Gary Willson's

Big Green Egg

For years, I smoked meats on a classic offset pit BBQ. I mostly cooked briskets and chickens. It did a great job, but was not only limited in the type of cooking I could do, but was also very labor intensive, because I had to constantly monitor and regulate the fire. It was also relatively expensive, because I used hardwood logs for the fire. Here is my method for cooking on the pit. Click here.

NOW

I am the proud owner of two Big Green Eggs. BGE's are ceramic cookers that burn lump charcoal. The technology is about 3,000 years old from Asia. WWII servicemen brought back the first ceramic/clay ovens from Japan, and the method has been growing ever since. Owners of Eggs form a(jokingly) cult following, share recipes on the Egghead forum, and have Eggfests all over the country and abroad.

Cooking food directly on the grill makes the Egg a simple grill, and temperatures can reach 1,000 degrees or more, which allows for great searing of meat. If you put a plate setter down (a ceramic barrier between the fire and the grate) and cook indirectly, the Egg becomes a roaster, a firebrick oven, or a smoker.

These are my two eggs. The one on the left is a Large Egg. The one on the right is a Medium Egg.		This is the setup for a straight direct cook, or grill.
This is the setup for an indirect cook. The ceramic is called a plate setter and provides a barrier between the fire and the meat. Roasting, smoking, breadmaking, and pizza are cooked with a place setter.		The two boxes here are a Stoker and a wireless bridge to my computer. At my computer, I set the desired Egg cooking temperature and the desired finished food temperature.
If the temperature of the Egg is less than the set temperature on the Stoker, a small fan comes on at the air intake and the fire is "stoked" to raise the temperature. When the temperature is reached, the fan shuts off and closes the air flow.		At my computer, a graph is produced showing the Egg(s) temperature and the food(s) temperature. I can also change the desired settings from my computer as the food is being cooked. This particular graph shows a brisket cook for Superbowl Sunday, 2010. I started the 15# brisket at 7:30 Saturday night with a desired temperature of 225 degrees. After a while, the temperature steadied, and kept it within a couple of degrees throughout the night and the next day. The meat temperature stalled at about 160 degrees, which is nomal for brisket while converting collagens to geletan. This lasted for 7 hours. I became concerned around noon that the brisket would not be ready for kickoff at 5:25, so (at my computer), I upped the desired temp to 250 degrees. The Stoker responded and kept the temperature at 250 for the remainder of the cook. The meat responded and was ready just in time.

Some things I've cooked on the Egg

Click on any picture to enlarge

	Chicken		Cornbread and grilled andouille sausage
	Pork Crown Rib Roast		Hearth Bread
	Kung Pao Shrimp and Fried Rice		Mongolian Beef
	Pizza		Pork Chops
	Prime Rib
			Prime Rib
	Shish Kabob		Steak
	Salmon		Seafood Pizza
	Char Siu		Bourbon Soaked Smoked Chuck Roast
	Pinto beans		Brisket
	Stuffed Pork Loin		Beef loin & Stuffed Pork loin
	Chinese BBQ ribs with Snow Peas, Tomatoes, Pork Belly and Thai Chiles (also shrimp fried rice)		Ciabatta bread