Big Green Egg? and its cousin the lil brown Egg

jonwings said:

...For charcoal, I pretty much swear by Royal Oak Hard wood charcoal, which I can usually find for $4-$6/ 10lb bag. I can usually get 5-6hrs of good steady temp out of a bag.

And I am absolutely jealous of anyone with a BGE. One day I'll put out the cash for one, but for now I am happy with the chargriller.

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Royal Oak is what I (mostly) feed my BGE. I have found it to be of excellent quality, and it is cheap and available at my local grocery store. The Naked Whiz seemed to like it too. The BGE is really king of extending the heat on charcoal. I fill my chimney starter (maybe 1/4 of a bag? 1/5?), light, dump in, and have high heat for several hours (I've never timed it and never needed to refill while cooking). At smoking temps that same load will last at least 12 hours, and I hear it'll go a full 24.

The really cool thing about the BGE is when you are done cooking it is easy to snuff the fire. The next time you open it up you'll have a bunch of partially used charcoal that you can use again. There's a lot less waste that way.

The other I bought a whole chicken and cut it butterfly style. (cut it right down the breastbone) Spread it flat and inserted Rosemary and Thyme sprigs. A little salt and pepper and it was ready for the grill.

I laid it flat (bone side down) on a secondary elevated rack above the regular rack which had a drip pan (indirect, or as close to that as you'll get on an Egg) below the bird. This is on a BGE. Cooked for just over an hour at 350.

A couple months ago I did a 13 lb. brisket on the Egg. It cooked for about 21 - 22 hrs. at about 225. Only had to fill the Egg one time. Very tasty and had rave reviews.

Long live the BGE.

Kevin

This thread isn't about the Big Green Egg.
It's about the LBE (little brown egg)

I saw the Good Eats episode where Brother Alton used a LBE. A really great idea. I'm glad you had success with yours. Your pics looked might tasty!

Kevin

Hows the LBE holding up? I came across this thread and enjoyed reading it. I am thinking about making my own .

gregdreg said:

Hows the LBE holding up? I came across this thread and enjoyed reading it. I am thinking about making my own .

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+1. Just found this myself...awesome thread.

SmoovD said:

+1. Just found this myself...awesome thread.

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I'm interested too.

bumpity-bump.

I had this exact setup back before I got my massive charcoal smoker. Got the idea from Good Eats. Worked pretty well, but I had to keep the smoker cracked open, even at min setting the hotplate held it at 300+ F if I didn't.

SmoovD said:

+1. Just found this myself...awesome thread.

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Ditto!

I've never smoked anything before. How do you know what temperature to shoot for and how long to cook it? Or is it just until you reach the desired internal temperature?

As has been discussed in this thread, temp control while smoking-BBQing is critical. Too long in the danger zone and you can create an environment where Bacteria can take off. The accepted guide is 4 hours between 45 and 145. In other words from the time you take it out of the fridge to 145 degrees internal <4 hours.

When cooking BBQ you bring the meat up to the point where you have rendered much of the fat and melted the connective tissue and collagen.

This process starts at 180 internal and can take many hours( the plateau) and ends at 195-205.

While the flowerpot method is a viable one any container you can control a burn in can be suitable. Filing cabinet, 55 gal drum ect.

Have fun

Seems like to me the Quality of your Hot Plate is the key to this home made project.

Great thread - I just use my Weber kettle with all the coals pushed to the side of the BBQ.

As Jim said, the temperature thing is pretty important. - I try to keep my BBQ temperature at between 225 to 250.

As for the pan of water, my experience is that it makes a huge difference - especially when I do stuff like chicken breasts or pork tenderloin.