Cooking on a Big Green Egg

[OliverB]

Oh, Kerry, that pastrami looks great, how long did you smoke it for, and at what temp? I'd probably just have finished it in the egg at about 200 degree, haven't really thought about the option to SV something after smoking, might have to try that too. Maybe with some fish? Hmmm..

[Marlene]

Cluck and squeal? And the pastrami looks great. My Egg is almost out from under the snow here. We should be able to fire it up soon!

[Kerry Beal]

Oh, Kerry, that pastrami looks great, how long did you smoke it for, and at what temp? I'd probably just have finished it in the egg at about 200 degree, haven't really thought about the option to SV something after smoking, might have to try that too. Maybe with some fish? Hmmm..

It probably smoked for 3 or 4 hours. I was trying for 225 F - but I did drop a little lower when I wasn't paying attention. Just smoked until it got to 150F.

[Kerry Beal]

Cluck and squeal? And the pastrami looks great. My Egg is almost out from under the snow here. We should be able to fire it up soon!

Cluck and Squeal is an excellent rub made by a fellow from Waterdown - let me know if you want me to pick some up for you. It's around $10 a bottle - my BGE dealer sells it - but I'm sure Marc would drop a bottle or two around to the house for me. He has two formulations now - the original and a lower salt rib rib version. Both have their place.

[HungryC]

Did a lil' baby brisket (flat cut) today, just about 3 lbs. Indirect cook w/applewood smoke for 3 hours @ 250, then foiled it & added a half bottle Mexican coke, cooked another 2.5 hrs @275. Delicious way to cook a pretty small, lean cut.

[Kerry Beal]

Did a lil' baby brisket (flat cut) today, just about 3 lbs. Indirect cook w/applewood smoke for 3 hours @ 250, then foiled it & added a half bottle Mexican coke, cooked another 2.5 hrs @275. Delicious way to cook a pretty small, lean cut.

Looks lovely! Tempted to do a brisket in the egg to smoke then finish off sous vide for the ultimate in tenderness.

[Marlene]

That would be awesome Kerry if you could!

[eternal]

About 9 months ago my father-in-law found me an old egg at a garage sale. It's orange and kinda rusty and has chinese characters on it. I have no idea what brand it is but I've been anxiously awaiting the point when we moved into a house where I could actually use it. Today, I brought it over and lit it up. I was worried because I didn't have a chimney starter but I rolled a few pieces of paper underneath the charcoal and it lit up without any problems. I got it nice a warm and then threw a bunch of brats on. Nothing special but we've only been in this house for two days and really didn't have time to do a proper meal - I just wanted to grill! I cooked the hell out of the brats but they were still tasty and I was happy to have gotten in a little grilling. Looking forward to more use of the egg!

[Kerry Beal]

About 9 months ago my father-in-law found me an old egg at a garage sale. It's orange and kinda rusty and has chinese characters on it. I have no idea what brand it is but I've been anxiously awaiting the point when we moved into a house where I could actually use it. Today, I brought it over and lit it up. I was worried because I didn't have a chimney starter but I rolled a few pieces of paper underneath the charcoal and it lit up without any problems. I got it nice a warm and then threw a bunch of brats on. Nothing special but we've only been in this house for two days and really didn't have time to do a proper meal - I just wanted to grill! I cooked the hell out of the brats but they were still tasty and I was happy to have gotten in a little grilling. Looking forward to more use of the egg!

Check out this link. A nice collection of older vintage ceramic cookers.

[Kerry Beal]

Did some pulled pork. Discovered the butt that I had was in two pieces so required tying. Rubbed with Cluck and Squeal Rib Rub.

Started at about 9 last night - dome temp around 250 F. At 7 this am butt was up to 168 F. By 1pm it had dropped to 158, then went down as far as 156. Gradually started to climb and hit 200 by about 4 pm.

Foiled and wrapped in towels and into a cooler for a couple of hours before pulling. Used a mix of Blues Hog Original and Tennessee Red sauce. Nice squidgy white bun.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been seasoning a couple of pans - an older cast iron frying pan and a brand new carbon steel paella pan. Put the cast iron in the egg right on the coals to remove the finish, then cleaned with vinegar and neutralized with soda. Both the cast iron pan and the paella pan were finished with a very thin layer of flax seed oil and put back in the egg indirect at about 500F for an hour, then shut down the egg and let it cool. Repeated the flax seed oil treatment about 6 times for each pan.

Right now I have a small griswold cast iron frying pan and a small round cast iron griddle in the egg to strip off the rust and finish.

[eternal]

Thanks for the link. Turns out mine is a Kamado - the second one he turned into a bright red grill.

[Kerry Beal]

First turkey on the egg. 23 lbs - did the stuffing in the oven - took about 3 1/2 hours. It was amazingly moist.

[AnneN]

I use my egg for almost everything. Tomorrow, I will cook a semi boneless leg of lamb. I have cooked turkey, chicken, ham, pork loin & shoulder & steaks. Veal chops are great. I have used a recipe by Adam Perry Lang to smoke potatoes on the egg. They are fantastic! I have had my egg for about 4 years; best investment ever! I get year round use from it and I live in NY! We always shovel a path to the egg when it snows!

[torakris]

Unfortunately the big green egg isn't available in Japan but 2 weeks ago my husband and I noticed a kamado (Vision Grills) at Costco and just had to get it.

I've never really done smoking/slow cook style foods before and am not really sure how to get the temperature stabilized. I started with it really high to sear some jerk flavored chicken breasts (they turned out wonderfully) then I wanted to get the temp down to 200 to smoke some ribs. I closed all the vents but it took almost 1 1/2 hours to get down to 200, am I doing something wrong?

Also I'm used to grilling with no lid on, do you always cook with the lid closed?

I'm having a hard time figuring out temps and cooking times for various foods, the instructions and website don't really have much information. I also ordered a big green egg cookbook but am still waiting on it from the US. Are there any good websites for someone who is new to this style of cooking?

[HungryC]

Torakis, you need the Ceramic BBQ sub-forum at the BBQ Forum site. It covers all sorts of ceramic cookers. The Big Green Egg forum might also be helpful, though participants are cooking specifically on BGEs. With regard to temperature control, it's much easier to increase the temp of a ceramic cooker than to decrease it. So do your low temp cooks first.

Last night, I did a hunk of sirloin flap steak (briefly marinated in soy, pineapple, & garlic), on my Mini BGE along with some peppers & onions for soft tacos. Also grilled pineapple to use in a salsa seen on the tacos pictured below.

(ETA photos}

Edited April 24, 2011 by HungryC (log)

[karlos]

Kristin,

they are incredibly efficient at heat retention and will take forever to cool down- in other words, you aren't doing anything wrong. It is best to use it with the lid closed to maintain stable temps which does mean there is a learning curve when switching from a gas cooker

[Kerry Beal]

Unfortunately the big green egg isn't available in Japan but 2 weeks ago my husband and I noticed a kamado (Vision Grills) at Costco and just had to get it.

I've never really done smoking/slow cook style foods before and am not really sure how to get the temperature stabilized. I started with it really high to sear some jerk flavored chicken breasts (they turned out wonderfully) then I wanted to get the temp down to 200 to smoke some ribs. I closed all the vents but it took almost 1 1/2 hours to get down to 200, am I doing something wrong?

Also I'm used to grilling with no lid on, do you always cook with the lid closed?

I'm having a hard time figuring out temps and cooking times for various foods, the instructions and website don't really have much information. I also ordered a big green egg cookbook but am still waiting on it from the US. Are there any good websites for someone who is new to this style of cooking?

Kris - as HungryC said - you need to plan your cooks around the slow cooling time - you can get the sucker hot very quickly after a low cook.

Only time I cook with the lid open is when I'm using a wok.

Here is a link to a bunch of useful BGE topics that should apply to your kamodo - after all BGE is based on the kamodo.

Later today I'll try to post some of the hints I have for better BGE cooking.

[lancastermike]

I see Fred's in Shillington PA is having an egg fest in July and the demo cookers will be for sale. Anyone ever bought a demo cooker? I'm at least thinking about it.

[Kerry Beal]

I see Fred's in Shillington PA is having an egg fest in July and the demo cookers will be for sale. Anyone ever bought a demo cooker? I'm at least thinking about it.

Mine is a demo from the Nieggara fest last year.

Fully warranted - it's a good deal.

[Kerry Beal]

Here is a link to a bunch of online BGE cookbooks. Naked Whiz's site is fabulous!

[eternal]

Grilled an 8lb leg of lamb last night on the egg. I had the same problem as torakris. Got the egg up hot to sear the lamb but then fought a bit to get it down to finish the lamb off for an hour. Was trying to get it down to 350 or so. I have a digital probe thermometer but still struggled. Ended up burning a bit of the lamb but in the end it still turned out awesome. I marinated the lamb using the Bittman recipe from last week of yogurt, orange zest, cardamon and mint.

Reading the comments above, it makes perfect sense to start low and get the right temp and then sear at the end. Now I know!

Have grilled three times in the last week. Loving it.

[torakris]

I learned the hard way last night that it comes to a very high heat very quickly. I had the ribs going at 200-250 for about 3 hours and then it dropped to below 150, I tried adding a bit more charcoal. I sat down with angry birds and I soon noticed billows of smoke pouring out of the top. Half of the ribs were burned yet salvageable...

Cook the slow foods first, I was thinking it would be just the opposite. This will make a big difference in my cooking patterns now.

[HungryC]

Another thing about a ceramic cooker (at least a BGE ceramic cooker, size large)--fill the firebox all the way up and use the vents to adjust the temp. You should be able to cook for hours and hours and hours without a refill. Mine will run 12+ hours at 250 on a full load of lump. Higher temps burn through charcoal at a faster rate, of course, but if you start with plenty of charcoal, you won't need to add any mid-cook.

[torakris]

Fill the firebox all the way up? Wow that's a lot of charcoal, we weren't even close, we barely had a layer on the bottom. If we just want to do some quick searing do we still need that much?

[Kerry Beal]

Fill the firebox all the way up? Wow that's a lot of charcoal, we weren't even close, we barely had a layer on the bottom. If we just want to do some quick searing do we still need that much?

When you shut down the grill the charcoal will extinguish and be waiting for you the next time - so I start with a full load of charcoal. It might do a bunch of cooks on the same load of charcoal. As it starts to burn down lower in the firebox - if I want to grill a steak I'll put the spider in with cast iron grill on it, sear the steak on that right above the fire - then put the regular grill in place and finish off the steak at the lower temperature.