Big Green Egg

   Sorry to all my faithful readers to my blog (the only one...).  I have been busy and forgotten about this.  Well, I am going to try to do better.  At least a weekly post to keep it fresh and current.  Besides, I need an outlet for my creative ideas.  On that note, I have some things to share with you.

   I've been having fun cooking on my Big Green Egg.  So far I have cooked 3 briskets, a ham for Thanksgiving (that never saw Thanksgiving) and a few other things that aren't so amazing.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you I also made the table the Egg sits on.  

   So that is the Egg and my custom made table.  I used pressure treated pine to make the frame and cedar for the rest of it.  It took about 2 weeks to fabricate and assemble everything, then another week and something like 8 coats of Poly to get the cedar the sheen I wanted.  Dad brought his router down and we rounded over all the edges to finish it off.  I hated to put the landscaping stone under the Egg, since I knew it would scratch the finish, but I knew it before I made it.

   Brisket was the first thing I cooked on here, as experienced Egg cookers can tell by the pearly white interior.  As you use the Egg, the interior gets darker and darker until it turns black from all the smoke.  This brisket took 27~ hours to fully cook.  The fire died in the middle of the night and I had to start it back up when I got up in the morning.  I went through 4 beers (all in the drip pan, promise) and about 20 ounces of apple cider vinegar keeping the meat moist.  It was worth it though, as the brisket was WONDERFUL!!

   And this is the infamous ham that I cooked for Thanksgiving which never made it.  I was supposed to take it to my parents' house, but about 30 minutes from arriving I realized I forgot it in the fridge, along with another brisket.  The ham was wonderful though.  The taste of smoke was evident, but not the "knock your socks off" kind, just a subtle hint.  The ham was a Field Kentucky Legend and I cooked it for about 4 or 5 hours after I finished the briskets, so it was cooked the same way.  

   Now I am about to spend this week and next having Christmas with our families, and I got off my P90X when I started on the table.  Needless to say I am gaining the weight back which was lost previously.  After Christmas I will start, promise!

   I will try to do much better at keeping the blog at least a little more updated.  Until next time...