Big Green Egg, the Harley of Grills

Cheryl Valadez

13 years ago

It’s springtime in Albuquerque, which means sunny warm days but it also means wind. Were not talking about breezes, we’re talking 60MPH+ windy. The sky is so brown with dirt you can’t even see the mountains. It’s like every molecule of dirt in the state is flying around in the atmosphere. Since I don’t consider dirt a desired flavor profile, I’m not doing any grilling this weekend; I’m staying inside watching the Masters and napping. Between watching golf and napping I still managed to whip up this little blog post.

Searing a Prime Rib on the Big Green Egg

I had been grilling for years on gas grills and had developed some solid grilling skills. I could cook a perfectly medium rare steak; grill boneless chicken breast without drying it out and even cook and entire meal on the grill. Everything I cooked tasted good and cooked correctly, but it was missing something, smoke. I tried the smoker boxes, wrapping wood chip in foil but that just wasn’t cutting it. So began my quest to purchase the perfect smoker/grill.

Now buying new grill is not a trivial purchase. I compulsively and obsessively searched the Internet for the best smoker/grill I could find. First thing I wanted in a new grill was smoke, the second thing I wanted was wide range of cooking temperatures and third it had to be easy to keep clean. I ultimately decided on a Big Green Egg. I consider the BGE to be the Harley of grills; it’s expensive, cool and has a huge cult like following.

The Big Green Egg met all of my specs. Smoke comes from the use of lump charcoal and can be supplemented with wood chunks or chips. It can cook at very high temperatures, I’ve had mine up as high at 900F, and it is excellent for the low and slow smoke that I was desperately trying to achieve. As for cleaning, it’s ceramic just wipe it off with damp cloth and it’s good as new.

Burgers on the BGE are the BEST!

Although I do love my BGE is does have it’s flaws. It’s pretty pricy, the large egg was $899 and by the time I purchased all the accessories I was in for $1,200. I take my grilling very seriously and was willing to spend the money, but I know a lot of people aren’t willing to part with that much cash on a grill. Nobody told me this but I’m going to tell you, it’s not easy to cook with, there is a bit of a learning curve involved. My wife can recant stories of my legendary temper tantrums and meals we ate after 8PM. I think there is a spatula still in the parking lot behind my houses. I eventually figured it out and all is good. But if it was easy what fun would that be?

Terracotta Pots can’t smoke like this.

Shortly after I bought my Egg I was watching an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown. He made a smoker out of two terracotta pots, a hot plate, a grate and a steel bowl, total cost of his smoker $75. He then proceeded to smoke a pork shoulder on his homemade smoker. I felt really stupid but then decided he can keep his terracotta pots, I’m sticking with my Big Green Egg. I’m willing to bet my pork shoulder is better too! Chow for now!

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