Clay is one of the oldest materials used for cooking, dating back at least to 1000BC.  It is durable shaped to almost any shaped and holds heat fabulously.  Over time and centuries in Japan this eventually evolved into the clay Mushikamado rice cooker which served as inspiration in the 1960′s for the commercial manufacture of the first Kamado grill barbeque.  .  Of course in 1974 the now famous Big Green Egg Grill was launched, based on the same Kamado style grill cooking principles, using modern ceramics.

The following for both the Kamado style grill and especially the Big Green Egg itself is large and passionate, with good reason rating highly in kamado grill reviews.  Once you have cooked on one of these grills then you certainly won’t want to go back to a normal one.  I think that there are 3 excellent reasons to own one of these compared to other standard grills.

1. Totally Flexible Cooking

A kamado grill is a total cooking machine that can prepare a whole meal for you.  You can vary the temperature from about 250 degrees Fahrenheit, up to around 700.  The adjustable dampers on most models and the lid regulate the temperature very accurately.

How ever you like your ribs, steaks, they are cooked to perfection.  Cooked slow or seared the meat retains a juicy succulent quality unmatched by any normal grill.  They can also cook pies, breads of all kinds or even vegetables.  There is a huge range of kamado grill recipes developed by there owners to take advantage of this.

2. Durability

The kamado has really developed since its early clay versions.  With technology and engineering they are beautifully produced.  Clay grills in the kamado range are works of art of the outside, so do not remain an eyesore or obstruction.  The thick walls allow this sort of construction.

The use of clay and ceramic allows the gradual cooling and resistance against heat other standard grills just can’t match.  They will still be going strong as others are onto their 4th or 5th new standard grill and then more.

3. Safety

This is really important if you have little ones or pets to look out for.  No matter how many times you say ‘No’ children always have to have just one more go.  It is in their nature.  Well clay and ceramic are superb insulators against heat.  They retain the remaining heat a lot more effectively than any metal encased grill could.  It is a slow release and not a serious burn threat of other materials

As with any grill you must still be cautious, but the fact it is safer certainly will give you piece of mind.

A kamado grill will out cook, out last and out-shine any regular grill hands down.  It is a lifetime quality investment built to a lasting tradition

To keep your barbeque choice for both buying and cooking as versatile as possible then nothing beats smoker grills.  Giving you the best of both worlds in one combination is a great way to enjoy your food even more.  In particular wood smoker grills really make the most of those smoker grill recipes and allow the best flavors and experience.  If you take the Big Green Egg grill, it is a complete cooking device able to cook a whole range of food as well as bake.

But to be fair we have to have a look at why it completely outshines other standard portable or gas fueled smoker grills out there on the market today.

Flexibility

Most wood smoker grills can get up to temperature within 10-15 minutes.  This is around 200 degrees Fahrenheit for smoking.  With the adjustable dampers and the ceramic insulation based on the kamado grill originals, they can then hold this for over 24 hours in some cases.

A gas grill will heat up faster than a charcoal one.  In fact the heat is pretty much instantaneous with gas.  But, the flame cannot be brought down much.  It cannot sustain the low temperatures and if you leave it the propane bottles run out pretty quick.  You cook the food fast and then it’s done.

Charcoal is not much easier in a standard flat top grill.  It takes quite a while to get up to heat and although better than gas it does not have the more regular heat output of lump wood charcoal.

Safety

I always get nervous around gas and it is so easy to have an accident.  Not many pieces of wood or charcoal explode on you if something goes wrong.  The design and manufacture of most kamado grill style BBQ smoker grills means that they have a ‘cool wall’ effect, meaning low temperatures on the outside than their metal alternatives in the regular grill market.

Quality

Good smoker grills like the Big Green Egg Grill are built by specialists and not mass produced to the same scale as the common or garden Wal-Mart or Home Depot stocked flat tops.  They come with sound warranties on external finishes and the ceramic linings and a good returns policy.  They will outlast other grills by many times as they linings do not undergo the rapid heating and cooling suffered by metal for instance or other less durable materials.

Smoker grills and especially wood smoker grills are a fantastic way to really expand your outdoor cooking skills and provide a lasting asset you can invest in and enjoy.  Unlike other types of grills they are built to last, built to cook to perfection and built to enjoy.

The capabilities of the Big Green Egg Grill go far beyond just grilling and smoking meat.  Although many people use that as its prime function, many more are discovering life beyond ribs and steaks.  With a passionate fan base and an owners Big Green Egg forum, Big Green Egg Recipes are readily available and very creative, including a cannelloni dish.  This ceramic grill has the ability to cook in one way or another most elements of a whole meal for you.  Here are just a few ideas to get you started

Big Green Egg Ribs

Of course this is where it all starts and some recipes are award winning or closely guarded.  But just on the company websites you will see the mouth watering backyard Championship Ribs and the way to cook the perfect beef brisket.  Flavorings, marinades, coatings and imaginative seasoning all can be used to liven up the traditional plain rib or steak very easily.

Big Green Egg Desserts

This is one of the most surprising aspects that a lot of people find about Big Green Egg Recipes is that you can do desserts such as cobblers, apple pie and a whole range of other traditional oven baked recipes.

Big Green Egg Fish Recipes

Baked fish is a beautiful taste.  Try stuffing the freshly caught fish such as salmon with herb butter, wrapping it and leave it to cook perfectly.  Off course if you are a keen fisherman, smoking your own fish is a delight as well.  For something different a spicy fish stew in the autumn is a perfect way to round off the day.

Big Green Egg Bread Recipes:

The slow cooking of the Big Green Egg makes it perfect for bread of all types.  Don’t just stick to the standard; try some flatbreads, Naan, pizza or herb bread.  You really can let your imagination run riot

Of course the list of Big Green Egg recipes can just go on from Tex-Mex dishes, French Onion Soup, Maple-Planked Brie with Garlic and Roasted Peppers and many, many more.

When we are talking about Big Green Egg Grilling, we get to the heart of the barbeque culture. Although also called the Big Green Egg Smoker.  Its flexibility means that grilling with these fantastic beasts is a real joy.  As they are lined with ceramic grills temperatures are perfect for all sorts of recipes.  But for beginners it can sometimes seem a little daunting.  But with just a few simple tips it will soon feel like second nature.

When To Smoke

Even if you are on a budget and get cheaper cuts of meat the Big Green Egg Smoker can cope.  In fact this is where Big Green Egg cooking excels.  Left to cook away even the cheapest roughest cuts can be melt in the mouth tender,

Know Your Wood

What we mean here is learn how to properly prepare your lump wood charcoal when doing a long smoke.  The recommendation is to take you wood smoking chips and soak them well beforehand.  Then layer them in with the wood charcoal fuel for the best combination and longest release of smoke flavor.

Eggcessorize

With Big Green Egg grilling and cooking you buy into a whole taylor-made system of accessories designed to optimize your smoker grill.  The Baking Stone is ideal for pizzas and flat breads bringing the benefits of a brick baker’s oven to your backyard.  Or invest in a plate setter to avoid having to turn food during cooking or to direct the fragrant smoke to virtually embrace your food.  Of course there are other great Big Green Egg accessories such as a Cast Iron Cooking Grid and even a Wok.

Practice And Enjoy

One of the keys to successful Big Green Egg Baking, grilling and smoking is the management of the dampers.  Get to know your Egg and where the dampers need to be for the correct temperature.  The 750 degrees Fahrenheit for searing those ribs, 350 degrees for perfect chicken and 200-250 for the slow cook perfection will soon be second nature.

Of all the tips that I can pass on about Big Green Egg grilling the best is to get involved.  The Eggheads community is very friendly and with all the information on the company site and in the forum you will soon be enjoying the fruits of your labor and experimenting with new recipes all the rime.  Who knows you may even end up entering one of the many Egg Cook Offs once you are hooked.

If you really want to enjoy the taste of your food from a barbeque without spoiling the meat then BBQ smokers are the only way to cook.  Based on the principles of the kamado grill, the slow cook, often with aromatic fuel, brings out the best natural flavors of your food, yet leaves it succulent.

So what makes BBQ smokers so special compared to other standard charcoal grills?  Well first of all it is that special design of the grill that allows you to get it to the best temperature, around 250 degrees Fahrenheit and maintain it for long periods, slow cooking the food to perfection.  Enclosed closed with its lid smokers such as the Big Green Egg Smoker are designed with this in mind.  Their construction from clay or ceramic has just the right properties of heat capacity, retention and insulation to allow that heat to be kept just right.  Other grills just don’t cut it.  Metal grills in particular conduct heat far too well to get this right.

Secondly the best fuel that they usually use is lump wood charcoal.  This burns slowly and consistently unlike it other charcoal cousins, retaining its structure in the process.  In fact it is possible with practice to damp down the wood, still get your heat and cook for up to 24 hours!  This is the ultimate slow cooker.  Other charcoal in standard grills will just disintegrate after a few hours, no matter how hard you try.  Its heat is just dispersed through the sides and into the air.  Of course you can also get specially treated aromatic wood to give that wonderful proper smoked tasted as well.

Now of course you will get the argument from gas grill lovers that its heat can be maintained and held as well.  This just isn’t the case though.  Gas flames are extremely hot, so a gas grill is good at cooking by searing mainly.  Also would you leave a gas grill on overnight?  There have been attempts by Landsman and Bradley to produce gas smokers, but they just aren’t really that good.  You can see BBQ smokers reviews online at Amazon.com which show that.

So to really achieve the desired effect nothing can beat a good quality charcoal or lump charcoal fired kamado style smoker like the Big Green Egg Smoker.  It is designed specifically to do this as part of its function and this is all they make so they pretty much know what they are talking about.

The Big Green Egg is a ceramic grill that can be used to grill, smoke or even bake breads and desserts. It originated in Japan, but is now a popular grill with barbecue enthusiasts in the U.S. While the Big Green Egg is fantastic all by itself, there are several Big Green Egg accessories that can make your grilling experience even better, including:

Get Cooking in Under 10 Minutes with the Big Green Egg Electric Starter

Wood lump charcoal is used to cook with in the Big Green Egg. You don’t use regular charcoal briquettes in the Big Green Egg, and you NEVER use lighter fluid! To start your Egg, you can use either natural fire starters, or the Big Green Egg Electric Starter. No matter which you prefer your Egg should be ready to cook on in 8-10 minutes.

Create Fabulous Pizzas and Desserts with the Plate Setter and Baking Stone

One of the biggest benefits of the Big Green Egg vs. other charcoal grills is the versatility. The Big Green Egg is a barbecue grill, a smoker and an outdoor oven all in one. You’ll find many Eggheads who cook breads and pizzas in their Big Green Egg in addition to the more traditional ribs, burgers and other grill foods. To turn your Egg into a brick oven you’ll need a Big Green Egg baking stone or plate setter.

The plate setter is a flat ceramic disc with three legs that is used as a ceramic heat shield by providing a barrier between the food and the fire. The purpose is to provide indirect heat which is great for cooking roasts or ribs. Or, add the baking stone on top of the plate setter and turn your Egg into a brick oven for creating fabulous pizzas or mouthwatering desserts.

Cook Up to Six Slabs of Ribs (and Torture Your Neighbors) with the Rib Rack

We love our Big Green Egg barbeque, but the one limitation we have experienced is the small cooking space. We love to entertain, so we really need more cooking space on the grill. My husband gets frequent requests for ribs, but it’s hard to cook more than two slabs on the limited cooking space.

Thankfully, the Big Green Egg makes a rib rack that solves this problem. The Big Green Egg rib rack allows you to cook your ribs vertically, which means you can cook up to 6 slabs instead of just 1 or 2. This makes entertaining our friends and family much easier!

Make Killer Big Green Egg Ribs with the Vertical Rib Rack

We love our Big Green Egg grill and smoker, but the one drawback is the limited cooking space. Ribs are a favorite among our family and friends but it’s hard to cook more than one or two slabs on the Big Green Egg.

The Big Green Egg V Rib Rack solves this problem by allowing you to hang the ribs vertically, so now we can smoke several slabs of big green egg ribs at one time.

Anyone who loves to grill has probably heard of the Big Green Egg grill and smoker.  It’s a ceramic grill that looks just like the name suggests – a big green egg.  There’s a reason for the shape, but first a little history on how the Big Green Egg barbeque grill came to be.

While barbecue may be thought of as American, the first grills originated in Japan, not America, and they were clay pots used to cook rice in (not barbeque).  The first grills were called mushikamados; they were round clay pots with a dome lid that lifted off the base. Wood charcoal was used to cook food in the mushikamado.

In the 1960s the kamado was invented. While the design was similar to the mushikamado, to eliminate cracking (which was a problem with the early mushikamados) the kamado was made of ceramic instead of clay.  Also, the kamado was created for barbecue, not cooking rice. To control the temperature better, a damper and draft door were added, and charcoal was used instead of wood. The kamado was brought back to America from Japan and was later produced in the United States.

The Big Green Egg is a modern version of the kamado, and can be used for grilling, smoking or even baking (homemade pizza on the big green egg is amazing!). The Big Green Egg has been around for over 30 years now, and it has gone under many improvements since it was introduced in America in 1974. Early models were made of clay, but the grill is made of durable ceramic material today which makes the Big Green Egg virtually indestructible. One of the great things about the Egg is that you can cook on it all year long; freezing weather, pouring down rain, and high winds are no match for the Big Green Egg barbeque.

The Big Green Egg cooker is the perfect smoker and barbecue and oven. It is so flexible you can use it to sear steaks at high temperatures, you can cook ribs on it for hours at low temperatures, or you can turn it into a brick oven and bake breads or pizzas. The Egg is unmatched in its flexibility and cooking capabilities; it truly surpasses other grills and smokers.

Get Grilling Quickly With the Big Green Egg Electric Starter

Lump charcoal is used to cook with in the Big Green Egg smoker.

You can light the charcoal using natural fire starters, made from sawdust and paraffin and leaving no chemical taste, or you can use an electric starter.

Using the big green egg electric starter, your coals will be ready in approximately 8 minutes.

Do we believe the hype? I’ve read the brochure, visited the website and watched all the DVDs. In fact if there’s any piece of promotional material for the Big Green Egg that I haven’t read I’d be surprised and it all sounds too good to be true. That is of course if you are a barbecue nutcase like me!

If you’re lucky enough to live in North America (and to some extent in Europe) you’ve probably heard of a Big Green Egg but I have to confess that it wasn’t until I started to publish my smoker grill recipes that I actually discovered the Egg and it’s humble origins in the Orient. I was intrigued, but living in the UK, how do I get hold of one? I phoned Big Green Egg in the US, they were really helpful and everyone that I spoke to said they cooked on an Egg and all year round at that! OK I’m sold, I’ve gotta have one to see what all the fuss is about.

To be fair, it was a big decision because these ceramic barbecues aren’t cheap and by the time it landed at my door in England it has cost me the best part of $2000. It had better be good. So am I happy?……..ABSOLUTELY!

It’s the middle of winter and I’m outside preparing the charcoal, my neighbors are looking at me as if I’m demented but my kids are so excited when I tell them that it’s ribs for supper. I have my own favorite barbecue sauce recipe which I use first as a marinade, then as a mop and finally I warm it up for sauce. Good use of ingredients and just the right amount of chili. The best bit of all is that I get the last laugh as the smoke rises over the fence into my neighbors garden and they get the aroma full on!

I do my ribs for about an hour per pound at a temperature of 225°F with the plate setter in place for indirect cooking. To maintain a constant temperature I find that leaving the bottom draft door open half an inch and the small vents on the top daisy wheel open half is about right but once you’re in the vicinity use the daisy wheel to fine adjust for the final preferred temperature.

There’s a couple of things that I found out using the Big Green Egg that I’d like to share with you and the first is the economy and thorough burning of the charcoal. Compared with a conventional BBQ grill the consumption is so low and any charcoal not burnt just stays in the firebox until next time. The other point is do take care to clean out the ash on a regular basis otherwise this will prevent you getting up to the higher temperature ranges. I clean mine out after every third cookout but I guess this depends on how much ash you’re generating.

So should you believe the hype? In my view, the answer has to be yes. It’s everything that they say it is – and more (I use it as a tandoor and do Indian cooking on it too!) so I’m going to be cooking on mine for many years to come.