FOGO, pizza, and why to use a drip pan.

A week ago I tried FOGO for the first time to make these ribs.  The cook came out great and I haven't used the BGE since.   I usually let things burn for a bit after a cook and then close down the egg and find it's ready to go the next time I need it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had this much charcoal remaining after my rib cook!  This bag of FOGO is going to last me a long time!!!

That picture looks a little distorted, but the FOGO will still almost to the top of the ring.

Well, I was making some pizzas last night and as there was plenty of charcoal lump leftover I didn't bother adding any new.  I found that it was harder to relight the FOGO than it had been in the past to relight the BGE brand lump.  I use a chimney, I've never had issues with it.  But I had to add paper to the chimney and pay attention to it during relighting.  It took a LOT longer to get going.  In the past, I just put one or two pieces of paper in the chimney and forget about it.  I'd come back in 5-10 minutes (depending how thoroughly I want it glowing), dump it, and close things up.  This relight took longer, but things eventually got going and the egg got up to temp for the cook.  But not without another issue...

I have mostly been cooking indirect (place setter) without a drip pan.  I like to keep things simple.  I find that the fat seems to burn off and when I open up the BGE for the next cook, the drips from the last cook have hardened into crisp charcoal-like lumps that are easy to scrape off the place setter...onto the lawn...which my dog eats.  (okay, may not be good for the dog but she likes the crunch.)   I did that this time but as I was doing a pizza cook I was getting the egg hot...

...once the egg got up to 500 degrees the smoke went from a mild smoke to a bright white thick smoke.  Something was up in the egg.  I burped the egg, opened it, and found that my place setter was on fire.  The remains of the rib grease must have been on their enough to light up.  As the egg was open the flames increased.  I was able to deal with that issue but I suppose I'll be using a drip pan for future cooks.  I don't need the added drama when I want to do a quick mid-week pizza cook for the kids!

Anyway, I did two small cheese pizzas for the kids first that they assembled themselves.  They're not too fickle about the outcome, it feeds them right away, and let's me tweak the temperature for my pie!     I made a pizza with green olives and onions that was awesome!  The crisp crust combined with the smoke of the charcoal and the sharp brine of the olives was killer!!  I haven't had that before.


(the wife wanted her half "plain")