British BBQ Society Forums

Hello there,

I've been looking to get into BBQing for some time, I've finally taken the plunge and acquired a big green egg.

Looking forward to lots of good advice.

Hi, welcome to the kamado club! I have a Big Joe so if you have any questions on ceramic cooking fire away and I'll help if I can. I also suggest you head to the kamadoguru forum - its a goldmine.

Two huge bits of advice.....

Buy a proper digital thermometer (two probes - one for the meat, one for the egg temperature). Big Green Egg actually rebrand the Maverick 733/734 but you can buy it much cheaper if it's branded Redi-Chek.

Secondly, do a test without meat to firstly burn off any residue from manufacturing process. But more importantly, do it do get used to adjusting the vents, building the fire, learning how to maintain a constant temp and what to do when it wavers. It's really not difficult but you have to do a test run.

Also, consider using small wood chips in a Kamado style as they're so well insulated that the fire can't burn that hot - you want to avoid the white smoke - you want very thin looking blue tinged smoke that is the result of wood burning hot. When you get that smoke, it'll smell fragrant without seeming too 'smoky' if you know what I mean!

I hope that helps.

Mike

bemused wrote:Hello there,

I've been looking to get into BBQing for some time, I've finally taken the plunge and acquired a big green egg.

That's like getting a rolls Royce as your first car. Nice

MikeBamber wrote:Two huge bits of advice.....

Buy a proper digital thermometer (two probes - one for the meat, one for the egg temperature). Big Green Egg actually rebrand the Maverick 733/734 but you can buy it much cheaper if it's branded Redi-Chek.

Secondly, do a test without meat to firstly burn off any residue from manufacturing process. But more importantly, do it do get used to adjusting the vents, building the fire, learning how to maintain a constant temp and what to do when it wavers. It's really not difficult but you have to do a test run.

Also, consider using small wood chips in a Kamado style as they're so well insulated that the fire can't burn that hot - you want to avoid the white smoke - you want very thin looking blue tinged smoke that is the result of wood burning hot. When you get that smoke, it'll smell fragrant without seeming too 'smoky' if you know what I mean!

I hope that helps.

Mike

Good advice on the test fire, definitely need to get to learn how these things work.

As for wood chunks are better on a kamado IMO especially for low and slow cooks but chips might work if you put enough in.

The other thing with Kamado's is because they don't wildly spike or drop in temp once settled a maverick probe for the grate temp is a bit redundant IMO. The dome thermometers are tel-tru ones in a BGE which are very good. A meat probe is very useful however.

I use a maverick in mine when doing an overnight cook just as a back up in case anything untoward happens like it cooks fast or the fire goes out but one the ones I've done so far the alarm has never gone off.