G'day!

Greetings.
Just wanted to pop by as the proud new owner of a BGE, all the way down in Melbourne, Australia.

I've been wanting one of these for a long time.
I remember visiting my local BBQ store years ago and seeing them for sale at a few dollars below $1700, and realised that, whilst it would be amazing to own one, the dream would never become a reality.

As fate would have it, a few weeks back I was looking through ebay for nothing in particular, when for some reason I typed 'bbq' on the search bar.
All sorts of gas appliances appeared, but scrolling through a few pages, I saw a kamado style grill which brought my thoughts back to the day I saw the BGE, all those years ago.

As such, I started doing research on it, reading on the style of cooking, browsing recipes and user reviews.

I remembered however, the price tag that accompanied the BGE, and how allusive it appeared.
Still, I decided to go to the bbq store website to check them out.

Upon going into their site, there were 'sale' signs plastered all over it.
I was beginning to get excited, though it all came crushing down when I realised the sale had finished the previous Sunday (this was on a Wednesday).

I looked for the BGE, and the price tag had been considerably lowered to a now much more affordable (though still a bit steep) $1000.

'Damn!' I thought.
Missed out by a few days!
I gave them a call and after pleading and begging and telling them that I don't really care if I buy one or not (which seemed a bit contradicting to the begging), they decided to let me have the bge for $997, if I paid the deposit over the phone.

I gladly did, and the rest is history.

Picked the large egg up on Saturday morning, with the plate setter and a pizza stone. I was so excited!
It looks amazing (albeit a bit more like an avocado than an egg)..
After assembling it, loaded it up with charcoal and set it ablaze.

That was my first mistake.

The day was horrible. It's the middle of winter in Melbourne. It rained all weekend, and had extremely high winds.
I knew this wouldn't matter though, and decided to go ahead.

I didn't read any of the literature that came with the egg though, nor watch the DVD.

Perhaps the outcome would have been different.

So excited was I about this purchase, that a few days before picking it up, I went to my local butcher and ordered a pork butt of about 6kg (12lbs, or there abouts).

Before going to pick up the egg from the store, I seasoned it, and left it marinading.

When the egg was hot enough, I put the butt in the egg and left it, having had closed the daisy wheel and the bottom heat controlling thing (I've still not read any of the books that came with the egg.. As such, I don't know the correct name for the parts) to about 1/4".

As it would turn out, about an hour into cooking, the fire was completely out.

I pulled it all apart, and lit it up again.

Surely, I thought, it would go through the whole night..

I opened it a bit more, allowing more air to circulate through and perhaps not chocking the fire.

The following morning the fire was, once again, out.

Unfortunately I was out, and this time my dad was the one to light the fire.
Doing so, he opened the bottom hatch about half way.

I got home at 1pm. The egg's thermometer was sitting at around 100 degrees (C) or 200(f).
I checked the temperature of the butt, which was waaay too hot.
I think the temperature was around 230 degrees.

I took it out of the fire and, whilst the taste was really good, and it actually did 'pull' as often pull butt is described, this only happened near the centre of the butt, where the bone was.
the outside of it was dried and hard to chew.

Still, a fun experience. The pork fell apart as I took it out of the egg, and I ate it with HP sauce, which, am not sure what you guys in the US think of it, but I love it.

Not sure what's next.
It's Monday here in Oz, so I have a whole week to think.
I've invited some friends over for some sort of dead meat on Saturday, so.. Whatever it is, I have a week to learn to use this properly!

I'll be sure to post my findings.

Cheers for now!

PP.