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Big Green Egg Grill Recipes

Filet Mignon With Scallion Butter

Ingredients:

4 filet mignons each 1 1/2" thick.
2 TBS olive oil.
1 TSP black pepper
Vegetable oil spray.
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
4 TBS scallion butter (see recipe below).
1/2 cup unsalted soft butter.
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese crumbled at room temperature.
1/4 cup chopped scallions.
1 TSP coarsely ground black pepper.
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

Directions:

Total preparation time: 1 hour (Serves 4)

Rub the steaks with olive oil and pepper. Set aside for 20 to 30 minutes or until ready to grill.
Lightly spray the cooking grate with vegetable oil spray.
Bring the Egg heat up to 600 degrees with cooking grate in. (I use the cast iron cooking grid)
Rub the sea salt into both sides of the steaks. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes on each side for rare meat or for 6-7 minutes for medium-rare meat. Brush a little more olive oil on the steaks after they are turned. Place a pat of the compound butter on top of each filet mignon as soon as it comes off the grill so that the butter begins to melt on top of the meat. Let the meat rest for a few minutes before serving.

Scallion Butter Directions:

With a hand-held mixer blend the butter and Gorgonzola cheese until smooth. Add the scallions, pepper and vinegar and blend for about 1 minute longer until fully mixed.
Put scallion butter on plastic wrap and roll into a log shape then seal butter in plastic bag and refrigerate until ready to use.

Brisket
Submitted by: Elder Ward

11 pounds cooked in 6-7 hours. It is my observation that a good piece of beef should be solid without being tough, yet tender without falling apart like pulled pork. What I am striving for in the end result is a sliceable piece of meat that is easy enough for an old man to bite without having to grind it. The flavor of the meat is distinct due to the seasonings and complex to the point that no one spice dominates the tongue. The sauce has a uniqueness of its own that neither dominates the meat nor hides the spice bend but compliments both. The end result being that both the meat and sauce are distinct and good in their own right but when combined creates a magic flavor that can't be duplicated alone. With this lofty goal in mind lets see what we can create.

Ingredients:

4 Tbs Kosher salt
4 Tbs raw Hawaiian sugar
2 Tbs ground Cumin seeds
4 Tbs McCormick Chili powder (Chile en polvo oscuro)
2 Tbs cracked Black pepper
1 Tbs Cayenne pepper fine ground
4 Tbs Hungarian paprika
2 Tbs Thyme ground

Preparation Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and liquefy in short burst until the color is uniform and all parts are about the same size. You will have to stop and shake it after every short burst because the fine stuff will settle to the bottom. What we are doing here is heating the spices just enough to bond them together without burning them.
This changes the flavor by melding them together. Reserve ½ cup for use later in side dish but the rest of this is going on the meat.

Place the meat, flesh side up & fat side down on top of a piece or two of wax paper. Do not rinse the meat or pat dry, what ever blood and water falls off when you pick it up is fine otherwise don't mess with it. Cover the flesh side with spice blend until you can't see the meat. Hold up the sides of the wax paper and coat the edges of the meat.

Cooking Directions:
Load up your cooker with BGE Lump or another good quality oak lump. Start the fire dead center and on top of the lump with fire place starter. When it is burning good build a little pile of lump over it so that it lights these larger pieces. When the starter has burned out and the flames are down then spread the piled up coals around the perimeter to have an even fire. Put a fist size chunk of Red Oak, Bark side down on the center fire and lay a equal size piece of hickory next to it. Place your grill on. Close the lid and let the dome get to 275*. Get a V rack (horizontal turkey rack) with handles and flip that brisket over gently so as not to lose the seasoning flesh side down. Now coat the fat side with the balance of the seasoning so it looks like your cooking a seasoning cake not meat. Insert polder in largest part of meat half way in and place on the grill. Close the lid and stabilize the heat at 275* +/- 10*. Set the alarm to 202*. This took about 6-7 hours to cook an eleven pound brisket. When the alarm goes off wrap the brisket in two layers of foil, two towels and pack it in an empty ice chest with the lid closed.

Special Instructions:
See sauce in sauce section.
See my method of making Tanker Tim's BBQ beans in sides.
See Japanese Rice in sides.
Finally, slice brisket from smallest end first at about a 30 to 40* angle. Arrange 3 to 5 slices on a plate according to appetite and ladle enough sauce over the meat to completely cover. Serve with a scoop of Tanker Tim's beans ala Elder Ward style. Rice is placed beside the other two dishes on the same plate and is used to clean up the sauce when finished eating the meat and beans. Serve with a good cup of black coffee or sweet ice tea and enjoy.

Steak
Submitted by: Tim M
From: TRex

You should experience the best home-cooked steak of your life, and probably a steak that is better than what you can get at most nice steak houses. ENJOY!

Ingredients:

Top sirloin strip steaks

Preparation Directions:
CHOOSE YOUR MEAT WISELY (what to buy): -- Buy top sirloin strip steaks--these tend to have the perfect combination of marble (for taste) and tenderness. Always get the BEST stuff, usually about $9.99/lb. Prime or Angus beef is good stuff. Don't let the butcher sell you Choice or Select for a sale price. I experimented with buying cheaper meat or meat that was on sale--I learned a big lesson: all you get when you carefully cook crappy meat is cooked crappy meat--often tough, fatty, or not very juicy. I firmly believe that 95% OF A GOOD STEAK DEPENDS ON THE MEAT YOU START WITH. Also, avoid buying a display case steak. I always try to get the butcher to cut me one fresh from the center of a large side of beef that he pulls out of a cryovac package from the back refrigerator (Note, if the beef is in a cryovac package, it has been “wet-aged.”); that way, the steak is cherry-red when it is handed to you (it hasn’t “bloomed” yet). If possible, get the butcher to cut your steak 2" thick--you certainly don't want it any thinner than 1.5”--if thicker, you'll just have to add to the cooking time. Note: these steaks should have a nice marble to them, no bone. Also note that the sooner you can cook a steak the better—I usually try to cook the steak within a couple of hours of having bought it, so I bring it home, set it on the counter (so it can start coming to near room temperature), eat some chips and salsa for a while, then go fire up the Egg.

Cooking Directions:
THE RUB (what to buy): Simple is the key here. You want to enhance the natural flavor of the beef, not add a lot to it. So, first buy Kosher sea salt. I think there's a real coarse kind and a less coarse kind--get the less coarse kind. You don't want to be pouring ice cream maker salt on your steak. Second, buy spicy brown porter-style mustard. Third, buy coarse ground black pepper or use fresh peppercorns in your own pepper mill. Fourth, buy olive oil, if you don’t already have some in your pantry.

THE SMOKE (what to buy): First of all, never buy wood CHIPS!! Always buy wood CHUNKS. Chips just catch on fire and char whatever you're cooking. I usually buy my wood chunks at Barbeques Galore here in Houston--I can't remember what brand they are, but let me recommend that you buy your wood chunks from a BBQ/grill store that sells the Egg, or just a store that is dedicated to grills--i.e., don't get them from a grocery store. I bought a really inexpensive bag of chunks at Kroger once but was very disappointed in their performance--not very fragrant, very little smoke, and caught on fire easily.

Now, I use Mesquite when I do steaks because it has a strong biting flavor that goes great with grilled beef. Also, since the smoke is strong, this allows for its flavor to be absorbed during the relatively short time the steaks will be exposed to the smoke.

PREPARING THE CHUNKS—AN OVERRATED “ART”: Chunks always last longer before catching fire if they have been soaked in water for at least an hour. When I first had my Egg I would keep a sealed Tupperware container outside with wood chunks soaking in water. The only downside to this method is that the chunks begin to smell like death (actually, the smell of rotting wood and bacteria). Of course, 10 seconds on white-hot coals gets rid of the death smell and bacteria, but I later discovered a method that helps me avoid this stomach-turning experience. Well, you can just soak the chunks you want to use an hour before you use them, or overnight if you know you will be using the Egg the next day. But recently I have found that if you are cooking just a steak, or a couple of pieces of chicken, or come burgers, you can line the perimeter of your coals with three or four DRY chunks and put your meat in the center of the grill. That way, if the chunks catch on fire, they won’t char your meat b/c the meat will be in the center and the chunks will be burning on the outside. And what I have found is that fist-sized dry chunks will smoke for 10 - 20 minutes at Egg temperatures between 300 – 375 F before they catch on fire. This of course means that if you are cooking something that will take less than 20 minutes, you really don’t need to soak your chunks. Some may argue that you often don’t want more than 20 – 30 minutes of smoke anyway, so don’t ever bother soaking your chunks. Note: I will discuss later WHEN to put the chunks on the coals—this is important (e.g., if you put the chunks on the coals when the Egg temperature is above 400 F, they probably won’t last 5 minutes before catching on fire).

TAKE YOUR TIME: (as you well know, good cooking comes to those who wait): If you can be patient enough, it is best to let the meat come to near room temperature before doing any searing/cooking. What I usually do is set the meat out for thirty minutes to an hour (if it's still cold, it's not room temperature, unless you’re in a really cold room—you know what I mean).

TO BUILD A FIRE—MAKING LAVA FOR THE SEAR: Jack London died long before the Egg had gained popularity in the New World, but man would he have appreciated this experience. Building a good fire took me a couple of weeks of practice. I only met success once I learned the secret: patience. As you might have perceived by now, cooking with the Egg is an experience, a journey—not a quick 21st century mouse-click. It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes before I have brought the Egg to life. What does this look like? Hot, yellow glowing coals, or, as Cameron says, “glowing lava.” You don’t want to see much black. Now, all 20 of these minutes are not spent standing by the Egg (although, with a nice cold Corona, I highly recommend it). The last 5-10 you’re just letting the coals turn into lava.

Okay, so, how do you start? There are competing methods used to make a fire in the Egg—the BGE forum suggests a few, and I’m sure your video suggests a method as well. Feel free to use whatever method you like, but I’ll share with you the method that’s been working well for me.

To start the fire, I’ve been using these self-striking starters which I buy at Kroger. They appear to be wood particles held together by a paraffin binder. You can get them at most grocery stores I believe. You can also use those lighter cubes called Encendedores—they work well, but I would use two. The important thing is not to use a huge starter piece that will take forever to burn away. The self-striking starters (which are like 5”x2”x0.5”) work really nicely. Before you light your starter piece, put two small, skinny long pieces of lump on the bottom of your fire box. (The firebox should be clean and your grill grate is off at this point.) You will essentially be making a bridge between these two pieces with your starter piece—hence, they act as shims to let air flow underneath your starter piece to help it burn more efficiently.

Now, make sure your bottom air vent is completely open. Light your starter piece and hold it vertically (I use tongs) so that the fire climbs it and the entire piece catches on fire. Now, make your little bridge across the two small pieces of lump. Next, starting with large pieces of charcoal, make a pyramid on top of the starter pieces—just 5 or 6 pieces. Let these get burning well, then start to add more charcoal, 5 pieces or so at a time (more as the pieces get smaller), taking care not to smother your flame. You can gradually use smaller pieces of charcoal as you fill the firebox. Before each addition of charcoal, make sure the previous pieces have started to catch somewhat and that you have a nice flame to set the new pieces into. Continue this process until you have filled your firebox just above the level of the air holes with charcoal. This sounds like a long process, but it’s not. To facilitate your flame, you may want to blow into the bottom vent (I use a small hand-held fan, I’ve heard of some people using hair dryers, which add the extra bonus of preheating your air prior to combustion). This can often cut your start-up time in half (I once brought my Mini up to almost 900 F in under 5 minutes using a handheld fan). Once you have a filled firebox with a good flame (not a smoldering mound of charcoal), you can leave the bottom vent open, replace your grill grate, (put your skillet on the grill grate if you’re going to sear in a skillet), close the Egg, leave the top vent completely uncovered, and walk away. It usually takes me at least 10 minutes or so to get to this point. Now, you’re trying to get lava temperatures in order to do your sear, so that is why you want maximum air flow. You may want to go prep your meat at this time (see Prepping the Meat) or wait about 5 minutes and then go prep your meat. After about another 5-10 minutes after closing the Egg, you should return to find glowing charcoal inside and probably some flames shooting out of your chimney and a temp gage that is approaching 750F, which is about where you want it (higher is better) to do your sear. You may at this point want to add more charcoal if your level has fallen below the air holes (this is more important when you’re doing a long or high-temperature cook, but less necessary for a short cook like steak). If you smell gasket melting, you are ready to sear your steak (but prep it first!) IMPORTANT NOTE: When running your Egg at these lava temperatures, it is very easy to get flashback when you open the lid. “Burp” your lid several times before opening and STAND BACK. Look at the Naked Whiz’s website for more details on flashback. (Click here to visit the Naked Whiz's page on flashbacks.)

PREPPING THE MEAT: I usually prep the meat about 5 minutes before throwing it on the Egg (if you prep too early, the salt may remove too much juice from the meat). Your Egg should be roaring at adiabatic flame temperatures right about now, so get out your Kosher sea salt, spicy brown mustard, coarse ground pepper, and olive oil. GENEROUSLY shake an evenly-dispersed coating of sea salt on one side of the steak. Okay, what does this look like? Well, cover the surface of the steak but don’t pile salt on salt. Does that make sense? Let’s put it this way, if you go, “Damn, that’s way too much salt,” then you’ve probably done just the right amount. Remember, a lot of this falls off during the searing process. Now, work the salt into the meat with your fingers. I do this until I can no longer see any white in the salt. Also, work some into the edge of the steak. Next, grind a generous amount of black pepper onto the surface (not as much as the salt, but a decent amount—I usually do about 20-30 turns of the pepper mill). Work the pepper into the meat just as you did the salt. Flip the steak and repeat the salt and pepper. Now, spread a thin coating of mustard on one side, followed by a light coating of olive oil (I usually just dip my finger in the olive oil and run my finger across the surface of the steak, but a lot of people pour olive oil into a spray bottle and spray a nice mist of oil). Stand the steak on its edge (if you flip it completely, the mustard will end up on the plate, not the steak) and repeat the mustard and olive oil on the other side. Keep the steak on its edge and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then, you’re ready to sear.

TOOLS: Okay, you’re about to start handling a hot steak over an even hotter grill. I learned the hard way that the tools you use to handle the meat are very important. I’ll go ahead and tell you that, if I can, I always handle the meat with my hands, even pulling it off of a hot skillet or grill. But, if you have to use a tool, DON’T USE A TOOL THAT CAN PUNCTURE THE MEAT. While spearing the meat is the easiest way to pick it up, this creates holes in the meat from which priceless juices escape while cooking. If I don’t use my hands, I use tongs or a spatula. I guess I prefer tongs since the spatula tends to scrape the rub off the meat.

SEARING THE MEAT: Your meat should be about room temperature now. If it’s still cool, that’s okay—you just don’t want it cold and stiff. Now, I've tried searing on the grill grate in its normal position, on the grill grate with the grate sitting basically on the coals, and in a cast iron pan that has come up to lava temps with the Egg. If you're into char crust, the skillet is your best bet. I didn't notice a big difference in how close the grate was to the coals except that it is just plain easier to sear on the grate in its normal position. If you do use a skillet, use a cast iron skillet--don’t use a “nice” skillet. The first time I seared a steak I used our $100 Caphalon skillet and ruined it converted it into my steak-searing skillet. For searing in a skillet, you can put the skillet on the grill grate as you’re waiting for the Egg to come up to lava temps, and the skillet will follow suit. Open the Egg slowly, and throw the steak onto one side of the skillet. Let it sizzle and smoke for at least a minute—I usually let it go 90 seconds. There will be flames all over the steak, but don’t start to panic thinking that you’re burning the crap out of your meat. It’s gonna sizzle and it’s gonna smoke like hell, and the seared side WILL get black in spots, but this will form the tasty crust of your perfect steak (if you don’t like the black crust, you can always flake it off). After 90 seconds (if you’re brave), flip the meat (DON’T USE A FORK TO FLIP!). If the skillet is big enough, sear the other side of the meat in a different spot on the skillet so that you get a hot spot on the skillet. After searing the second side, take your meat out of the skillet and set it on a plate. When the smoke clears, you will see that you have a beautifully seared steak. For searing directly on the grill grate (which is what I always do these days), do the same thing, except substitute the words “grill grate” for “skillet.”

HUNGRY YET? BE PATIENT!: Now, the second most important step—letting the meat rest. I learned this important tidbit from a friend of mine who has been a chef at several well-known steak houses, including Pappas Bros. here in Houston. Meat is mostly muscle that will contract and tighten during the searing process. For a tender, juicy steak, you must let the muscle in the meat relax before you cook your steak at a lower temperature. After much experimentation, I have found that the optimum resting time for a steak is 20 minutes. Any longer than this and the juices start to run out of the meat. So leave the steak on a plate in your kitchen and walk away (if you have a dog, you may not want to walk away) .

QUELLING THE FIRE—PREPARING FOR THE MAIN COOK: After having seared your steak and while your meat is resting, you need to start bringing the Egg down to cooking temperatures. Close the bottom vent until it’s open about 1.5”. Close the top of the Egg and move your daisy wheel until about 0.5” of the top opening is exposed. Also, fine-tune the shutters on the wheel to about 50% open. Wait a few minutes and the temperature should begin to fall. Your target temperature is going to be 400 F. This is the part that takes practice. You shouldn’t have to adjust the bottom vent, but you may have to play around with the daisy wheel to get your temperature stabilized where you want it. The only time I would adjust the bottom vent is to open it up and blow air in if my temperature has dropped below 250 F and fails to recover, or to close it off if my wood chunks have caught on fire or I’m having flame-ups. Hopefully during the 20 minutes your steak has been resting you have stabilized the Egg at around 400 F. Once there, pick out three fist-sized mesquite wood chunks. Have them handy. When you’ve approached the 20th minute of your resting time, open the Egg, remove the grill grate CAREFULLY using tongs, place your wood chunks on the perimeter of the coals (not in the middle), and put your grate back on. Close the Egg. You will notice now that your temperature has dropped probably below 350 F, but it will recover once the lid is closed. If it struggles to recover, open the bottom vent and blow some air in. You may also need to adjust your daisy wheel at this time (it moves just about every time you open the lid). Let the Egg stabilize at 400 F. Shortly thereafter, you should start getting a nice billow of smoke out of the top vent. YOU’RE READY TO COOK!

COOKING—THE PACE QUICKENS: Now the fun part. Just before doing the main cook on the steak, I usually re-season with the salt (lightly this time) and ground pepper on both sides. After re-seasoning, take your steak outside. If your Egg is around 400 F and billowing smoke, you’re ready. Open the lid quickly, throw on your steak, and close the lid quickly. Your temperature should stabilize back around 400 F, but if it goes a bit lower, don’t be too concerned—you’re cooking direct by radiant heat from the coals; dome temp is not as critical, but just acts as a good gauge of how much radiant heat your coals are providing. Now, here’s where you have to experiment to your liking. I like my steaks medium-rare—that’s pretty red in the center. To accomplish this, I cook a 2” steak at 400 F dome temp for about 4 - 5 minutes/side (for medium, try 5 - 6 minutes a side). So, wait about 4 minutes, then open the lid quickly and flip your steak, close the lid. Remember, use your hands or tongs to flip the steak if you can—don’t puncture the meat. After 4 more minutes, the steak should be “done.” I’ve never used an instant read thermometer to see at what internal temp I’m removing the steak, but 145 F I think is about the cutoff for medium rare (sometimes this is more medium than medium-rare). Of course, you would want to remove the steak at a temperature below 145, because the temperature will rise probably 10 degrees or so from the time you take it off the grill to the time you cut your first slice. But whether you cook by time or temperature, remember it’s always better to go too rare, because you can always throw the steak back on the Egg and cook it longer. So, start at about 4 minutes per side for a 2” steak, then experiment to your liking. (I should insert a comment here—I cook on a Medium Egg, but this past weekend I cooked 4 fillets and 4 strips on my dad’s Large Egg, and found that the time is a little bit different for his larger Egg. You may need to experiment here with time—but once you get it right the first time, you should be able to duplicate your efforts, provided you are consistent with your steak thickness and grill temperature. When cooking several steaks for large groups, I would suggest investing in an instant-read thermometer (I wish I had had one this past weekend). When using most of the grill space, you’ll inevitably have some spots that are hotter than others (this is what happened to me), so a quick prick with an instant-read probe is your sure-fire bet to pleasing your guests.)

THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR: Remove your steak from the Egg, let it sit for about 2 – 3 minutes to redistribute the juices internally, then slice it thinly and enjoy. You should experience the best home-cooked steak of your life, and probably a steak that is better than what you can get at most nice steak houses. ENJOY!

Steak
Submitted by: Scott Frazee

Ingredients:

1 or more 8 - 10 oz. Filet Mignon (1.5" thick)
French's Yellow Mustard - do not use dijion mustard

Preparation Directions:

The Rub

Mix to taste
2 parts Kosher Salt
2 Parts Coarse Blacl Pepper
1 Part Lemon Pepper

Allow your steak to come to room temperature. Lather the steak with good old French's mustard (yes, mustard -- it does NOT make the meat taste mustardy, I swear ... do it because you trust me ;) Then, sprinkle on (lightly) some kosher/coarse salt on both sides of the steak. Follow this with a like amount of coarsely ground black pepper, and finish it off with lemon pepper. Your steak should look really yellow-y when you've rubbed it right. Again, no fear, most of this will be seared off/into the crust on the meat. Let the meat stand about 15 minutes out of the fridge before throwing it on the grill.

Soak some mesquite wood chunks (chunks - not chips) for at least 30 minutes before lighting the fire. Use mesquite or some other wood that has a strong smoke flavor. Be warned, pecan, fruit woods, etc. will not give the same "smoky" result (due to the short cooking time). Light the egg ... and keep your grate off. Bring the egg up to 700 - 750F. CAREFULLY open the egg and take the soaked wood and put directly on the biggest part of the flame. BE CAREFUL. Put your grate back on. Shut the lid. Your temp will probably drop to 300 (or less). Give it 5 - 10 minutes, watch it closely as it will rise quickly when it does start rising ... It will start smoking/belching white smoke. By the time it hits 700F again, it should be burning relatively clean. Throw your steak(s) on ... near the hottest part of the flame, but not directly over it.

Use the recommended cooking time of 3 minutes to a side, carefully monitoring the temp (keep it to about 700F). Both chimney and lower vent are completely open at this time. After 3 minutes, carefully, open the egg and flip the meat, putting it back near the hottest part of the flame, but not directly over it. DO NOT PIERCE THE STEAK WITH A FORK OF ANY KIND - use tongs to flip the steak. Cook it another 3 minutes. Now, you can flip it here ... or not, I choose not to anymore... After the second 3 minutes (6 minutes have elapsed, so far), close the bottom vent completely and then the top chimney. Let the meat cook for 3-4 more minutes (you can work with this last time-frame due to how you like your meat — I like mine medium - medium rare). Open the top chimney completely and then the lower vent completely. Watch the temp gauge closely and it *should* start to rise. If not, with an oven mitt on, open the egg about an inch for a couple of seconds to let in some oxygen and then shut it. Again, temp should start to go up. Your steak should be ready to come off the grill at this time.

Total cooking time about 10 minutes.