3222The Snow-present for X-mass this year was overwelming and heavy. Take that to the letter as we’ve been handed a Big Green Egg gekregen. If you don’t get the fuzz on an oversized egg, the BGE is one of the top products for outside cooking. Like a Weber it’s about ‘enclosed’ cooking, but where you end up in ‘open BBQ’ing on a Weber the BGE is nothing like that. After getting it to heat up you temper and finetune the temperature and get a nice mix of grill and oven. Optionally you can add smoke (woodchips) or steaming (as you will see in a next posting). Really a superb gift and we couldn’t wait to see it in action – and on our plates! Read on for more first experiences while using it.
3201Building the egg isn’t that hard, but it is kind of heavy. The ‘nest’ weighs enough and don’t get me started on the ceramics. Eventually the nice setup is completed and you’ll have to fill it with restaurant charcoal for the best effect. Regular charcoal will work but getting the temperature right is much harder! 3204A few burning firestarters is more than enough. Make sure the lower opening is fully open and no lid attached so that the temperature will start rising quickly (due to burning the firestarters). The most important thing in the manual at this point is ‘to do nothing’ -> relax and wait! At first the temperature will start dropping again but after that make sure to temper it in time. Our second lighting-up ended up in over 300 degrees celsiuys 🙂 3207As depicted on this picture the firestarters are still burning, watch the first picture to see the temperature at the desired goal. Ready to cook, see other posts for more info!