With all of the info and videos that I have found, along with the help from all of you, I went ahead and ordered a Big Joe-3. Thanks, again for all of the help. I cannot wait to get cooking on it. I will post pictures!
XL Big Green Egg vs Kamado Joe
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Enjoy the new cooker, David. :-D
Looking forward to your pictures and cooks. That is an awesome looking Pavilion
Thanks John and George. I am smoking a ribeye roast right now. I'll post some pictures of it in the morning. It may be the last cook I do on my Fat Daddy. Kevin will be delivering a new Shirley to me very soon, as long as long as the weather behaves.
Looking forward to the pics, David.
May the smoke be with you. :-D
May the smoke be with you. :-D
I saw the pictures of your roast. It is a thing of beauty
Haha, we are darn near Carnivoir, so there was not much presentation. We had the meat and just a little homemade sauerkraut and that was it, but boy it was good! Thanks mostly to all of you guys over the years!!!
You have a Shirley showing up and you're worried about a Kamado Joe and a Big Green Egg? :wink: You'll love your Shirley. The sad part is that my Big Green Egg has become a basic grill over the last 3-4 years. I can't even recall the last time I've used it for a low and slow cook. My gravity fed smoker or Shirley will see the heavy lifting when it comes to BBQ. My Big Green Egg is the workhorse and it's not even close. You can make quick weeknight meals when paired with a good lump charcoal.
You pretty much nailed it for us. We do a very low carb, high fat, mostly meat diet. I can't wait to try everything on the KJ at least once. So we eat a lot of ribeyes and hamburgers (no bun), etc. that we have been cooking on the griddle. I'm over it! I have not had a charcoal grill for 35ish years. I look forward to steaks and such on the KJ. I hear chicken is very good on them also. But when it comes to ribs, (pork and beef), brisket, pork shoulder, Tri-tip, and so on... Shirley!!!
Since we eat so much meat and I have become the primary cook, we are going to have as many options to make great food as possible and be as healthy as possible while doing it. I was sure getting some resistance when ordering these things but I sold a pile of my old toys and equipment to fund them without touching our savings. So good food, good health, yummy, more fun, and no financial compromise... That's just simple logic, right? That's a big ole, Hell Yeah!!!
My chicken Thighs come out awesome on the Egg. Bone in usuall done in 20 min or so
I ended up stumbling into my Shirley on Craigslist back in 2017. (I don't think Marketplace was a thing yet.) I would do my daily check on Craigslist to see what was available locally for grills/smokers. Really more for entertainment purposes. I'm in Minnesota and most people around here grill 4-5 months out of the year and then tuck their grills away for the winter. (I don't get it) So anything that would pop up on Craigslist for a grill or smoker was very, very basic. Once in a blue moon a Lang smoker might show up locally or within a 2-300 mile radius. One could dream. I couldn't justify the cost as I had never ran an offset smoker besides my Good One Open Range but that's not a true traditional smoker. So it was more of a dream of owning a stick burner at that point. That was until a newly listed Shirley Fabrication smoker showed up. A used Shirley Fabrication smoker was almost impossible to find used 7 years ago anywhere. Let alone Minnesota. So it was now or never. Even if I didn't have any real experience with a traditional offset. To be completely honest I tried my best to forget about the ad as it wouldn't be the best financial decision at the time. Trying to forget about the Shirley Craigslist ad lasted a half day. I had to make an attempt at purchasing it. So I messaged the seller with an offer. It wasn't too far off what he was asking but in reality I knew he would be able to get his full asking price all day long. This way I could say I at least made an attempt at buying it and let my head forget about it. I ended up messaging back and forth a few times with the seller that day and he said that he'd like to see the smoker go to someone who was going to appreciate it. So he accepted my offer. The previous owner ended up being BuckN BBQ here on the forum. I'll be forever grateful for BuckN BBQ for accepting my offer as I know he could have easily got his asking price. (He even mentioned that he had 5-6 people the next day wanting to buy it.) Thanks again BuckN BBQ!
I also had to sell off some toys to make the purchase justifiable or in my head anyway. I ended up selling my XL BGE (My wife won in a raffle), The Good One Open Range smoker that I had one or two cooks on after a 15+ hour restoration on it (That was a hard one to list), one of my Small BGE's that I picked up on clearance cheap but never used, and a Big Steel Keg that I picked up cheap to flip. Selling of extra grills/toys for the Shirley was a win/win. It cleared up some space and made the purchase a little more justifiable.
You'll love your Kamado Joe for quick cooks paired with Rockwood. Our large BGE is a chicken cooking machine here at our house for leftovers/lunches. (Chicken was a big selling point when buying the BGE) Searing steaks is hard to beat!
