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I am now the proud new owner of............ - Printable Version

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- Drew - 08-27-2010

A BIG, GREEN EGG!
Eileen surprised me yesterday evening, no particular occasion. Now I got to learn how to use it.

Drew


- Kcwhippet - 08-27-2010

That kinda puts you into an elite group - the ultimate grillers.


- TheEngineer - 08-27-2010

Nice! There are forums devoted to this thing! along with books etc. Have fun!


- winoweenie - 08-27-2010

For we of the uninformed minority what the blue-blazes be a big Green Egg? Know about the Green Ham that go wif' it. WW [img]/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 08-27-2010).]


- hotwine - 08-27-2010

Congrats, Drew. Have never used a BGE but hear nice words about them. You'll probably use lump charcoal for fuel; I've used wood smokers since the late 80's - same idea. All I can say is practice, practice, practice.


- Drew - 08-28-2010

Go here....isn't it cute?
http://www.biggreenegg.com/eggs_XL.html

dREW


- winoweenie - 08-28-2010

So ugly it do be cute. There's a bunch of dealers close to the shack so I'll look at the sucker. WW


- hotwine - 08-28-2010

That's great, Drew! Big enough to be useful! Just don't let that sucker fall on your foot...

I'm trying to figure out how to move my smaller pit up to daughter and SIL about 175 miles away.... built it in '99 and now they'd like to have it.... weighs in the neighborhood of 500-600 lb. Planning to install a power hoist on the utility trailer... It looks something like David Klose's 20"X36" pipe smoker, only mine is 24"X36" (Klose is the premier builder of wood smokers these days; see his pits at [url=http://www.bbqpits.com).]www.bbqpits.com).[/url]


- hotwine - 08-28-2010

Drew, your kamodo (sp) design is probably the most efficient style available. My "offset" is definitely not.... to cook a load of brisket, I have to tend the fire constantly, adding 3-4 oak logs every 45 minutes or so. That makes for a long night. It's only advantage is its shape, lending itself to trailering (and a chain hoist is required to even lift it). You'll like that egg.


- Drew - 08-29-2010

Gil, I looked at David Klose's smokers several years ago but couldn't justify the price...he has pretty cool stuff though.

Drew


- Drew - 09-03-2010

Eileen and I assembled it yesterday afternoon. Not the easiest due to poor, imho, directions and even with the accompanying DVD the camera work was consistently too close so you couldn't get a perspective. After several mistakes involving positioning of the "bands" (these are what connect the spring hinge to the top lid and bottom, think Faberge egg hinge), we successfully assembled the egg. We did have a cracked fire box in which the crack was perfectly straight with an even 1/8" width, we almost thought it was a design feature but a call to the dealer and short drive trip, 3 miles, we learned it was a flaw and they swapped it out on the spot for a perfect fire box. I haven't seen that kind of customer service for a long time. This thing weighs 150 lbs. and I dreaded the idea that I'd have to box the entire thing back up for return or return the fire box and wait for the company to send a new one. All in all just a 30 minute distraction. I'm smoking 10 lbs of ribs for its' debut this afternoon and I'll post a link with some pictures with taste test results.

Drew


- winoweenie - 09-03-2010

Woops!!!!!!!!!!!! There goes me interest. You have to ASSEMBLE the bugger? I still have the remnants of a blister from the screwdriver from my effort to put a hinge on my screen door during the year of the "Black Snow". [img]/ubb/wink.gif[/img]WW


- Drew - 09-03-2010

I'm SURE you get far more blisters opening your daily ration of wines.... [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

Drew


- hotwine - 09-03-2010

Drew, you're already cookin' the ribs, so this will be too late to help on that score. But here's a recipe I've used for years:

1 cup ketchup
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup corn syrup or maple syrup
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce

Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a low boil, keep it there until the sauce thickens.

Coat a rack of babyback ribs with the sauce, front and back; lay the ribs on a sheet of heavy-gauge foil and fold the foil into a packet (I like to keep it fairly loose, some people like to wrap them tightly)

Bring your smoker to a temperature of 225-250F; lay the rib packet in the smoker and cook for about two hours.

Remove from smoker and re-coat the ribs with the remainder of the sauce. Remove from the foil and lay the ribs directly on the grill, over the hot coals. Cook for 2-5 minutes per side, depending on the condition of the fire. The ribs should turn from a pale grey color to a rich brown, and the meat should pull back from the tips of the bones when ready.

Babybacks are easy to screw up because they have so little meat on them..... can't say how many I've incinerated with too much heat!

A couple of indispensable books for smoking are "Sublime Smoke" and "Smoke and Spice", both by the husband and wife team of Bill Jamison and Cheryl Alters Jamison, available from Amazon for $10-$12 each. They're big paperbacks and chock full of good recipes.

There's a hard-bound called something like "The Barbeque Bible" by Raichlan (sp?). I don't recommend it.

Be warned! It takes a lot of beer to cook a load of Q!


- Drew - 09-04-2010

Ok, some of the ribs were very good and some were a little tough so I need some practice. Smoked them for 5 hours on 250 using indirect heat, there's a device called a plate setter for this purpose that came with the egg, but after reading some, many, forums have learned that was a little to high of a temp. Also didn't rotate the ribs which may have accounted for some hot spots. All in all about a B+. Once the temp was set it never waiverd through the entire cooking process. All of the forums I visited said that baby back ribs are the most difficult to nail right. Gil, thanks for the recipe. Next time I'll try the foil method which seems to be a big debate among the forums. I guess the "purists" say "no foil".

Drew

[This message has been edited by Drew (edited 09-04-2010).]


- hotwine - 09-04-2010

Drew, I made some mistakes in that recipe - memory failed (again). Dug it out for review (dated 1999) and found white sugar rather than brown, NO black pepper, and quantities of garlic powder and onion powder are both 1/4 teaspoon versus half a teaspoon each. And 1/8 teaspoon of Tabasco should be 1/4 teaspoon.

Am aware that many people say "no foil"; the decision probably has a lot to do with the kind of equipment being used. The foil helps the meat to retain moisture that would otherwise be drained away; I think that's especially true of an enclosed cooker like your egg and my offsets. OTOH an open pit doesn't get as hot and doesn't concentrate the heat on the meat, so cooking without foil makes a lot more sense in that case. Visiting some of the big joints in this area (Rudy's BBQ, the Salt Lick, Smitty's, Kreutz Market, etc.) you'll see huge open pits being used and nary a piece of foil in site; they don't need it because the meat doesn't dehydrate so quickly, and they tend to mop the meat frequently with "sop" to keep it moist. With enclosed cookers, the last thing we want to do is constantly open the pit for any reason - that lets the heat out and slows the cooking process to a crawl.

I could go on and on..... yammer yammer...


- Drew - 09-04-2010

Gil, without even reading your post I thought "maybe they're undercooked". I had 2 racks left over so I wrapped them in foil with a touch of water this morning and into the oven at 240 for two hours....voila, fall off the bone. [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

Drew


- hotwine - 09-04-2010

YEE-haw!