Cooking
Outdoor cooking experiments—primarily on my Big Green Egg and new Traeger grill—are documented here. Posts recount brisket attempts, sous‑vide pork butt sessions and holiday tenderloin traditions, with candid notes on smoke, temperature and results.
- At the “Grillmaster: Smokehouse” class at Kitchen Window. Fired up!
- Learning about smoking oysters. I’m sorry, but these things are just gross. Don’t think I can eat one.
- Ate a smoked oyster. Not for me. People eat these things?
- Love that they are serving Chimay at the class.
- Eating some amazing fish off of a stove-top smoker. Wow.
Fired up the Big Green Egg and did a 3 lb. grass-fed beef tenderloin on it tonight. Basic preparation with a little salt and pepper. Turned out really nice, but I still have much to learn. Controlling the heat on the Egg at 400 °F was harder than it should have. I could have done a better job building the fire.
Thermapen, Grill Like a Pro
A few months ago my neighbor Mike and I decided to put my Big Green Egg through it’s first real trial with a 12-hour brisket session. Mike is a stellar cook on all counts and I wanted to learn anything I could about grilling. As we were working the brisket through the hours we probed this large hunk of meat for temperature dozens of times, in dozens of locations. I’ve always had temperature probes and such, but Mike was using one of these high-end instant read digital thermometers and I realized this was a must for grilling.
I decided to be patient and put a Thermapen on my wish list for Christmas. Now that I’ve used it a few times I feel like every grill owner should just get one of these with their grill. Why?
First, a large piece of meat is going to have several different temperatures throughout the cut. The Thermapen is fast enough that you can take several readings and get “x-ray vision” into the meat. Before you even slice it, you know where the cut will be more rare and more well.
Secondly, when you are grilling at really high temperatures the grill itself gets so hot that it’s really hard to hold a probe in place for 10-20+ seconds waiting for a reading. Yes, you can put a big huge glove on but that takes a lot of time and results in fewer temperature checks. The Thermapen is so fast that you just probe it, read, and remove. 2-3 seconds tops.
If you love to grill, get a Thermapen. It gives you a lot more confidence on the grill. You can stop overcooking to be cautious. And since you can take a temperature so fast you can temp every single item on the grill before it comes off. Each and every cut can be just perfect.
We’ve been enjoying the reprieve from -20 °F to 20 °F with some great winter grilling on the Big Green Egg. Tonight is a chicken on the vertical roaster.
Celebrating the “heat wave” with some pork chops on the Big Green Egg!
Getting ready to do some New Year’s Eve grilling!
Preparing Big Green Egg for grilling. Music playing on the deck. Hello winter!!!
Researching methods to drop the Big Green Egg temp rapidly to move from searing to roasting on 3 lb tenderloin
Smoking away!
Just had, what I truly believe, is the best beef I have ever eaten! O! M! G!
Naked Whiz T-Rex Steak ← Really great description of making the “perfect steak” on your Big Green Egg. I really appreciate the detail on controlling the temperature, bringing it back to cooking temp after searing, etc.
Egghead Forum ← Place to go and learn about all things Big Green Egg.
Cold out today, but not too cold to fire up the Big Green Egg for some burgers.
Just got two backdrafts in one session from my Big Green Egg! 🔥💨
Just ordered a log hoop for the upcoming Big Green Egg chiminea.
Wishing my Big Green Egg chiminea wasn’t 3 weeks away. 😕 Rearranged the deck for it, great spot and nice layout now. Zen.
Just finished replacing the gasket on the Big Green Egg. More work than I expected, but closes so nice again.
Burgers on the Big Green Egg tonight!
Getting ready to fire up the Big Green Egg!
Homemade pizza on Big Green Egg was awesome! Need to do better with the dough next time, and need another peel. Oh, and less of a mess next time.
Just made pizza dough for tomorrow nights Big Green Egg fun.
Eating a plain chicken breast grilled off the Big Green Egg. It’s like a revelation!
Cooking my first meal on my Big Green Egg! Tenderloins — they were awesome!
Just picked up my very own Big Green Egg!