1st time user

adambrown45 · July 2014

I'll be using my XL Egg this weekend for the first time. My family is coming over and I'll be cooking for roughly 25 people. Any first timer tips?

bearBGE · July 2014

Control the heat is the egg broken in or is it brand new? Also what are you grilling?

mcmac · July 2014

Bear is on to it... Know how to control temp! Make sure your smoke is clear before you cook. If the smoke stinks.. It's not ready! Other than that knowing what you're going to cook will get you more specific advice. Have fun, it should be a lot of fun.

bearBGE · July 2014

Be careful on the XL with such a large surface area it is easy for the heat to get out of control quickly especially if the egg hasn't been used much...

tksmoke · July 2014

Welcome aboard!!! That is pretty ambitious to cook for 25 on your first cook. I would fire it up and play with controlling the temperature (heck- why not cook something too) prior to your big cook. In my experience with the XL, it is easier to control the temps because of the mass. It comes up to temp slower, and can be taken back down easily if you don't allow it to stabilize at a higher temp than desired. The first few cooks are definitely a learning experience. Remember to burp it when opening the dome if over 350 or so. The first few cooks you should attempt to keep the temp around 350 - 400 to help the glue on the gasket set correctly - that may dictate what you will be cooking. Also the size of your group will be a factor.

Enjoy!!

tulocay · July 2014

Welcome. +1 on waiting for the smoke to clear before you put the food on. Try something very forgiving like some pork butts. Always a crowd pleaser.

CarolinaCrazy · July 2014

Tip - Spend a night browsing this forum. There is unending advice hidden in the various posts.

TexasBelliott · July 2014

CarolinaCrazy said:

Tip - Spend a night browsing this forum. There is unending advice hidden in the various posts.

I agree with CarolinaCrazy. There's a wealth of information on this site, and it's full of friendly people. Make your first cook as stress free as possible. I admire your ambition!

tarheelmatt · July 2014

I would fire it up a few times beforehand to get used to it. Its a different animal unlike others.

tarheelmatt · July 2014

Agree with reading, but that will get you only so far. Get in there elbow deep brother.

jhl192 · July 2014

My advice is to do a pulled pork for your first cook for 25. You will probably need 2 Boston butts in the 8 pound range. Bone In. They are hard to screw up, taste great, and people are not used to having them straight from the grill at someones home. Get some small Hawaiian roles and some of your favorite BBQ sauce and Rub. You can cook it at 300 degrees for about 2 hrs a pound until the Internal temperature reaches 205 degrees. Then pull it off and wrap it in tin foil and then a bath towel and put it in a cooler until you are ready to eat it. All this information is on this forum in numberous places. Sprinkle the rub on and then coat with yellow mustard and then coat with more rub. Do that step a couple of hours before starting the cook and keep it in the fridge. Another reason pulled pork is a good first cook is because the temperature is not above the recommended break in temperature of the egg. As others state, read up on stabilizing your egg temp so you are not chasing it all afternoon. Put in lump above the fire box but below the top of the firering/ platesetter. Then you will not run out. You and your guest will be blown away. If things go wrong, rely on the forum, you will get an answer fast. This is just my opinion, there are other ways to go. Good luck and welcome.

jtcBoynton · July 2014

First, you are brave for having a crowd over for your first cook.

As others have said, learning temp control is important. Start your fire way earlier than you think you need to and spend the time learning to get the target temp dialed in. Give any adjustments you make time to take effect - response time is slow - be patient. If you can, fire up the egg the day before the big cook and play with temp control.

Not sure what you plan to cook, but having a Plan B is a good idea. Have some hot dogs and sausages, shrimp, or burgers on standby. If you mistime, say a pork butt or ribs, and have 25 hungry family members hovering around, you can pull the pork and set it aside. Then fire up the temperature and quickly cook your Plan B items. Then reset the temp and put the pork back on to finish it.

speleoegg · July 2014

Congrats on your new XL and for taking on such a large party! Like others have suggested I'd light it a few times between now and Saturday to get the hang of lighting and temp control.

As for the cook, I'm assuming this is for dinner on Saturday, if so, I'd do 2 pork shoulder's or picnics in the 5-6 pound range. Start the egg early like by 8AM, cook in the 250-275F range (indirect) for at least 4 hours and then foil to get em done in time (3PM at the latest). If this sounds like too much then I'd opt for direct grilling for the party. The shoulders wont be enough to feed your 25 guests but it shows of what you can offer on your egg.

For direct grilling I'd do flank steak, you can marinate in advance, burgers for kids some corn that you can do on the grill after soaking and add some other fast cooking stuff like shrimp on skewers. You could also do ABTs but its a fair bit of prep and I've only done them indirect. I only have a large but i believe you can set up an indirect/direct zones on the XL, I'd definitely go with that configuration.

Good luck!

tksmoke · July 2014

Reading posts on the forum will only get you so far. You need to get the fire going(literally). I'm sure you can read lots of posts about the problems folks have just with that first step in the process. It isn't rokkit seinze, but no matter what method you use, there is a right way, and a lot of very wrong ways.

Here is a post that will help get an idea for temperature control: https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/696662/visual-guide-to-vent-settings

The most common mistake folks make is chasing the temperature. Resist the temptation. When you make a correction, give it some time to stabilize. As your first cook, I do not recommend trying to maintain a temperature for a long time. Just like the lighting dilemmas, you can read countless stories of woe here. This is not something you want to do with 25 people waiting for you to take them to gastronomic nirvana.

You still have 2 days to practice - good luck!!

bearBGE · July 2014

I guess the only time I have an issue with a spike in temp on my XL is when I open the lid so on a long slow cook if that is what you are doing you shouldn't need to look at the meat often! Actually you shouldn't open the lid for a good amount of time if you are maintaining a steady heat.

adambrown45 · July 2014

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions. I just got back in town last night or I would have replied earlier. Because it is my first time I was going to keep it simple. I have Italian sausage, ribs, wings, and hot dogs. If I wasn't at a wedding I would have been testing it out all of yesterday. I have been building a table for it the last three weeks so I didn't want to touch it before the last coat of varnish dried.

ksmyrl · July 2014

+2 on the clear smoke. I made that mistake w a pork loin recently. I incorrectly assumed that since I was using lump instead of regular charcoal like on my weber that I could load the grill earlier. Way to smoky. But that's half the fun. "Honey I need to cook some more to perfect the technique".

1st time user

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