5 Cooking Tips We’ve Learned from 50 Years of the Big Green Egg
This backyard kitchen icon is a workhorse — and all your favorite chefs love it.
Courtesy of Big Green Egg
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1974 founding of Big Green Egg in Atlanta. Though the "egg" has had many small tweaks and lots of accessories over the years, the original ceramic kamado-style Big Green Egg remains a backyard fave across the globe. Here are five pro tips (one for each decade!) for using the Big Green Egg to its fullest potential.
Lump charcoal is the key.
Big Green Egg founder Ed Fisher began importing Japanese-style kamado grills to an Atlanta suburb in 1974. He soon realized the need to simplify the sizes and colors offered, and he began his search for higher-quality ceramics that would be more durable. Over the past 50 years, Ed and the Big Green Egg team would test thousands of dishes, as they improved and evolved the grill to be a simple, versatile and powerful machine — and they know that lump charcoal is a key ingredient. "Our 100% lump charcoal is the flavor changer and turns everyone into backyard heroes," Ed says.
Courtesy of Big Green Egg
Learn to embrace the live fire — and listen to your mom!
From the beginning, Ed knew that women heavily influenced the home purchases of a grill and meals planning so almost all Big Green Egg print ads in the first two decades featured women. "I'm certain my mom and dad saw one of those ads, because they went to Ed's store nearby and bought one," says Nancy George, long-time creative director at Big Green Egg. "We cooked hamburgers, steaks, and other easy stuff on it for decades. My tip, by way of my mom and dad, would be to embrace cooking with live fire. The flavor is incredible and you can cook everything from proteins to vegetables, pizza, and desserts."
Courtesy of Black Girls Grilling
The more you use it, the more you'll want to use it.
Rodney Deal (aka "Mr. Toad")has been to every EGGtoberfest since the inaugural (and now-epic) festival of EGGheads in Atlanta in 1998. The event now welcomes more than 3,000 Big Green Egg aficionados and features food cooked on over 200 Eggs. Rodney and his wife Alyce had just purchased their first Big Green Egg in 1996 and they were EGGheads the first day they used it. Mr. Toad's tip from three decades and counting of cooking on the EGG is simple: "Just use it!" he says. "The more you use it for regular cooking, the better you get, day by day. But you succeed with it from day one." One of the most popular cooking stations at 2023's EGGtoberfest belonged to Atlanta's Black Girls Grilling, where sisters Felicia Jordan and India Glass, who come from a long line of pitmasters and southern cooks, served up their famed smoked oxtails and cheesy smoked gouda grits. Felicia says, "One of our fave tips is, 'You ain't cooking, if you're looking,' which simply means, let the Big Green Egg do the work."
Kevin Rathburn / Courtesy of Big Green Egg
Explore recipes beyond your usual grilling fare.
Atlanta chef Kevin Rathbun opened his still eminently popular restaurant, Kevin Rathbun Steak, in 2007 and KR Steakbar in 2013. Kevin and his crew have used an Egg at the restaurants daily since opening, often for smoking. They smoke Japanese wagyu short rib skewers with yakiniku and miso aioli (one of the most popular dishes on the menu), pork belly, tomatoes for heirloom grits, vegetables and butters and stocks for many sauces and sides. He says, "I've been cooking on an Egg since 1996, and my top tip across the decades would be to explore the versatility of the Egg, from low and slow cooking to 600-degree charring of steaks and vegetables."
David Rose / Courtesy of Big Green Egg
You should even use it for baking.
In 2021, Big Green Egg brand ambassador (and EGGtoberfest host), David Rose published, Eggin': David Rose Cooks on the Big Green Egg, and it remains one of the top resources for Eggheads. Rose's favorite tip for the Big Green Egg is to use it for baking. He says, "Baking on the Egg is a gamechanger! Sweet treats and smoked desserts are the perfect conclusion to any meal because the Big Green Egg really can do it all." Citing custardy Jamaican rum–raisin bread pudding and bourbon and ginger-laced smoked pecan pie recipes from the baking chapter of his book, Rose says, "Baking on the Egg GG adds a nice smoky-savory note that gives a complex depth to each dessert. Smoking with pecan, apple, or cherry wood chips is a great option."
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