Moving from electric smoker to Big Green Egg

[hoops10]

Hello, everyone. The title pretty much says it all. All my smoking experience (about 3-4 years) has been with an electric smoker and the AMPS. I have had a lot of success with it but my latest grill finally rusted out on me and I am leaning heavily toward the Big Green Egg.

I know it is a large investment for a grill/smoker so I wanted to get some opinions here in the Charcoal Smokers forum from people who know their stuff. With the electric smoker, it was truly 'set it and forget it." Is there a large learning curve moving to the Big Green Egg, with it being a charcoal smoker? The Egg seems to hold it's temps very well so is something like the DIGI Q necessary for smoking? Can the Egg as be "set it and forget it" as well?

When smoking with electric, I just used the pellets and the pellets system and got good smoke for 12-15 hours if I needed it. With the Egg, do I need to soak the chips or chunks of wood? Do you just throw them right on top of the charcoal chunks? What if you have to add more during the smoke, do you need to take the meat off to add them?

Sorry for so many questions, and thank you for all of your valuable input.

 

[retfr8flyr]

The first thing I would tell you is to check out the Kamado Joe lineup before you pull the trigger on a BGE. Kamado cooking is hard to beat and once you get into it you will never go back to any other style. Kamado's hold their temps very well and although a temp controller is nice to have, for long overnight cooks, it's not really necessary. There isn't any need to soak your wood, it has been shown that this doesn't really do any good. You want to use wood chunks, not chips, in your kamado. Just mix the chunks in with your lump charcoal, never use anything but lump in a kamado grill. You only really need wood chunks to be creating smoke for the first few hours. Meat absorbs about 90% of it's smoke flavoring in the first 2 hours, so additional smoke is good but not absolutely necessary. You shouldn't open the top on a kamado, unless absolutely necessary, looking is not cooking, but with a kamado it's even more critical. You shouldn't ever need to add more lump, I have run 16 hours, at 225°, in my Kamado Joe Big Joe and still had lump left.

You will catch on to kamado cooking quickly, it's not difficult. The main thing is temp control, it's very easy to start chasing temps with a kamado. It takes about 10-15 minutes for any vent changes to show up on the temp gauge, so guys will make a vent change and not see any results and them make an additional change. This will end up causeing the temps to spike, so wait about 15 minutes between vent changes and you should be fine. Also, if doing low and slow, start a very small fire. The biggest mistake new users make is to make to big of a fire initially, you only want a very small fire, in the center of the pile, when doing low temp cooks. Get the small spot going nicely and then close the grill up, with your vents wide open. When you temps start getting about 25° from your target, close your vents down to where you think they will need to be, on my BJ that is about ½ in for the bottom vent and ¼ in for the top vent, for 225°. Let everything stabilize and then make any additional changes. Let the grill heat soak for at least half an hour, an hour is better, before you add your meat. Don't make any changes to your vents after you add your meat. You just opened the grill and added cold meat, it will take a while for the temps to come back but they will, this is another time where you can start chasing your temps. I hope these suggestions will help you with your learning curve.

 

[hoops10]

Thanks for the reply. Great information! You mention the Kamado Joe, which is considerably more expensive than a BGE. In your reply, you talk about Kamado style cooking. Would that style refer to the BGE as well? Are both the Kamado Joe and BGE the same style of cooking?

 

[ddufore]

Can't speak on the Kamado but I do own an XL BGE. This is a great set it and forget it grill. You'll need to play with it for a bit but the learning curve is no different than any other. I make my own charcoal and if I have an all day cook I'll usually dump a 5 gal pail in and run it at 225 all day. Last year I cooked two 20 lb turkeys for a wedding reception and had many comments on how good it was.

 

[Rings Я Us]

Have you seen the videos on the vision grill Amador? Looks nice and much cheaper.. here us a link to the tester video I saw one day.


Might not be on sale now though. Good luck in the purchase.

 

[Rings Я Us]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vision-...coal-Grill-with-Grill-Cover-S-4C1D1/202926563

 

[retfr8flyr]

Thanks for the reply. Great information! You mention the Kamado Joe, which is considerably more expensive than a BGE. In your reply, you talk about Kamado style cooking. Would that style refer to the BGE as well? Are both the Kamado Joe and BGE the same style of cooking?

When you equip them close to the same, the KJ is a little cheaper than the BGE. The warranty is better also, in my opinion, because you cannot use any non BGE accessories in their grill, or it will void your warranty. All Kamado grills cook about the same, so the procedures are mostly the same. As others have shown, there are many different Kamado type grill available. The prices rang all over the place but with a ceramic grill, I want a lifetime warranty from a company that will still be here if I need warranty parts. I know BGE, Primo and Kamado Joe will still be around if I ever need them, I have no idea about some of the others.

 

[Ed Crain]

I’ve had a large bge for about 16 years and still use it. It’s pretty set and forget my problem was the kids grew up married had a grandkid so we out grew pretty quick. But for the wife and I we still cook on it for just us and the warranty is great

 

[MattQ]

I’ve had a large BGE for a number of years. Agree that once you play around with the vents it’s pretty set and forget.

My biggest advice is to buy a size larger than you think you need.

Oh, and a buddy with an XL set the wood cart he had his Egg in on fire while he was cooking pizza. Darn things get HOT!

Edit: I used chunks, and I didn’t soak. I just spread the chunks through the pile of coals.

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

I got a Vision Grill within the last year and I have been really happy with it. I got a display model at Sam's and only ended up paying a little over $300 for it. I agree that it can be set/forget, but just peace of mind I went ahead and spent the $150 for a PartyQ. I have no problems setting it up and then going to sleep or leaving the house for a while. Also have to consider that while you are getting a nice smoker, you are also getting a great grill. Pizza on a kamado is awesome.