Me and my egg part 1

After 30 years or so with a Weber kettle I bought a big green egg

What is it?

It's a thick ceramic, charcoal fired oven based on the Japanese kamado, very expensive and bl00dy heavy. I bought a small big green egg because I couldn't lift a medium one, it's only 330mm (13") ∅, weighs 29 kg and cost five 'undred sov's in March 2013. You also need a platesetter (£40) for indirect cooking, a radio thermometer (£60) and a baking stone n Ikea STABIL (£3) plus replacement gasket (£12)  if you want to cook bread or pizza.

How does it work?

Load it up with lump charcoal not briquettes, the bge firelighters work very well and don't stink.
Light the green touchpaper and it'll go off like this ⇓

 Close the lid after about 10 minutes when the firelighters have burnt out.

The secret is in the felt seal between the lid and body. Because there is next to no leakage, the bottom damper and top vent can be adjusted to the minimum opening required to maintain the oven temperature. So the airflow is as low as possible which minimises the loss of moisture from the food and also minimises the amount of charcoal used. Achieving the correct airflow/ temperature is a bit of a balancing act to start with but you'll get the knack.

Flush persons can buy a PID regulated fan which sits over the air inlet and does it all for you, paupers can make do with the bottom sliding damper and the top vent control, colloquially known as a daisy wheel.
The temperature in the dome is indicated by a dial thermometer but you're better off with a radio thermometer with two probes to monitor both oven & food temperatures from inside when it's cold outside.

Operation is a little different from a kettle as you need to think about temperatures rather than sliding off the lid and having a look. Lifting the lid during cooking is discouraged as you'll increase moisture loss from the food.

Charcoal use is very frugal, the big ones go for about 16 hours at low heat, I reckon that the small size will be good for eight hours if the oven temperature is kept to around 100°C.

Backdraught

Certain conditions, usually cooking at very high temperatures then closing the vents, can lead to backdraft or flashback when the lid is opened.

Watch this ⇒

I never close the vents fully until the cooking is over and always open the lid an inch or so for a few seconds before fully opening it so I've never seen this effect, a glove is a good idea.

Setup

Direct heat,

 you can place the grill on top of that filthy ceramic ring and cook on that but it's a bit too close to the coals and very fierce

Platesetter legs up,

 basic indirect setup so the flames aren't directly below the food, a drip pan can go on here as required

Cast iron griddle

 my usual setup. No direct heat and there's a bit of space for charring food if necessary. I've hardly used the platesetter since starting to use this.

Platesetter legs down and Ikea screen,

 setup for pizza and bread

Lighting

The official way is to use bge firelighters,

 they're ok but when the box included with the egg ran out I reverted to the Weber chimney starter. It's ok but wastes charcoal as it heats up and it's easy to get the temperature too high which is then a juggle to drop.

Final solution is a Dragonfire Meister-Craft MGA2000 Heißluft Grill und Kaminanzünder from amazon.de

 Wonderful piece of kit, lights charcoal in 45-60 seconds, light in two or three places, put the lid down and open a beer

Watch it in action ⇒ 

Cleaning

Cleaning out the ash is a bit of an @rse compared with a Weber. A rake is included to drag the ash out of the bottom vent but the only real way is to take the internals out and get mucky.

The cooking grill is stainless steel and fits in the dishwasher.

The daisy wheel accumulates gunge and needs cleaning once in a while or it will stick.

The outside needs an occasional wash to get rid of the bird poo.

The  griddle gets very manky, just accept it. It's bumps down when the coals are lit so the gunge heats up then it's turned over and attacked with a knife, no one's been poisoned yet.

End of part 1.

Part 2 is here