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.