Life with Our Big Green Egg

With grilling season upon us, we decided to share life with our new-ish Big Green Egg.

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed many meals cooked on the iconic Big Green Egg kamado-style live fire grill in Beaufort backyards and beyond, as well as with chefs in their restaurants or at their homes. And, after Lynn attended the 26^th annual EGGtoberfest at Coolray Field (think food festival for EGGhead enthusiasts), just outside Atlanta this past fall, we finally have one of our very own. Which seemed to be a great way to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the iconic egg-shaped green grill.

Actually, “The last grill you will ever buy,” (check out their lifetime warranty) is so much more than a grill. You can also roast, smoke, bake, and go low and slow, all with easy and precise temperature control. In fact, we’d heard that a single batch of their lump charcoal could last 16 to 18 hours — so we did it earlier this year with a variety of dishes, meats, seafood, and vegetables. Now that’s low and slow.

We’ve loved using our Big Green Egg, their all-natural lump charcoal and wood chips, and several

accessories since the day Lynn brought it home and we corralled it into our backyard at Seldon Scene. From breakfast to appetizers, cocktails (yeap), and lots of varied entrées, plus breads and delectable desserts, we’ve already become diehard EGGheads. From our first meal (chicken thighs), we’ve found that lighting our EGG, controlling the temperature, and preparing a wide variety of EGGcellent dishes is much easier than many may think.

We’ve tried many recipes on the comprehensive Big Green Egg great website (www.biggreenegg.com), which includes hundreds of tasty possibilities, lots of videos, instruction for all levels of experience, insider tips, information about their intriguing Culinary Center cooking classes in Atlanta (we went to one last month and loved it), EGGtoberfest details (Lynn will be back and is trying to convince Cele to join him!), and much more.

Before we get into life with our Big Green Egg here in Beaufort, with help from folks at ACE Hardware Port Royal, Olde Timey Meats, lots of Port Royal Farmers Market farmers and vendors, and many taste-testing friends in our backyard, we dug up a bit of history about live fire cooking and the Big Green Egg (per their website).

A Little Big Green Egg History

Today’s Big Green Egg is a modern-day evolution of Japanese cookers. Centuries ago, these knee-high cookers, known as kamados, were fueled by wood or natural charcoal (just as the Big Green Egg is today.)

U.S. popularity of kamados spread when U.S. service members discovered kamado cookers during World War II and shipped them home after the war. American serviceman and entrepreneur Ed Fisher was one of those who discovered the domed clay cooker. He was amazed at how much better the food tasted, and he began to import them, sensing that there might be an interest back home.

When Ed opened the first Big Green Egg store in Atlanta in 1974, he sold a simple clay kamado based on the same design and materials that had been used thousands of years ago. Despite the great results they produced, these original cookers were fragile and not durable after exposure to the elements. Ed was fully committed to developing a company to produce and market these amazing cookers and set out to make the best one ever created.

As the EGG gained popularity, the company evolved away from clay and into ceramics utilizing state of the art manufacturing processes.

The engineers at Big Green Egg worked tirelessly with experts in ceramics to find ways to improve the design. The result was a far

superior outdoor cooker that is more durable, better insulating, and offers unmatched heat retention, a distinction that the Big Green Egg is known for and that we love.

From the original Big Green Egg, the product line has grown to include seven sizes of the EGG, available throughout the world in more than 50 countries, with hundreds of accessories designed to make cooking anything on a Big Green Egg fun, entertaining, and delicious. When you purchase an EGG, your investment is protected by a free lifetime warranty.

Life with Our Big Green Egg

From our first chicken thighs to Thanksgiving turkey to beef, pork and seafood from near and far, our Big Green Egg and cooking with lump charcoal has been a backyard cooking game changer for us (and our hungry guests). We even recently wrote about our favorite recipes thus far for USAToday 10Best (like smoked mango mojitos paired with grilled local shrimp tacos), plus preparing a feature about Big Green Egg across the decades for FoodNetwork.com (both stories are easy to find in a Google search).

For the Food Network, we cited Big Green Egg founder Ed Fisher’s love of their lump charcoal, when he said, “Our 100% lump charcoal is the flavor changer and turns everyone into backyard heroes,” recalling thousands of dishes cooked over lump charcoal on a wide variety of Big Green Eggs or their prototypes for 50-plus years.

For that story, we also provided several other chef tips, like, Felicia Jordan of Atlanta’s Black Girls Grilling, who told us, “‘You ain’t cooking, if you’re looking,’ which simply means, let the Big Green Egg do the work. A big part of the grilling session is to trust the process.”

And, our long-time Atlanta chef bud Kevin Rathbun told us, “I’ve been cooking on an EGG since 1996, and my top tip across the decades would be to explore the versatility of the EGG, from low and slow cooking to 600 degree charring of steaks and vegetables.”

Cooking “local” with our Big Green Egg is easy, thanks to the folks at Port Royal Ace Hardware, Ole Timey Meats, Sea Eagle Market, Sea Eagle’s CJ Seafood Express on Ribaut, Highway 21 Seafood, and others, plus lots of options from our beloved Port Royal Farmers Market.

Among the dozens of recipes we’ve prepared from their website, favorites include: mushroom and spinach quiche for an EGGy breakfast; braised oxtail brisket (from Black Girls Grilling); smoked BBQ chicken; blackened grouper with cheese grits; “Taco Juan” smoked pork belly tacos (from one of Mexico’s top EGGheads, who Lynn met at EGGtoberfest); smoked mango mojitos (Cheers!) and grilled local shrimp tacos; and even peach cobbler for a delicious dessert cooked on our EGG (really).

Whenever someone in the Beaufort area asks about our Big Green Egg and shows an interest in

owning one, we send them straight to our friends, the experts, at Port Royal Ace Hardware. Heck, Lynn’s been known to meet people there to discuss our experience and lessons learned.

One of those people was Jim Stone, a fellow VMI graduate, and long-time backyard grilling fan. Lynn met Jim there, where he got some great advice and had an assembled Big Green Egg delivered the next day. Of his Big Green Egg experience thus far, Jim says, “My ‘EGGxperience’ has been nothing short of extremely addictive and full of new-found, and outstanding, culinary capabilities for barbequing/smoking meat. Turkey crowns, pork shoulder/Boston butts, onion sausages, reverse-seared steaks, pizza, salmon, and many other items have been made super-easy to create on our BGE.” And for the record, Jim’s most wonderful wife, Heather, reports that she’s equally happy with their Big Green Egg experience.

Back at Port Royal Ace Hardware, manager Sean McKean, says, “We have everything one needs to get started with the Big Green Egg lifestyle here in the Lowcountry.” Sean stresses that every EGG purchased there includes free assembly and delivery (we can attest that EGGs are seriously heavy and durable). The Stones really appreciated this service and so will we when we purchase a second “last grill you’ll every buy.”

Along with an array of EGGs, storage possibilities, their famed natural lump charcoal, and hundreds of EGGcessories, they also carry options from other companies that can enhance Big Green Egg ownership, including charcoal from FOGO, B&B, Blue Hog, and others, smoking woods, cleaners, and lots more. We always leave our Ace with something that will enhance our Big Green Egg cooking experience.

As mentioned, we’ve tried dozens of recipes from Big Green Egg’s website, plus more options from the web and in cookbooks (including several EGG-specific ones). In addition to the ingredients we’ve sourced at the aforementioned stores and markets, we also have to say thanks and, “Cheers!” to GM Hal Cleveland and his staff at Frank’s Spirits and Wine (conveniently located next to our Ace), where we’ve learned great wine and cocktail pairings for our Big Green Egg creations.

We’ve also had friends and companies ship us seafood to try on our Egg, including oysters from our friend Travis Croxton at Rappahannock River Oysters (don’t miss his restaurant, Rappahannock, in Charleston), salmon and more from Alaska, and varied seafood from around the world from Fulton Fish Market and other purveyors near and far.

That said, it’s easy to prepare EGGcellent meals using nothing but locally sourced ingredients. If these new EGGheads can do it, so can you!

Big Green Egg in the Lowcountry

For more information about Big Green Egg, visit www.biggreenegg.com. To learn more about Big Green Egg ownership (which these self-professed foodies highly recommend), Beaufort-area residents should head to Port Royal Ace Hardware at 1347 Ribaut Road, Port Royal (843-379-7770; www.portroyalace.com. They are a Big Green Egg Platinum Dealer, as are Ace Hardware locations in Bluffton (Heuser Hardware at Buckwalter Place) and Hardeeville (Heuser Ace Hardware), with a half-dozen or so other varied dealers from Savannah to Charleston.

Beaufort-based travel journalists Lynn and Cele Seldon (www.seldonink.com) often cover culinary travel around the world and Lowcountry Weekly lured them to write a monthly feature covering the local food scene. This includes articles about restaurants, chefs, food-focused stores, farms, farmers, farmers markets, and more. They welcome suggestions for topics.