We have a smoker, in addition to a full size gas grill. My husband cooks on the grill several nights each week, and occasionally uses the smoker, which I love for smoked turkey breast, etc. The green egg looks as though it could combine both types of cooking in one unit, so thatâÂÂs a plus! I think it would be a great purchase for you.

We have this one linked below. Basically it's a metal box with racks and a thermostat. It's gas powered and DH throws wood in too. It's fairly light weight, especially compared to the egg.

Honestly, by the time you factor in the cost of the smoker, the wood, the spice rub, the wet ingredients, the meat, the gas and the time it's cheaper to go out to dinner. :) DH really enjoys it though so I consider the cooking to be his hobby.

Here is a link that might be useful: smoke vault

This post was edited by deee on Thu, Jun 13, 13 at 11:27

We have the Costco version of the Big Green Egg. We love it but we also have a gas grill for nights when we don't have the time for the "big black egg." It takes way more time to start than a regular BBQ, charcoal or gas. I give it an hour to get going.

DH was a die hard Weber charcoal griller. I decided I wanted a Big Green Egg to do things like ribs, pulled pork, etc. - things that need to cook at a low temperature for a long time. Absolutely LOVE the BGE. He does too and never uses the Weber anymore. In fact he's taken over the BGE as his and will hardly let me touch it. I would highly recommend. Also for charcoal grillers, the lump charcoal is far superior to the old briquets.

The BGE heats up in no time - not sure why the Costco knock-off takes so long.

My DH loves the BGE also! I personally think its an eyesore on our patio, although I've seen the stands that make it looked built in which looks better. And, he smells like smoke afterwards but the food sure is good!! He thinks it's the greatest thing though and worth it.

Ohhhh.. I have lusted for a BGE for years now. I really couldnt justify one when I had both a gas grill and a charcoal grill. Now I am down to just a charcoal grill and your raves are nudging me to take the leap!

I bought DH a BGE several years ago for Father's Day. It stays in one place in its nest since it's so heavy. We have really enjoyed it-everything is so moist and juicy, even a wild turkey that our oldest son shot one year.

We have the large BGE (not extra large). Chose that size because it seemed to be about the same size as the weber. I wouldn't want any smaller. Ours is at our lake place and we were kind of concerned about just leaving it unsecured on our deck when we're not there. Especially during the winter when we're there even less and there aren't many other people around either. We decided it was so damn hard to get the thing across the yard and on the deck that it was pretty unlikely someone would some how drag the thing through the ice and snow to steal it. So far so good. We keep it covered on the deck year round.

Contrary to olliesmom, I think it's a thing of beauty. We just have the nest and flip down wooden shelves so it's as compact as possible. For those who have tons of money and want it to look really nice they have a new eggcessory - a fancy stainless steel cabinet for the outdoor kitchen look.

I'm in paint (& general sales too) at work....

* We're a BIG Weber dealer, & it's SO fun helping people with stuff for BBQ-ing!
* We've also got that Vault, & a couple "Egg"-style smokers. Not nearly as popular vs. a few years ago here tho'.
* Just helped a young man with the linked Weber smoker. He bought some Traeger smoking pellets, regular charcoal, & a bag of Cowboy Hickory wood-lump charcoal.
* It's a nice, easily portable smoker, and does a good job.
* The Traeger smoking-grills are getting increasingly popular here, and we stock most of them. Most have to be plugged-in to run the Thermometer/auto-augering-system for the many flavored pellets available.
* The smaller ones are portable tho'!
* Near the Traeger area, we've got EIGHT full pallets of their wood-pellets!!
* Check out Traegergrills.com
* There are some RABID fans of these Traegers 'round here!

Faron

PS....Someday I'll have to get one of the Weber Summit-series grills! From $1800~$2400....Uffda! We have sold a couple of the "Weber-island" Summit Grill-Center setups this year....$5,000+ for all the S/S side-cabinetry, etc.!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Weber smoker...

We have a BGE as well. They have a lifetime guarantee. We can light it and start cooking in 20-25 minutes. We decided to spend the extra money and go with the BGE. We love it. I will never buy another pizza from take out again!

So how do you all light your BGE? Do you use the wood chunks or regular charcoal brickettes? Ours is new so I might be doing something wrong. We use the real wood charcoal and light it with an electric lighter and leave it for twenty minutes. It takes me almost an hour to get the temperature stabilized. The wood charcoal seems hard to get started.

Please share your tips with me. We are new owners and must be doing something wrong.

We use lump charcoal and the little square fire starters. They have BGE brand but we just buy them at the hardware store in the fireplace section. We leave all the air openings wide open while starting. Once it starts heating it goes up very fast - you have to keep an eye on it.

April - can you share info on how you do your pizza? I tried once but thought making dough from scratch was too much of a PITA.

This post was edited by gibby3000 on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 18:53

Our local publix makes pizza dough. It is to much trouble to make from scratch. Pizza sauce is a basic marinara sauce either homemade or from a jar. I have made veggie, meat lovers, pepperoni and BBQ shrimp with local mayport shrimp (that is always a hit, I use half pizza sauce and half Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce). We have a BGE pizza tool. Another key is to use corn meal on your counter when rolling out the dough. Keep the dough cold before your roll it out. It is easier to get the dough on the tool that way. Then we just slide it on the grill. Cook at 350 for 8-10 minutes and it's done.

Thanks! I just need to find the premade dough.

We have a charcoal smoker/grill combo. It's the black metal one with a small smoker 'box' on one end. I took up smoking meat this year--Oh my, what fun! The smoker is like slightly tempermental outdoor crock pot....long and slow.