Gotta convince the wife

Banditfist

I live in Crofton, Maryland. I have been following the Egg forums for about 2 years. I used to live in Florida where I first learned about the BGE. My wife and I lived in an apartment/townhouse in Florida that did not allow grills. Well, when we moved to Maryland, we bought a townhouse. I saw that Eggfest is going to be in Waldorf, MD, and I can pick up a large BGE for much cheaper than retail. How happy am I? One problem: a wife that cannot believe that any grill can cost more than one you can get a Wal-Mart.[p]She is starting to break however. I have been able to work enough OT to take care of the costs. She still has reservations though.[p]1) We have never eaten food off a BGE. I have been looking around in the neighboorhoods to see if I can find someone that owns one so I can invte myself over for a meal [p]2) How does a BGE stand the weather? Can we leave it out on the deck for years with just a cover on it?[p]3) What are the safety hazards with the BGE? My hope is that I can come home from work, fire it up, put the meat on, then hit the gym for an hour and a half. Is it safe to leave the house with the BGE fired up?[p]4) How long does it take from striking the "match" till you have stable temperature and can start cooking?[p]5) Any safety concerns about smoked/grilled meats?[p]6) How much meat can you put on a large egg? How many people will it feed?[p]
Regardless of whether I order an Egg or not, I am coming to Eggfest. [p]Thanks and see ya there.

Wise One

Banditfist,
) We have never eaten food off a BGE. I have been looking around in the neighboorhoods to see if I can find someone that owns one so I can invte myself over for a meal
I'm not in that neighborhood, but there are many forum members around. And most of us prefer to feed other people so we can cook somethimg else without the wife talking about leftovers. :-)[p]2) How does a BGE stand the weather? Can we leave it out on the deck for years with just a cover on it? YES.[p]3) What are the safety hazards with the BGE? My hope is that I can come home from work, fire it up, put the meat on, then hit the gym for an hour and a half. Is it safe to leave the house with the BGE fired up?
Yes you can leave it once you have learned to stabilize the fire. It'll take a couple of fires to reach the point where you know it's stable. However, many things don't tak ethat long so you may have to have a quick workout.[p]4) How long does it take from striking the "match" till you have stable temperature and can start cooking?
In 15 minutes I can have a hot enough fire to put the meat on and in 30 minutes I normally have a stable fire.[p]5) Any safety concerns about smoked/grilled meats?
Yes, you will possibly have a huge weight gain. Learn to invite friend over. See question Number 1.[p]6) How much meat can you put on a large egg? How many people will it feed? I have easily put forty pounds of pork on for a low and slow. Chef Wil feeds an army off of his. A large Egg will easily cook for 10-12 people. (Steak, fish, pork, etc) and more if your're doing something like pulled pork or smoked sausage or the lieks where you can pile meat on top of meat.[p]You (and your wife) will enjoy Waldorf. Good luck.[p][p]

BlueSmoke

Banditfist,
Can't help with question #1 :-), but...[p]I Egg year round in Colorado, shovelling my way to the Egg in Winter.[p]I may be a bit paranoid - after all I light my Egg and walk away for half an hour, do overnight cooks and sleep soundly... I don't know about "walking away for an hour and a half" though. Probably my paranoia showing.[p]Depending on the temperature I want, I have stable temps from 20 minutes (250°) to 35 minutes (700°).[p]I've heard the litany of "potential carcinogens from smoked meat". I became so concerned I gave up responding to them, and keep right on eating.[p]The most I've put on one grill was 4 pork shoulders, about 35 pounds total. I could have done more, but I didn't have a grill extender at the time.[p]Good luck with your sales pitch, and enjoy the Fest.[p]Ken[p]

Mac in NC

Banditfist,
"One problem: a wife that cannot believe that any grill can cost more than one you can get at Wal-Mart."[p]There is an old saying that I know you have heard that says "you get what you pay for." I went through many, many Walmart type grills but burned up every last one of them. When you factor in that your EGG WILL LAST A LIFETIME you will save in the long run. I bought my first EGG (medium) for my wife and I four summers ago. She has not had to cook a single night since that purchase. I only wish I knew of Eggfest back then because what you will pay for the large at Efest, I paid for my medium and still have no regrets. Since then, I have added a mini to my collection. Once again, no regrets. [p]"She is starting to break however. I have been able to work enough OT to take care of the costs. She still has reservations though."[p]Working the OT has shown her how much you really want the EGG. She will give in. Give her time and drive by the nearest EGG store as much as possible. Ask her if you could stop in for "just a moment". It worked for me. Just remember that when she does, be sure to give her a big kiss and a "Thank you Honey, you won't regret it!" I had to, so should you. ) If you still think she has reservations, bring her along to the Eggfest and she can sample food to her hearts content (and meet a lot of great people too).[p]Bill (Wise One) was kind enough to answer all your questions and I agree with every one of them. I just thought I'd poke my head in here real quick and say hi. And uh...welcome to the club. Got my fingers crossed for you. Mac

Chef Wil

Banditfist,
I just cooked 10 drunken chickens that averaged 3 pounds each and had room for 1 or 2 more if need be, so feeding 40 people ( 1/4 chickens ) is not a problem.

Unknown

Banditfist,[p]Kind of a weak argument, but a tough one to get past. Surely your wife doesn’t buy everything at Wal-Mart. There has to be some things that she is willing to go out of her way to pay a premium for that Wal-Mart carries. Poke holes in her argument using those items as an example.[p]Btw – you can get an egg from dead cold to 500 degrees in about 4 minutes with a propane torch and a 30 gallon air compressor. [p]Don’t. It creates an awful mess with all of the ash and probably isn’t good for the grill – too quick a delta T. One of those mojito induced moments.

GrillMeister

Banditfist,[p]Go for a demo egg at the Waldorf Eggfest. If your wife is not satisfied with the results from cooking on it, I'm sure you will be able to find a home for it and get most of your money back (if not all) on the resale market based on the price of a demo egg. Don't forget, you one free ticket to the eggfest with a demo egg too. [p]Once you have it at home, your wife will be impressed with how the food turns out not to mention how much LESS cooking she has to do since you'll be egging many times a week. [p]Cheers,[p]GrillMeister
Austin, TX

mad max beyond eggdome

Banditfist,
just bring her to eggfest and let the food do the talking. . .you will both be happy. .

Chef Arnoldi

Banditfist, AN EASY CONVINCE :>))[p]tell her that you'll be cooking so often, that she will not have to cook too much herself -
ask anyone on the forum how often they cook now that they own an EGG.[p]also, you can make pulled pork, brisket & jerkey (just some of the things you can't do on any other grill without alot of trouble.

Unknown

Banditfist,[p]I can't help you with question number 1 unless you want to come to Indiana for a meal.[p]2. The cooker stands the weather very well. Heck, I don't cover mine and use it 4-5 times a week. [p]3. The safety hazards with this cooker is the same as most other cookers. Only a fool would leave any cooker that is not setup with some shutdowns for any length of time. If you plan to cook this way, locate the cooker some distance from your home. There is no fool-proof cookers period!!![p]4. The time from striking a match to getting the cooker ready to load will depend on the type of cooking that you want to do. I would think that this time would be from about 15 minutes with using a charcoal chimney to as long as maybe 35 minutes with something like a Weber fire cube. [p]5. There are safety concerns with any cooking. I really don't think that any cooking on this cooker will cause any problems to your health over the same thing cooked on your kitchen stove or oven. [p]6. As for how much meat that you can cook on the large Egg, I would just say that how much meat can you cook WELL as there are some folks on the forum that claim to cook much more meat than is possible and get it cooked right. The large Egg will cook about 10 slabs of ribs, maybe 30-35 pounds of butts, and several other large cooks and you can e-mail me for any large cook that you plan and I can tell you if the cooker will do it WELL. The large Egg will feed about 75 people in one cook with something like pulled pork. [p]Hope this helps,[p]Old Dave

tach18k

Banditfist, You can do what most of us did...
Go buy it, bring it home, hide it in the garage for a week or so, then build it when she goes to the mall, then surprise her with it with her favorite food that night!!
I works every time

PackerFan

Banditfist,[p]It looks like all of your questions have been addressed here. I don't have much experience with the egg. I just fired it up for the first time 4 days ago. I can tell you we haven't cooked an anything else since the first match was lit. [p]First night was Burgers. Wanted something easy. They were awesome.[p]Second night was TREX method 1.75" Ribeyes. Simply amazing. This one got the wife going. She asked me the next day what I was going to cook for her. Obviously she was getting on board. Of course if she wants me to cook again a man has to do what a man has to do. [p]Last night I grilled some porkchops. When we cut into the chop juice came pouring out. My wife took a bite and gave me the look of amazment. I was amazed myself. [p]She told me this morning she wanted a dish we haven't had in a while. "Pasta con broccoli" And yes she asked if I would cook it on the egg. LOL. I don't know if there would be any benefit to that. [p]I think she likes the egg as much as I do and believe me she put up a lot of resistence to me buying one. She has been silenced.[p]She also just invited company over tommorrow night and asked if I would make the steaks again. Of Course.[p]I am smoking a brisket Thursday and instead of our traditional Pizza Night on Friday night we going to try pizza on the egg. [p]You will not regret your decision to buy one. I have had no difficulty in stableizing a variety of temperatures. I had the egg ready last night faster than the oven inside. [p]I don't know about leaving the egg while I left to work out but I know I am going to have to find time to work out more to get rid of the extra pounds I am going to gain. [p]As a last resort you could send me your number and I will have my wife call your wife and explain to her how she doesn't have to cook anymore. LOL.[p]Kenny[p]

GrillMeister

tach18k,[p]Yeah. My wife does that all the time. Buy one, hide it in the garage for a few weeks, and when she asks "Where did you get that?" You can respond, "Oh that old thing? We've had that for a while now"

PG

Banditfist,
I am right down the road in Bowie....by Allen Pond. We would be glad to have you over for an egg cookout. Heck we might even be able to convince WessB and his wife Sally to come over and join the fun. Shoot me an email at
kimnpage@comcast.net to discuss all the details.

Page

Unknown

Banditfist,Most everything that can be said has been said. An EGG is one of the few things that you will buy today that years from now that I think you will feel you made a great buy and got your moneys worth. It will change cooking to a new level,it will allow you to amaze friends,and your wife will think you are so smart because you convinced her to get an EGG!! Of course if you have read the forum much you can see why we think like we do, we're all EGGHEADS. Good Luck and Good Cooking!!POPPASAM

ToyCollector

Packerfan and BanditFist,[p]The post above is a great one. My handle is due to the fact that I collect vehicular toys, but I now have a grill collection as well in search of the holy grail (or should I say holy grill?). Not by design, but no one thing did so much so well. Until I found the Egg. I have been an amateur chef of sorts for 10 years and if I may so myself, I've done it all. I had a high tech infra-red grill that is fantastic for steaks, but that's about it. When I bought that grill back in 1996 or so, the same store had an Egg and it already had intrigued me. I bought an iron smoker last year, and it did what I thought was great for smoking. Then I kept swinging by the BGE factory store for lump charcoal and always noted how the Egg out front would be RIGHT on the MONEY for temp and the guys there never worried about temp variance, etc. Then I saw some food come off of it, and met some acquaintances who have them and I was swayed. Since December I have done multiple pizzas, Pork Butt, 2 briskets, multiple chickens (on the throne and spatchcocked), ABTs, Wings, burgers, sausages, steak, salmon, on and on. If I don't now cook with it 3x/week, it's a bad week. Oh, and the wife loves not having to cook on those days!! The rave reviews you get from your friends is another bonus.[p]

ToyCollector

Glad I am not the only one!! :-D

Shelby

Banditfist,
The Wise One gave a great reply to all the concerns.[p]As for point #4...how long till cooking temp...I always say "about a beer".[p]Plan on the Eggfest and go with the intention of coming home with one. If after your wife seeing and tasting there she isn't convinced, you'll never win her over.

tn slagamater

Shelby, yep, I agree, if anyone can taste EGG food and NOT be TOTALLY ADDICTED, they are either brain dead or on bad drugs... all drugs are bad...

Banditfist

I thought that you had to reserve an Egg before Eggfest. Can you just show up and purchase one?

QBabe

Banditfist,[p]Most of the time, you do have to pre-purchase them. Then they are used at the Fest and the owner can take them home afterwards. But last year at the Waldorf Eggfest, we managed to luck into one that was left at the end and didn't get claimed by anyone...[p]Tonia
:~)