Big Green Egg Owners (and the like) Educate a Newbie

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Also, what should I try to cook first?

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drunk chicken

get a fire iron to start your lump coal.

Starter cubes and Chimney is excess work IMHO. Torch the lump in 2-3 spots with MAPP and you're rolling in minutes.

Looftligther is legit.

Also plate setter, smoke cap and the nest are all needed.

Wings or a whole chicken is your best bet for a first use.

Best pro tip I can give you is when the temp gets over 450ish make sure you burp the lid before you open it, you can YouTube this to get a better understanding. I burned the hair off my hand the first time I did steaks

Number 1 thing is a Platesetter. Crucial for cooking with indirect heat.

How you light it is up to you. I prefer the parafin starters. It takes longer but in all honesty I'm a fire bug. I enjoy sitting out back with a drink and a book while the fire burns down and ignites the coals. If you want the quickest start go with the MAPP option.

Get a Thermopen. I don't care that it costs $60-90...it's worth it. I don't care what anyone says you can't accurately judge the doneness of food without a good thermometer. The Thermopen will give you an accurate reading within a second. May not sound like a big deal, but when you're cooking a steak on high heat or something delicate like fish you want that quick and accurate read.

Other things you may want to consider:
Cast iron grates to replace what comes with it. Better searing for meats. They're also thicker so there's less space for something like asparagus to fall through into the coals.

Maverick thermometer is good for long cooks. I have one but I don't do a lot of long cooks so I don't use the Maverick often. I still recommend it later if it's something you'll use.

Get a pair of gloves that can handle heat over 500 degrees. You'll want those for steaks or pizzas.

Pizza stones are a good idea...or unglazed floor tiles from a hardware store. Pizzas are awesome on the Ceramic grills.

Buy Natural Hardwood Lump. I usually buy the BGE charcoal because it's close to my house and it leaves less ash than what I can grab at the closest grocery store. But buy whichever you want. Royal Oak is highly regarded as well.

I really like the Ash Tool. Good item for stirring charcoal and pulling out ash from the bottom.


First cook:
My recommendation is chicken. Easy cook and it really shows the power of a ceramic grill. Do it however you want: full chicken, drunk chicken, leg quarters, spatchcocked, whatever.

My personal favorites are leg quarters and spatchcocked. Spatchcock is just cutting out the backbone and laying the whole bird flat. Cooks much faster and more evenly.

I will say drunk chicken doesn't work anywhere. In order to get the liquid to boil, you would have to raise the temp to the boiling point. Since it's in the middle of the chicken that means the chicken around the can would have to be at the boiling point. Meaning your chicken would already be well overcooked before the liquid starts boiling. Shoving a can up the bird's arse also prevents the air from circulating in the cavity and cuts down the effectiveness of the cook. I still use the can holder to prop a whole chicken up so there is better air circulation and cooking on all sides...I just don't put the can in the middle.


Don't do any high temp cooks (over 400 degrees) until you've done 4 or 5 cooks under that temp. This should give your gasket a better chance at sealing properly. I did pizza on my 3rd cook at 600 degrees and the gasket melted right off. Although you do an option to replace the stock gasket with a higher fire rated option like Nomex. The gasket is pretty important for the slow and low cooks and regulating a temp in the 200 degree range.

Some other early options to cook are fish (cedar planked salmon is great) and pork loins or tenderloins.

Experiment with stuff outside of normal grilled foods. One of my favorite grilled dishes is paella. Comes out great on the Egg. Check out some online forums for some great cooking ideas.

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Highly recommend the Looftlighter as a starter. Great product and great service LINK

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Looks cool. How much does that run?

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plate setter
Mapp torch
Royal oak lump
Maverick thermometer
Thermopen

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perfect

Cook a spatchcocked chicken or two....a good first cook.

When using the looflighter, do you light in multiple places or what?

Tired of using the starter cubes, they often take longer than I'd like. Would rather the reusable looflighter than the disposable metal MAPP canisters & a petroleum product.

I use the looflighter...mine is probably 18 months old and use it twice a week. It takes about 2 minutes to have the entire box of my Primo red hot. I just get it started in one spot then back out the lighter and pump the air into to ignite all the lump. Go in, get your protein ready and grilling or smoking in under 10 minutes.

Will always have one. Needing electricity kinda sucks, but I bought an ext cord that I store next to the grill.

frick off