My new Large Big Green Egg

I got a new grill last summer. It was a Charbroil Tec Series that included an infrared burner. Well there were some engineering design issues with the infrared burner and the screws holding the burner in place actually melted. After doing some research I found this was a pretty common occurrence with these grills. I contacted Lowes and they said they'd take it back even though it was about 6 months old.

So I returned it at the end of February. In the meantime, I've been using my Brinkmann Smoke N Pit to do slow smoked BBQ. In the last 2 months I've done brisket, pork butt, sausage, chuck roast, stuffed jalapeno poppers, and chicken. I have fallen in love with cooking low & slow.

Well last night, we went and picked up a Large Big Green Egg. It's a ceramic cooker based on the Japanese kamodo. It uses lump charcoal rather than gas. Since it's made from a really heavy ceramic (it was 150 lbs), it is extremely efficient at holding heat. What sold me on it is the fact you can do low & slow cooking on it and it will go 20-30 hours on one load of charcoal. Not only that but it can easily get to 700 degrees for doing sears on steaks. Some guys have claimed to get it up to 1500 degrees but that's pretty scary to me.

I'm putting it together tomorrow evening. And Saturday, for my wife's birthday, I'll christen it with some filet mignon. On Easter, I'm going to do a low & slow Prime Rib with some wood chunks that came from an oak barrel used to make Jack Daniels. I'm pretty excited.

For the filet mignon, I'm planning on roasting a whole garlic and then making a paste out of it. Then I'll add some EVOO, sea salt, and pepper and just lather it over the filet. I'm going to get the temperature to about 500-600 degrees and sear it up real good and cook it to medium.

For the Prime Rib, I'm going to cut little slits all over it and stuff garlic cloves into it. I'll then make a simple rub with sea salt, black pepper, and rosemary. Add a little EVOO and put a nice coating on the Prime Rib. I'm going to get the Egg to about 250 degrees. While I'm doing that I'll get a nice sear on a pan over the stove. I'll then cook it on the smoker until it reaches 135 degrees internally (about medium rare). I'll then take it off and wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler for about 30 minutes. This will be my first Prime Rib, so I hope I don't screw it up.

I'll post pictures later.