Green Egg Help!

[diamondrcattle]

Kids and wife are getting me a big green egg for fathers day. How do i add wood to it during a long smoke? I use whole sticks in my flat rack/water smoker, do i just cut up chuncks and lay on top of coals? Do i need to use their charcoal or can i use briquettes? Thanks for the help!

 

[SmokinAl]

I'm not familiar with a BGE, but I'm sure someone who is will be along shortly.

In the meantime here's some reading you can do.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/newsearch?search=big+green+egg

Al

 

[johnnyb54]

I Bought my 1st Big Green Egg 12 years ago and I now have 3 (2 large and a small). Do not use briquettes in your egg. The reason for this is briquettes produce a lot of ash as opposed to ash produce by lump coal. Adding coal during a cook can be a little messy. That said I have done a 20+ hour 250 deg. cook in my large egg and still had plenty of lump coal left at the end of the cook. As far as using the branded Big Green Egg lump that is not necessary as there are many brands of lump in the market. Royal Oak makes Big Green Egg lump but their own branded bags are far cheaper. Some brands of lump are better then others. Many reviews of lump can be found here
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag
When loading up your lump for a cook I spread my wood chunks (Apple, hickory ect.) through the lump so I have a steady stream of thin blue smoke for the entire cook. In addition to this forum there are many Big Green Egg forums out there. The official forum http://eggheadforum.com/discussions
and the original forum
http://greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=showcat&catid=1&Itemid=112
are a great place to get some helpful information. Good luck with your new toy and if you need any help or additional question just PM me or ask on the forum.

 

[diamondrcattle]

That was a huge help. Thank you for the info. Salesman said to get charcoal lit (ill use chimney starter on a propane flame), open vent at the bottom, open the top and close the lid. If i am smoking and not grilling do i let the fire get hot then choke the air down to cool the fire off like i do my flat rack?? Or when i hit 250 start choking it down? Definitely alot different from my flat rack and stick burner...but im excited about cooking on it! Thanks again




quote name="johnnyb54" url="/t/247572/green-egg-help#post_1572389"]I Bought my 1st Big Green Egg 12 years ago and I now have 3 (2 large and a small). Do not use briquettes in your egg. The reason for this is briquettes produce a lot of ash as opposed to ash produce by lump coal. Adding coal during a cook can be a little messy. That said I have done a 20+ hour 250 deg. cook in my large egg and still had plenty of lump coal left at the end of the cook. As far as using the branded Big Green Egg lump that is not necessary as there are many brands of lump in the market. Royal Oak makes Big Green Egg lump but their own branded bags are far cheaper. Some brands of lump are better then others. Many reviews of lump can be found here
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag
When loading up your lump for a cook I spread my wood chunks (Apple, hickory ect.) through the lump so I have a steady stream of thin blue smoke for the entire cook. In addition to this forum there are many Big Green Egg forums out there. The official forum http://eggheadforum.com/discussions
and the original forum
http://greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=showcat&catid=1&Itemid=112
are a great place to get some helpful information. Good luck with your new toy and if you need any help or additional question just PM me or ask on the forum.[/quote]

 

[johnnyb54]

When smoking on the egg (225-250) let the egg get up to temp slowly. The ceramics hold the heat for awhile. If up let the egg heat up to quickly it will take awhile to go back down. I startup my egg for smoking by lighting the lump with a torch (I use Mapp gas) in the center of the lump. I then place the plate setter (they now call it an eggconverter I think) in legs up with the grate on top of the legs. I then open the daisy wheel open 1/2 way and the bottom vent about 1/2" open. As the temp hits around 200 I start to back down the top and bottom vent until the temp hits the temp I want. One important thin is not to chase the temp, doing so will only frustrate you. Once you get the egg to the temp you want let it be for a 1/2 hour to make sure you have a steady temp reading. You will see a drop in temperature when you put your meat on but don't touch the setting of the vents. The thermal mass of the meat will cause a drop but once the meat starts to heat up it will return to where it originally was. If you do need to make an adjustment again do it slowly and wait a bit so your temp does not climb higher then you want. To keep the plate setter clean I wrap it in heavy duty foil. No need for a drip pan with water as the egg will keep the meat moist. There is no harm if you do decide to use a pan it's just not necessary.

When grilling I light the lump in 3 places in a triangle pattern.

This is great video explaining some tips and tricks on the egg. The poster of the video must have been watching me use my egg as this is exactly what I do.