Big Green Egg


 
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John Lever

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Greetings, all. I arrive in peace from another nation.
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My primary grill is a Big Green Egg, but I just bought a Performer ($199 at HD) for use at a second location. Any tips you could share to help translate between them?

Many thanks,

John
 
Congratulations and welcome.

The Performer will radiate heat faster which means it will cool down a lot faster so catching temps on the way to avoid overshoot is not as critical. You'll like the gas starter and ash sweeper alot for clean up.

The down side is it will go through charcoal alot faster but everything is a trade off.

I actually find the Performer easier to use over all from a convenience stand point, but kamados are great fun too so I use them all.
 
Welcome John! I'm a bi-lingual griller, too. I have Performers, Kettles, Genesis and Q's. I have a Kamado Joe, 2 Eggs and a Primo XL Oval.

I'll try to help. There are somethings the BGE is just always going to do well - low and slow, grilling at nuclear temperatures, and pizzas for starters.

That being said, the Weber Kettles are very flexible and give the cook an opportunity to set up two or even three zone fires for cooking foods at different grate temperatures or, something I do a LOT, cooking reverse sear or sear and hold where one half of the charcoal grate is filled with charcoal and the other half is empty - giving you a "roasting" zone for reverse sear or sear and hold cooking that is so valuable when cooking larger steaks and roasts, or even bone-in chicken breasts.

I generally use briquettes for my Weber cooking, although I sometimes will sprinkle in some smaller bits of lump that I've pulled out of one of the ceramics after a cook.

You'll want to do some experimenting with the vent controls. I generally open the bottom vent all the way and control the heat with the top vent. Some people may differ, but its just easier for me to see how open or closed the top vent is. I know, I can mark the bottom vent settings on the ash basket holder, but that's just the way I do it. I do use the lower vent if I am going to be cooking lower/slower on the Weber, such as when I am using my rotisserie on one of the Kettles ( I have a kettle that I just keep the rotisserie on all the time).

Otherwise, the skills you already have transfer back and forth pretty well: direct versus indirect cooking, fire control and timing when to remove the meat from the grill.

Another thing the Weber does that can be good is cool down faster than the Egg! If I want to cover one of my ceramics back up up after a cook, I have to wait until the next morning. The Performer will cool down in about 45 minutes after you shut down all of the vents.

You also are going to like the gas assist charcoal lighting. I use a weed burner or lighter cubes for the ceramics and use a chimney for the kettles and my non-gas assist 1992 Performer, but when I use my 1992 Model gas assist model at the lake, it is a nice way to light the coals.

You are a lucky man to have a BGE and a Performer. The only problem I have is the opportunity to cook enough meals to get around to cooking on all the grills enough to keep them all happy!

Pat
 
I've used both for a while. Use a Sharpie to mark the ash catcher where the vent is 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full vent open/closed. It will help with temp control greatly. I use my kettle for high heat cooks. Yes, a ceramic can cook at high heat too, but it will crack. Not just the grate or internal pieces. I've had 2 bottom/outer pieces crack from thermal stress from the center of the of the vent to under the bottom and straight up the back side. BGE replaced it once, but I had to pay $65 shipping. Got ignored the 2nd time. Never had a kettle crack.
 
First of all, when some one news says that they just got a Performer, we cannot assume that they have the gas assisted charcoal lighting, since some new performers do not have the lighter.

2nd: Performer vs BGE (really kettle vs kamado. I have kettles and a BSK)

advantages kettle: cheaper, can use cheaper briquettes instead of lump, easier to clean with ash sweeper, much more portable, easier to do indirect because of bigger grate, more toys available such as rotisserie, can get hotter faster since not much heat is lost to the walls of the kettle, durability, cheap replacement parts, better temp control

advantages kamado: holds heat incredibly well, "self cleaning" feature [just let it get to 750 for an hour, cool overnight, then wipe it out], uses less lump because of less heat loss, higher envy factor, better temp control


I know I said better temp control on both sides of the equation. I think it depends on the type of food you are cooking. Grilling is better on a kettle. It's quick to light up and heat up. Low & slow is better on the kamado that hold temp for long periods of time.

Third, I'd like to hear more about conditions that cause cracks on a BGE. I have always wanted one, but I would be scared to buy one if I thought they were fragile. If I can't use it on a winter day because of fear of cracking it, then it's not practical for me.
 
I'm not positive what made mine crack. I don't think it was due to outside/ambient temps. I live in eastern NC and never cook at temps lower than 20F which I don't think is that extreme. It gets colder, but I'm not out grilling in it. I figure either high heat cooks eventually caused enough stress that it cracked or maybe moisture in the porous ceramic that either froze or expanded when it got hot. It sat uncovered most of the time, got rained on, snowed on. They do absorb water. You can see it hissing out of the top. I still use it, but only for long, low temp cooks.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve Cole:
I'm not positive what made mine crack. I don't think it was due to outside/ambient temps. I live in eastern NC and never cook at temps lower than 20F which I don't think is that extreme. It gets colder, but I'm not out grilling in it. I figure either high heat cooks eventually caused enough stress that it cracked or maybe moisture in the porous ceramic that either froze or expanded when it got hot. It sat uncovered most of the time, got rained on, snowed on. They do absorb water. You can see it hissing out of the top. I still use it, but only for long, low temp cooks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have repaired a couple vintage Japanese claypot Kamados that had the plug style botton damper plugs. They all had cracks that radiated from the bottom of the base, through the vent opening and up the base to the top lip. When I was researching repair techniques in the Kamado.com Archives, Richard Johnson claims to have invented the slide damper to replace the plugs, that when inserted into the base to choke the coals caused the base to contract thus causing them to crack. There were a lot of posts regarding the same cracking described, and judging from the ones I repaired I can go along with that theory.

Except- Like Steve Coles BGE, I too, had one that cracked exactly as he described. I was doing a reverse sear on a Tri-Tip, when I happened to look out my kitchen window and mine had a large V shaped crack expanding so much that I could see white ceramic! I freaked! All I could think of was this thing splitting open and catching my cedar deck on fire and it spreading to the house!

It was an old Large that I got for free off craigslist, I'd used it for a couple years before it cracked. I had replaced the old style hinge, added the stainless steel slider, DMFT and platesetter. I figured I'd gotten my moneys worth out of it and tried to repair it like the claypots, but the furnace cements, JB Weld would not adhere-the ceramic isn't that porous, everything I threw at it flaked off.

So I bought a demo Egg at the PNW Eggfest, and brought a couple of my refurbished Japanese Kamados to display. The VP of Sales for BGE stopped by and was asking me about them and I told him of mine that had cracked. He gave me his card, told me to call in a week and he would try to fix me up. Couple months later I get a call from my local BGE dealer and there was a brand new bottom with my name on it! Free!

It's that kind of CS that will forever make me a loyal egghead-its just another toy in the box, but Weber CS has taken just as good care of me in everything that I've had a problem with, so my Desert Island grill would definitely be a Weber!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Shaun R:
I just don't believe Richard Johnson's claims that he invented the sliding damper. I think Farhad did. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Check out the Kamado Fraud Forum!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brian Moriarty:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Shaun R:
I just don't believe Richard Johnson's claims that he invented the sliding damper. I think Farhad did. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Check out the Kamado Fraud Forum! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>If you only knew.
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