Big Green Egg

coming soon...

2008-10-06T14:55:00.004-04:00

Hey, I know it's been over a year since we've posted anything here, but that's about to change. You see, this weekend was Energy Star Tax Holiday in Georgia, so we took the opportunity to invest in an upright freezer. It wasn't just a random appliance purchase, however. And what does a freezer have to do with our Big Green Egg, you ask? Fear not...there is a method to our madness.

Well, we need a new freezer because we're about to split an entire cow and 2 hogs with some other families in our homeschool group. So, we'll be getting a LOT of meat all at once this month. The beef will be about 150 lbs. of meat (at $2 per pound!), and I think the pork is going to be about 100 lbs. or more (for only $1.75 per pound!). We'll get ground meat, steaks, roasts, ribs, tenderloins, stew meat, pork chops, bacon, ham, more ribs, more tenderloins & more roasts.

So, the freezer will be delivered next week, and then the meat will be delivered pretty soon after that. I'd venture to say we'll be lighting up the Big Green Egg a LOT more this fall!

Stay tuned for some Burwick BGE yumminess...

Brisket

2007-09-08T20:57:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been over a year since we made brisket on the BGE, so we thought we'd try again. Turned out pretty good, I'd say. At least it made Bryan smile.

BBQ Guru, Part 2

2007-07-06T18:23:00.001-04:00

Last time I wrote about the BBQ Guru, we hadn't tried it yet. I have to say, it's a pretty amazing little gadget. Well worth the money if you value your sleep!

For Father's Day, we tried it when we cooked ribs during the day. Nathon and I felt like it wasn't maintaining the right temperature, so we kept making adjustments. I thought, "Oh, no... this thing isn't going to work as well as they said it would." Then, for some reason, we had to run to the store. That took over an hour, and when we came back, it had done its magic, and the pit was the correct temperature! The ribs came to the right internal temp eventually, but we should have cooked them longer so they were more tender. Not our finest job on the ribs. I only did dry rubs on these ones, instead of the more-involved method we liked so well last time. I think we determined the effort was worth it in the end.

For the 4th of July, we did two pork shoulders for pulled pork. So, we knew we'd have to smoke them overnight. BBQ Guru to the rescue! We made the rub, and started the BGE and hooked up the Guru. When we threw the meat on the Egg, we just plugged in the meat thermometer and WENT TO BED! When we woke up the next morning, it had been cooking for about 7-8 hours, and the meat thermometer said it had about 25 degrees to heat up before the meat was the correct temp. So, we let it smoke for a couple more hours. The end result was very tender and moist. Very flavorful too.

BBQ Guru

2007-06-13T17:33:00.000-04:00

Nathon had a brilliant idea for Bryan's Father's Day gift this year. They had seen this contraption at the Eggtoberfest last fall, and it was really the only thing Bryan mentioned when he got home that day that he thought might prove to be very useful.

So, the BBQ Guru Competitor might not look like much, but it monitors the temperature inside the BGE, as well as the temperature of the meat. It's great for maintaining a consistent temperature for long periods of time (like say, when you're sleeping). Some people do overnight smoking, and this thingy keeps the air flowing as needed all night long, instead of us having to get up every hour to check and make sure the fire hasn't gone out.

Bryan was really excited when we told him what we're getting him. I hope it lives up to its hype.

Broken Egg

2007-06-01T23:25:00.001-04:00

Our neighbor, Stewart, just bought a Medium Big Green Egg a few weeks ago. He was tired of cooking on a big, bad, stainless steel gas grill that burned everything to a crisp.

Anyway, he came over to our house to look at how ours was assembled when he was putting his together (alone -- first mistake). Apparently, he got his all assembled (in the garage -- second mistake). When he attempted to carry it through his house to the back deck (third mistake), he dropped it on the garage steps and the bottom piece shattered into a thousand pieces! Oops!

Yes, he had to go back and pay to replace the bottom half of his BGE. It was a bummer, and the people at the store dubbed him the "Big Green Idiot." But he felt better immediately after re-assembling the thing and cooking dinner on it. He's LOVIN' it now!

Just call us the Big Green Evangelists!

Egghead Club, Burwick Chapter

2007-03-29T14:30:00.000-04:00

Nathon took this picture of himself this fall after attending the Eggtoberfest with Bryan & Mike. They all got new hats, and one to give their Dad. Of course, for most of them, "egghead" could have a double meaning, since they're all computer genuises who like to cook on BGEs!

Razorback Ribs

2007-03-25T18:14:00.000-04:00

No, we haven't been starving! We use the Big Green Egg at least a few times a week - especially now that the weather is getting warmer and drier. We use it mostly for burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, etc. Nathon's even getting really good at grilling burgers for us. I just don't take pictures every time.

We cooked these baby back ribs for Bryan's birthday dinner. Twice, actually. Once when his parents were visiting for spring break, and again last Sunday for our Journey Group. The dry rub recipe we used was called Arkansas Razorback Ribs (from Ribs, Ribs, Ribs by Steven Reichler). We made the Razorback sauce recipe too, and it was really good.

Apparently, we still have to figure out the best way to cook a lot of ribs at once. And how to keep the temperature from creeping up and charring the ends.

Turkey Day

2006-11-28T12:34:00.000-05:00

This is our turkey from Thanksgiving this year. Of course, we decided to try smoking it on the Big Green Egg. And it was wonderful. The skin turned out really brown because we tried to inject it with a combination of chicken stock, lemon juice, melted butter and spices. But the butter kept thickening when it came into contact with the cold turkey flesh, and it wouldn't pass through the syringe. So, Bryan & his mom ended up pouring the solution over the turkey, and putting some of it just under the skin too. And butter really browns.

But the flavor of the turkey was really good -slightly smoky, but not overpowering. The thing I liked best about doing the turkey on the BGE was that Bryan took care of cooking it and I could focus on making all of the other side dishes. ;)

Lollipops

2006-11-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

At the Eggtoberfest a couple weeks ago, the guys discovered a new twist on one of our favorite foods to cook on our BGE. They're called "Lollipops," and they're basically chicken wings wrapped in bacon. Yes, bacon makes everything better!

We did some with maple syrup (Nathon & my favorite), teriyaki, BBQ, and Butt Rub. They were a big hit with our small group.

(I can't believe nobody has posted the highlights and pictures from Eggtoberfest yet!)

Pulled Pork

2006-09-22T21:00:00.000-04:00

Well, just so I don't leave ya hanging...

We finally did smoke that pork last Saturday. It took a good 12 hours, and even then it wasn't quite up to the right internal temperature. We had rubbed one with Bad Byron's Butt Rub seasoning, and the other with a homemade rub from my new Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Grilling cookbook. (Couldn't really tell much difference in the end result, though.) Plus, we sprayed both with apple juice every so often during the smoking process, of course. They were cooking in our V-Rack with one of those disposable aluminum drip pans. But at midnight, we were extremely tired and wanted to go to bed, so we pulled it off the Egg and put them each in their own aluminum pan and covered them in foil to keep them cozy and moist (at 200F) in the oven overnight. Sunday morning, when Bryan went to shred it, the meat was falling-apart, peeling-off-the-bone tender. And yummy too!

Anyway, Sunday evening we fed it to our new Journey Group friends, and I must say -- it was a HUGE hit! Even better than Jim & Nick's BBQ (local restaurant), they said. And, of course, since we smoked TWO pork butts, we're STILL eating leftovers! Oh, yes we are...so hurry on over while I make some sweet tea to go with it.

Too Busy to Cook?

2006-09-02T14:03:00.000-04:00

I don't know about any of the other contributors to this blog, but we haven't posted anything in quite a while because our Chief Egghead has been out of town a lot lately. Not to mention, everytime we think about smoking something on the BGE, it starts raining again. So, we haven't tried anything "new," just burgers and steaks in the last few weeks. Oh yeah, and some pizzas while my parents were visiting. I actually broke one of my Pampered Chef stones doing that. Good thing it's still under warranty!

Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day. We're thawing out some pork butt just in case...

We tried Ribs

2006-08-14T11:10:00.000-04:00

Sunday afternoon we put 3 racks of pork spare ribs on the BGE. We had a hard time getting that stubborn membrane peeled off, though. All the instructions sound so simple, but it took us forever. Maybe we misunderstood what we were supposed to be taking off. Anyway, I think next time, we'll ask for an expert demonstration (from Mike, or our neighbor Mike).

Once we got the ribs prepped, we smeared them with olive oil, coated them with Butt Rub and put them on the Egg in the (inverted) V-Rack. That worked pretty well to be able to fit all 3 racks of ribs on our Egg at the same time. Didn't have to flip them over during the cooking process either.

So the ribs cooked at about 275F for about 2 hours, then we sprayed them with apple juice. Then they cooked for almost another hour. Then I pulled them off, spread some KC Hickory sauce on them and wrapped them in foil. I put them back on the Egg and left the draft door and daisy wheel barely open so the temperature would stay low. They sat there another hour or so and then we ate them up.

Smoked Turkey

2006-07-31T00:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Saturday, July 29, we tried smoking a turkey. As you can see, it looked “good enough to eat” when it was done. I didn’t do anything special to it. I just patted the bird dry, put some rub in the cavities, rubbed canola oil on the skin and lightly sprinkled on some more rub. As you can see, it was on a rack, over a foil pan. We added apple wood chips and smoked it at 325-350. Actually, the BGE held the temperature at 330. It took the same amount of time as in an oven – 2 ½ -2 ¾ hours. (It was a 12-13 pound bird.)
Doug carved it last night and refrigerated the meat. I took it to a church picnic today. It was good, with a light smoky flavor.

I must let you know that the rub I used was a modified BGE rub. I added more paprika and some brown sugar to the regular BGE rub. Since I don't like a spicy flavor and was afraid of adding too much salt, this tempered the saltiness and peppery flavor.

BGE Pizza!!

2006-07-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, we made two pizzas on the BGE. One word -- Yuuuuummmmmmmm!

I mixed up some Pampered Chef Pizza Dough & Roll Mix in the bread machine, then turned it out and kneaded it in flour. Then I divided it (one was smaller than the other). The small one I placed on my 13" Pampered Chef pizza stone, rolled it out and topped it with pizza sauce, and cheese. Then Kirstyn put pepperoni on her half, and left Hayden's half cheese.

Next, I rolled out the larger dough on my 15" PC pizza stone. This one I topped with homemade BBQ sauce (leftover from Brisket night), colby-jack cheese, and shredded chicken (from a can). Then I sprinkled it lightly with chili powder, since I didn't have any bacon bits or green onions in the house today.

We preheated the BGE with the platesetter inverted and the grid on top. We placed the 13" pizza stone directly on the grid, and the 15" pizza stone on top of the extender. Pizza recipes usually say to bake at 425F for 18-20 minutes, but we never got the BGE to go above 375F or so, even with the draft door and daisy wheel fully opened. So, it took about 3o minutes for the pizzas to be done to perfection. We thought the bottom pizza might finish faster than the top one, but both finished at the same time. That platesetter must have been doing a good job.

Anyway, the pizzas tasted really good. A little smoky, but not too much; the crust was crispy on the bottom and soft on the inside; the cheese was bubbly and melted; and the pepperoni & chicken were slightly browned on top.

2006-07-05T15:53:00.000-04:00

Beef Brisket

2006-07-04T14:39:00.000-04:00

We tackled our first Beef Brisket in the BGEgg today. Kelley and I searched high and low for some good how-to's but found that everyone does something different. Here's what we decided to do...

Marinate brisket overnight in:
1/4 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Worchestshire sauce
1 heaping (dinnerware) teaspoon garlic
rounded up to 3/4 cup with lime juice

THE PLAN: Cook at 250F for three hours flipping the meat in the V-Rack after two. We planned to start out with the fat side up, and then flip the brisket over after the first two hours, (thinking the layer of fat would protect the bottom of the meat from drying out in the end). Bring the meat temperature up to 180F, wrap in foil for 30 minutes in a cooler then prepare to serve with the heavily guarded "family Bar-B-Q sauce" on the side. Serve also with grilled corn and some millionaire potatoes. (Green vegetables, what are they?)

THE PREP: We bought a Brisket "flat" from Costco, 6.36 lbs, placed it in a big "Ziplock" bag and marinated it in the fridge overnight. I flipped the meat over first thing in the morning, thinking we could get a more even soak. (The brisket was the perfect size for laying flat in an aluminum 9x13 drip pan.)

I got the fire going and added Mesquite chips, which were soaked in water for several hours. We placed the brisket on a V-Rack, which was sprayed with PAM grilling spray and sat into a drip pan with the left over marinade. Kelley poured some water into the drip pan just so the entire pan had some moisture in it. (We debated whether or not to use the platesetter and decided against it this time around.)

THE SMOKE: The brisket smoked in the egg between 240 and 260F, mostly sitting at 250F, but I was always afraid the fire was out because the smoker would stop smoking at 250 or below. Most of the time the draft door was opened to about 1"and I kept messing with the top daisy wheel to keep the fire going. The fire actually did go out after about 8 hours, and we added more charcoal to get it going again.

REALITY CHECK: Unfortunately, we grossly underestimated the brisket cooking time. We put the brisket on the BGE at 2pm, thinking it would take between 3-4 hours to cook. But the brisket reached some kind of "temperature plateau" at around 150 degrees (internal meat temperature), and wouldn't budge for a very long time. So, we ate Mike's yummy ribs for dinner instead. Then we went to watch fireworks in the cul-de-sac. Finally at MIDNIGHT, the brisket finally reached 200 degrees. It had been in there for a full TEN HOURS! When we stuck a fork in it, we could twist it and pull the fork out. We pulled it off the grill and each had a couple bites before we had to put it into the fridge and save for tomorrow's dinner. When we sliced it up, it had a very distinct bright pink "smoke ring" just beneath the dark outer layer. The meat inside had good flavor, and it was pretty tender. (Kelley took some good pictures - hopefully we'll be able to post them soon.)

I am really struggling to know how to keep the egg going at such a low temperature. How open can you keep the draft door and/or daisy wheel without the fire going out or getting too hot? As soon as the temperature went below 250 the smoke stopped coming out of the top. I'd open up the daisy wheel a little bit and the smoke would start up again after a few minutes. I haven't decided which is more important -- the daisy wheel or opening up the draft door more. Fortunately, the egg would stay consistently warm while I messed with the wheel and draft.

NEXT TIME: We may try and use our "FoodSaver" vacuum sealer next time we do an overnight marinade. We think it will force the marinade into the meat even more than just sitting it in the juice. Another thought was to use one of those marinade injectors into the meat. We'll probably just cook it fat-side-up without flipping it over. Next time, we may play with the flavors in the marinade. We saw some interesting ideas in the BGE cookbook -- (onion soup mix, etc.). Obviously, we'll also plan a longer cooking time.

One thing at a time, though. We'll figure this thing out sooner or later.

chicken wings

2006-07-02T23:43:00.000-04:00

Today we cooked lunch on the BGE. Three kinds of chicken wings. 30 wings fit on the large BGE easily (Bryan thinks we could've crammed 10 more on there, but they would've been really close). We seasoned 10 with BBQ sauce, 10 with Frank's Red Hot Sauce, and 10 with Bad Byron's Butt Rub. Surprisingly, we all liked the Butt Rub ones the best. (www.buttrub.com)

The BGE cookbook said to cook the wings at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, turning them over half-way through. We did that and they turned out good, but they could have been a tiny little bit more cooked on the inside. So, maybe extending the time a bit or raising the temperature a little are things we will try next time.

Sorry...we gobbled them up so fast that we forgot to take pictures!

By the way, there are a TON of great BBQ themed shows on this weekend - Food Network, History Channel, etc. Happy 4th of July!!

Big Green Egg

2006-06-24T21:01:00.000-04:00

Big Green Egg

Friday, June 23. 2006

These are some sites I found that looked interesting.
Today I found the virtualwebberbullet website, which was wonderful!. It not only has recipes, but photos of every step in cooking specific cuts/kinds of meat.
I hope you enjoy browsing these. I know there are lots of others, too.

www.barbecuen.com/rubs.htm
www.thatsmyhome.com/bbqpit/kanrub.htm
www.bbqdan.com/smoking/
www.tm52.com/bge Primo (similar to BGE) You can go to some recipes from this page.
www.cherokeestove.com/Egg%20Recipes.htm
www.virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html
www.virtualweberbullet.com/rib2.html
www.dizzypigbbq.com
www.bbq-porch.org/recipes/html/C2.htm
www.biggreenegg.com/recipes/EGGtoberfest2004Recipes.pdf
www.primogrill.com
www.texascooking.com/db2/index.ihtml?category=15&step=4
www.smoking-meat.com
www.rbjb.com/rbjb/rbjbboard
www.outdoorhome.com/interactive.asp?w=1

I tried cooking spareribs today. I added applewood (from the old apple tree), and smoked them at 250-275 F. I turned the ribs over after 2 hours, then I had to go into Springfield. I got home about 2 hours later and found that the BGE temp had dropped to 125; I don't know for how long. I brought the temp back up and put some sauce on half; I continued cookng them for about 1 more hour. We ate them hot off the grill. They were tender, but not falling off the bone, which is the way we like them. We decided to wrap up the leftover half in aluminum foil and cook it another hour or so. I had put the BGE seasoning on liberally, but the ribs were saltier than we liked. I will use less seasoning next time, and more BBQ sauce cooked on the ribs at the end. We decided that we liked the ones with sauce much better than the ones without. My next project will probably be a turkey breast, which I have in the freezer.

Saturday, June 24.
The ribs were much better after additional cooking
MOM

My first week with the BGE

2006-06-17T20:13:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't had internet access in my new condo until today. So let me tell you a little about my BGE and what I've been trying.

My BGE:
Size - Large
Accessories - Egg Mate / Wings (folding side tables), plate setter, metal top

My first Eggsperience:
Vidalia Bros. Hamburgers - Seared them 2 minutes per side @ 650. Then 3rd flip and shut down all vents. Left the burgers for another 3 minutes until Med / Med-Well.

2nd Night:
Came home from work and fired up the BGE with Corn on the Cob and a Hickory Farms Smoked Beef Sausage. Soaked the corn for 20 mins while I heated up the grill. I left the corn on @ 400 for 1 hour as directed in the DVD recipe, but I think this was too long. Would either lower the temperature or shorten the time.

1st Weekend:
Friday night and I'm prep'ing some Costco Spare Ribs. Set up 2 racks differently. I used the BGE Gourmet Seasoning on one rack and some Bad Byron's Butt Rub on the other. Using the DVD instructions, I seared them 2 minutes a side at 500 and then pulled them off to let the BGE cool down to 250. This took a long time, so I went and got my driver's license changed from AZ to GA in the mean time. Came back and the BGE had cooled and charcoal was still lit. I put on some soaked hickory chips, the plate setter, and the grill grate. Brought it all back to 250-260 and put on the ribs (fat side up). They simmered for 3 hours. I played with the temperature control a little and was distracted for enough time that I had to re-light the charcoal one time (I had shut off the vent for too long). Removed the ribs and wrapped them up in foil and put them back on for 1 hour. Then I removed the foil and slabbed on some KC Masterpiece Hickory sauce and let simmer for 15 minutes.

The results were awesome ribs. I don't know which rub I like better because the both had great flavor. I think the Byron's was spicier, but it was also on the thinner parts of the rack (I cut both racks in half to fit on the grill).

BGE DVD

2006-06-15T00:21:00.000-04:00

Mom wrote:
When I took the DVD out tonight, I noticed that it is a 2 sided one. Check the cover; side 2 is an interactive CD. You can print out the recipes that you see on the video.

2006-06-10T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well, today we cleaned out Brown's Pools in Dallas, GA. They had 3 large Big Green Eggs in stock, and the Burwicks bought them all! Here's where we're all going to post about recipes - when they go really well, or even when we mess them up...