill.

6. Pulled pork. I followed the Naked Whiz guide. Only problem was that the temperature kept climbing close to 300 on me. I think I'm going to have to shut down the bottom vent completely next time. My butt got done early and when I checked it, it was 245 degrees! Despite all of this it was the best pulled pork I've ever had and I'll take another crack at this in the future. This is a very forgiving cut of meat.

I need to figure a different method for starting the egg. I'm using sawdust/paraffin starters but I think a chimney would be better. I think it just takes too long for everything to get started however this could just be my impatience coming from a gas grill.

Lei'd-n-Egg

Welcome to the forum and Great first post!

As for lighting methods, I'm also still using starter cubes, but plan to try the paper towel method with a little vegetable oil. Sounds like others have had a lot of success. Most eggheads seem to oppose the chimneys, but I haven't tried that yet either.

Good luck,
Bryan

SWOkla-Jerry

Welcome to the forum. Looks like your off to a good start. I use the chimney starter with 1oz shot glass full of rubbing alchohol(91%). Pour over lump in chimney starter and let set for 20 secs. Lite and wait about 15 mins until glowing red hot. Pour this over your lump in firebox and set your vents to your approx temp range you are targeting, close the lid and your ready to start cooking in half hour or so.

cnconner

So what are the cons on the chimney starter?

Lei'd-n-Egg

Can't really say for sure, just read a few posts about it. Some of the eggheads feel that you can't control the fire as well. Others think it's only good for hot cooks like pizza or steaks since your basically dumping hot coals on the pile.

Other methods, starter cubes, oiled paper towel, and torch are easier to control. You can light the fire in specific areas of the lump to get different results. For example, lo-n-slo you might want to light in one spot so it burns across the the lump slowly.

Eggsperimenting and learning is half the fun, and the good news is even when I've screwed up a cook the food is still pretty good.

Gator Bait

 
Hi cnconner,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting an egg. Glad to hear the great results you have had so far, it only gets better. One of our great members Grandpas Grub has compiled a very informative list of helpful links called Recipes, Links & Tips List, it is well worth bookmarking.
I like the idea that you and your wife gave the egg to each other. I hope she will be cooking on it and posting here as well. Our female members are great cooks and major contributors to the forum. There is no way we would want to do it with out them.

Happy New Years to you and yours,

Gator

 

NoVA Bill

Hey cnconner!

Welcome to the cult. It appears you've already drank the koolaid. Next learn how to upload some pics of your cooks else the beatings will begin. :laugh:

This forum certainly is a treasue trove of information and advice not to mention some just plain ole good folks.

Good luck and welcome to forum.

PS see GrampasGrub's recent post where he sites a url to be booked marked. It's a soup to nuts epitsle on eggin' - might help you with temp control, etc.

NoVA Bill

I see Gator got you the URL - great info contained there.