Bread

We splurged for a pizza stone. It is a little easier to handle than the big plate setter, and it came with a wooden pizza peel all for just $13 at our favourite BBQ store. To use the stone, just sit it on top of the plate setter, and remove (using gloves or oven mitts) when done. Do not wash the stone.

Bread is fantastic in the Big Green Egg - it comes out with a nice crispy crust. Make sure the coals are going well - we usually put bread on after the main stuff is cooked. Make a round loaf and place it on the greased or floured pizza stone.

Cook at around 375 - 400, for about 45 mins to an hour or so, or until you think it is done. This will depend on how large a loaf you are making and what shape - I like a nice round loaf. I like bread that doesn't have any sugar, with a pinch of herbes de provence added to the dough.

Turkey

Believe it or not, turkey can be delicious and moist cooked on the Big Green Egg. We used this recipe to cook our Easter turkey, plenty of sugar maple charcoal, and a combination of apple and cherry wood for the smoke. For herbs we used fresh tarragon and thyme - that's all we could find at the grocery store. It was fantastic - one of the best turkeys I have ever eaten, and the breast meat was moist and not dry.

Pizza on the Big Green Egg

Now that we have the plate-setter for the Big Green Egg the next step was to make pizza. We didn't know where to start given that we'd never even used a baking stone before, but somehow we muddled our way through with delicious results.

The first step was to light the coals and place the plate-setter with the "legs down" as pictured in the last post. This brings the baking stone surface closer to the top of the Egg, and preheats it.

We made a standard recipe of bread dough in the breadmaker. We spread the dough fairly thick on a pizza pan, and then pried it up carefully, placed cornmeal on the pan and laid the dough back down on the pan. The cornmeal prevented the dough from sticking to the pan while we put the toppings on it. The pizza was transferred from the pizza pan directly onto the plate-setter in the egg with some kitchen utensils. You can grease the plate-setter or baking stone, or you can sprinkle flour on it. Make sure not to overlap over the edges of the plate-setter.

Baked the pizza for about 20 mins at about 350F. The next pizza baked for 15 mins at 400F - 425F and had a crispier crust. I would definitely try this again! The tricky part is assembling the pizza and transferring it to the egg.

Texas BBQ Brisket

We decided to be adventurous this weekend and try something stupendous in the Big Green Egg. This required purchasing the plate-setter in order to cook over indirect heat for a long time without burning our epicurean masterpiece.

This brisket's slow cooked smokiness was absolutely delicious and well worth the wait. It was rubbed with a dry spice rub and basted hourly with a mop mixture. In addition, a handful of mesquite wood chips were added for smoke every hour.

You will need:

• 4 cups mesquite wood chips soaked in water for at least 30 mins.

Brisket and rub:

• a 5 lb brisket

For the rub, mix together:

• 3 T chili powder
• 1 T coarse salt
• 2 t ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 t brown sugar
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t dried oregano

For the mop baste:

• 1 c white vinegar
• 1 c beer
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1 t red chili flakes
• 1 t black pepper

Rub the brisket on all sides with the rub mixture. Place fat side up on an oven broiler pan with drip pan underneath.

Get the coals going in your Egg. When they are all lit and starting to ash over, throw in a handful of mesquite wood chips, and place the plate-setter in the egg in position for slow cooking. This would make it upside down from the photo shown above. Then place your grill on, and put the brisket on the broiler pan on the grill.

Maintain the temperature at 250F. Every hour, baste with the mop sauce, and add a handful of wood chips. Cook until the meat registers 190F. For us this took 7 1/2 hours, but it will depend on the thickness of the meat. It should take at least 6 hours.

The results were an absolutely delicious, moist and tender brisket, which was quite spicy with a wonderful smokey flavour. If you don't like spice, just eliminate some or all of the black pepper.

Red Pepper Jelly Glazed Pork Butt

• 1/2 cup Red Pepper Jelly with Roasted Garlic
• 2 T Soy Sauce
• 1/2 t ground black pepper
• 1/2 t fennel seeds
• 1/2 t dried rosemary
• 5 - 7 lb (3.2 kg) pork butt roast

Heat the Egg to around 325F. Mix the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Place pork on a V-rack and place into a drip pan. Place in Egg and heat until meat temperature reaches 170F, about 4 hours. From time to time, spoon more glaze on meat while cooking.

Master Choice Prime Rib Burgers

The plan was to fire up the Weber to make our usual Tuesday night rush-meal of burgers. But seeing as the Weber was buried under a mountain of snow our 16 yr old offered to light the egg while we were on our way home from work rather than shovel out the Weber.

With Egg lit, we cranked it up to about 350F - 400F and put the 8 burgers on the grill. 15 minutes later, they were done to perfection and juicy - from frozen. They normally take 20 minutes on the Weber.

Note to self - burger buns toast extremely fast on the Egg - supervise carefully!

Roast Beef

Tonight we planned to cook a sirloin roast on the Egg. However, the egg had frozen shut from Saturday night. We placed some firestarter in the bottom and waited for the egg to "hatch" - ie heat up enough to thaw the lid open. Once the lid was open - about 40 minutes later, we were cooking with charcoal!

We opened the top quite a bit, and left the mesh screen closed but the bottom slider door completely open until the grill heated up to 400F to 425F.

We placed a sirloin tip roast fat side up on a V-rack, and placed the rack in a drip pan. We also placed potatoes in the drip pan. Covered the roast with ground black pepper, Club House spicy pepper medley, some dried rosemary and some sliced onion.

Cooked at 400F to 425F until internal temperature was at 165F. It took about 2 1/2 hours.

Results: Potatoes were a little overdone / crispy on the outside. They would have worked better on the V-rack instead of placed in the drip pan. Meat was a little on the well-done side. I like my beef medium to medium-well. However, it was moist and absolutely delicious, the potatoes had great flavour, and next time I will try cooking the meat to 160F.