IGX

Gonna get one for dads day. Are they the best of the kamado grills? Is large a good size for most uses?

Large size seemed like the best choice to me unless you are going to be doing really large parties often. Buy from someone with a good display so you can see all of the sizes - it helps imo.

As for best, dunno - my guess is they are all pretty decent. BGE seems the easiest to find. What I can say that I think mine is well-manufactured. The components had decent instructions (although there were some challenges for assembly since I bought and nest and a handler, and I had to re-read a couple of times to avoid disassembly) and all the parts went together without a big struggle.

Some advices:
1) if you plan to do a lot of high-temperature cooking (>500F) like pizza or searing steaks, get a high temp gasket up front - the wool one that they install will get cooked off pretty fast if you do. And don't cook about 350F your first two cooks to allow the gasket adhesive to cure properly. This site is good in general, but read about the different gaskets about halfway down the page http://www.nakedwhiz.com/infocentral.htm.

2) Think about the extra stuff you want - table etc. and get those too. Yup, extra $$, but I priced a replacement for my Vermont Castings before I bought my egg, and it would have been >$1000 for a similar grill (they are really nice quality, but only grill), where the BGE grills, bbq, pizza oven, smoker..... all in one item. BGE does some good stuff for their grill, but I liked these folks for some custom stuff - http://www.ceramicgrillstore.com/large- ... e-rig.html - THe large rig makes things like the plate setter unnecessary, and comes with a spider, which would allow you to get closer to the fire for searing. YMMV.

Hope this helps. Have fun.

I'm pretty sure Shape can answer your question.

He may have mentioned he's got one. Once or twice.

Large BGE is the default size and is useful for grilling and smoking. Not so big as the XL (with its crazy fuel requirements) much larger than the SM or the seemingly useless MED. Get a SM if you want to add a second.

If you're new to slow-n-low type cooking, just remember to leave the thing alone once it's established, and don't sweat little 5-10 degree temperature swings. Use lump, non-soaked chunks of smoking wood, and never lighter fluid. A lot of guys use little Bernzomatic torches to get the lump going. Have fun man. I hope you were about to enter a bulking type phase, because I can foresee a ton of BBQ in your future.

Last time I was in Costco, they had kamados. It wasn't a BGE, though. More like BBE (big black egg). Looked pretty good and was about $200 cheaper than the BGE.

Never used a BGE (or any kamado, for that matter), but I'd love to try one out. I looked at them, but decided to go with the Weber Smokey Mountain. I've had a WSM for over a year now and I couldn't be happier. The WSM, my Lodge cast iron skillets and my Gaggia espresso machine have been the best culinary investments I've made. Smokers > grills, in my opinion. Hard to beat a brisket done right on the smoker. If I need to grill, I can convert the WSM from R2D2 mode for low-and-slow smoking to Smokey Joe size for high-heat direct grilling, so I can do burgers, steaks, etc. To be honest, though, once you get the hang of smoking big chunks of meat, having a cheeseburger feels like you are settling for second best (not really, but you get my drift). Pulled pork, brisket, ribs and whole smoked birds are where it's at.

losabio wrote:If you're new to slow-n-low type cooking, just remember to leave the thing alone once it's established, and don't sweat little 5-10 degree temperature swings.

+1. Can't rush the goodness. Your patience will be rewarded.

Daktari, I don't usually like to talk about this and few people know about it but I have a BIG GREEN EGG that I got for Father's Day in 2006. My wife says it was the best gift she ever got me since I cook on that bitch quite frequently. Haven't replaced the felt ring yet. There are a bunch of competitors out there now and I really can't say one is better than the other. Bought all the doo-dads with mine but don't use them that much...got the indirect thingy that I use sometimes. I agree that the large BGE is probably the way to go unless you're gonna be that guy that has 20 people over all the time grilling shit. Below is a link I recently found that rates lump charcoal. Surprised to see that the stuff from Walmart is well received. To smoke or add some smoky wood flavor just soak your choice of wood/wood chips in water and add to the charcoal. You'll learn things as you go. Good luck with whatever you purchase...you're gonna really dig it my short surgeon brother. Hey can you take a look at this thing on my back?

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumprankpoll.htm

Hey can you take a look at this thing on my back?

Its nothing man really.

SAR wrote:Gonna get one for dads day. Are they the best of the kamado grills? Is large a good size for most uses?

I cook on the large size one occasionally. If you want to get grilling and smoking in one unit, that's the thing to get. If I already had a grill I wanted to keep, I would add a Weber Bullet (Smokey Mountain Cooker), since it's a fraction of the cost, uses less fuel, is smaller, but has 2x food capacity.

Large size is the one to get for BGE.

Once you're used to it, or want to do overnight cooks, consider a digital thermostat.

Shapecharge wrote:<null>

I got the large. I'm assembling as we speak

Sweet. You will love it. I've done just about everything in it. Have even done homemade pizza a few times. Lamb was a little touchy and so is fish...using the wood plank is the way to go on that unless it's a thick dense type of fish e.g. swordfish.

We should talk to Mario about establishing a secret forum just for BGE owners and our groupies.

Putting it together took longe than I thought. I have lobster tails and scallops to grill toniht

:-/. Turned out too smokey. Almost a chemical taste

Move up to a Weber.

Yo SAR let the smoke clean up for a while before you start putting food on there. Did you use those compressed sawdust square things? If those were still smoking, they would've made your food taste funky. Let those burn out (takes about 11 mins), and then shut the egg, WTFO bottom and no cap, and let the dome temps get up to about 350F-400F (will take about 10-20 mins, start checking before 15 mins). This will allow the fire to propagate a little bit and will let the smoke start to clear up a little bit. Then you can shut it down to whatever your true cook temp will be. For grilling, 350F will probably be WTFO bottom and the top looking like a waning crescent moon.

Did a pulled pork yesterday with apple chunks and Kingsford (don't laugh) competition briquettes (compressed lump charcoal dust). They seem to do better for grilling; not as much air space between briquettes as that which is afforded by irregularly shaped lump.

Shapecharge wrote:Sweet. You will love it. I've done just about everything in it. Have even done homemade pizza a few times. Lamb was a little touchy and so is fish...using the wood plank is the way to go on that unless it's a thick dense type of fish e.g. swordfish.

We should talk to Mario about establishing a secret forum just for BGE owners and our groupies.

Pussy. Lamb is easy. Try soft shell crab.

SAR wrote::-/. Turned out too smokey. Almost a chemical taste

You obviously just suck at grilling.

gauntlet. thrown.

Bah. Just had to burn it clean. Shrimp n scallop skewers came out great.

Grilling on a weeknight? Aw hell man, you're fixing to be addicted.

Hey Dr. Mengele-Rowe...with all that made cash you're raking in from Medicare/Medicaid scams how 'bout grilling us up some gold-fucking-bricks wrapped in hundies. I'm not sure how tasty money is but I'd take a bite out that just to see. And as you'll soon find out, the BGE, especially one given to you on Father's Day, has magical properties.