Everything for your Big Green Egg, in one place.
Recipes from Egg cooks around the world, an interactive 3D Egg, fire science, gear, care and a table finder that actually checks the fit.
What are you cooking on?
Pick a path
The holiday table, off the Egg
Turkey, prime rib, ham and the sides, so the oven stays free.
Whole turkey, indirect at 325°F
| Bird | About |
|---|---|
| 6–10 lb | 1½–2 hr |
| 10–18 lb | 2–2½ hr |
| 18–22 lb | 2½–3 hr |
| 22–24 lb | 3–3½ hr |
Done at 165°F in the thickest part; it climbs a few degrees while it rests under foil. Load the lump the night before. Source: BGE turkey cheat sheet ↗
Cook something great
Six things every owner should know
The best Egg videos, curated
The Big Green Egg, inside and out
Drag to orbit, pinch to zoom, tap a part to learn what it does. Light the charcoal, set the vents, open the lid, cut it open or pull it apart — the dome thermometer follows along.
Every part, explained
The science of the Egg
Recipes
Every recipe credited and linked to its original, rewritten for cooking on the Egg.
Collections
Fresh off the Egg
All recipes
No recipes match.
More recipes to explore
These open on the author's site.
Every rib you can buy
Pick an animal. The map shows where each rib comes from; the cards below show how to cook it on the Egg.
Cuts
Numbers match the map. Tap a cut for the full guide and recipes.
Timing: 3-2-1 and 2-1-1
How each region does ribs
Rib recipes in the box
Barbecue sauce, region by region
Every barbecue region has its own sauce. Tap a state to see what's in it, what it goes on, and the bottles that come from there.
Sauces worth buying
From taste tests and pitmasters, with a link to every source. Recipes change, so check the label for gluten, sugar and allergens.
Rubs that cover 90% of cooks
| Rub | What's in it | Use on |
|---|
Know your Egg
The 3D Egg, cut guides, ribs, sauces, fire and weather, videos and the community, in one place.
Cook the world on the Egg
Char siu, pernil, khorovats, yakitori, teppanyaki and more, grouped by cuisine, with the Egg setups that make each style work.
Vegetables, vegan and lighter cooks
Vegetable mains and sides, vegan options, and simple ways to cook lighter on the Egg. Diet tags come from ingredient lists, so check labels for allergies and celiac.
Lighter cooking on the Egg
Vegetable mains & sides
Vegan
Wagyu, Ibérico and imported cuts
What's special about each country's meat, how to cook it on the Egg, and where to buy it. Wild Fork carries most of these frozen.
Kalua, laulau and the world's pit ovens
In Hawaiian, lau means leaf: laulau is food wrapped in leaves, and kalua pig is cooked in an imu, a pit of hot rocks under leaves. The Egg works the same way at small scale. A thick, closed ceramic box plus leaves or a lid keeps steady heat and steam for hours.
Cook it on the Egg
How to fake an imu on the Egg
- Leaves: banana or ti leaves from the freezer at Asian markets; foil as an outer layer if you can't find ti.
- Heat: indirect with the convEGGtor, 300–350°F, in a covered pot or a foil-sealed pan.
- Smoke: kiawe if you can get it, otherwise hickory, for the first hour with the lid off.
- Steam: a cup or two of water or stock under the leaves stands in for the wet sacks over an imu.
Earth ovens around the world
Source: Wikipedia, Earth oven ↗
What not to do on the Egg
The Egg can cook almost anything. These are the handful of rules that keep you and the ceramic safe, plus the jobs it just isn't great at. Every card links its source.
Other grills & griddles
The Egg is our main cooker. This is for the other one in the yard: other kamados, flat-top griddles, gas grills and kettles, with what each does well and what to watch for. Every card links its source.
Every cut, explained
Beef, pork, poultry, seafood and lamb: the cuts, the setups and the numbers to pull at, plus the core cooks you'll make most.
Core cooks — the numbers to know
Light it, plan it, time it
Set up the fire, work backwards from dinner, then run the clock and log temps while it cooks.
Heat-up, vents & temps
Starting points for an XL with a full firebox, lit with both vents wide open. Close down about 50°F before your target. Heat-up times are typical owner experience; add 10–15 minutes below freezing.
| Range | Dome | Draft door | rEGGulator | Heat-up | Good for |
|---|
Light it right
- Cold Egg: clear ash through the draft door so the grate holes breathe.
- Fill lump to ½–2″ below the top of the fire ring; big pieces on the bottom.
- Bury 1–2 starters; leave the dome open 7–10 min until the coals catch.
- Close the dome, both vents wide open; start closing down ~50°F early.
- Add the convEGGtor or grids within 10°F of target. Temp dips, then recovers.
- Wait for thin, blue smoke before the food goes on.
Burp, shut down, cool down
- Burp above ~350°F: lift the dome 2–4″ for a few seconds, 2–3 times, then open.
- Shut down: close the draft door and the rEGGulator fully. Never use water.
- The fire suffocates in about 30–60 min; leftover lump is reusable.
- Ceramic stays hot for hours: about 2–3 h before you can touch it, 6–8 h (longer after pizza) before covering or moving it.
- Don't open it to speed cooling — air rekindles the fire.
Plan it backwards
Tell it when you want to eat — it works out when to light the Egg.
Cook watch
Pick the cook and weight, start the clock and log temps as you check. Saved in this browser.
No readings yet.
Charcoal & smoking wood
The Egg runs on natural lump charcoal; wood chunks add the smoke. What to buy, where to buy it, how much to use — and the truth about soaking.
Lump brands Egg owners use
Links open a store search so you see current stock and price near Morristown. On the XL, big pieces matter — they leave room for air.
How to load it
- Stir the old lump and shake the ash through the grate; top up with new lump. Leftover charcoal is good fuel.
- Largest pieces at the bottom, medium on top — small pieces and dust choke airflow.
- Low & slow: fill to the top of the firebox, light one spot in the center. The fire spreads slowly outward.
- Searing: fill a bit higher and light 2–3 spots.
- Store lump dry (a sealed bin). Wet lump lights badly and sparks.
Chunks or chips?
Should you soak the wood?
Short answer: no — in a kamado it mostly makes steam. Tap through what happens on the coals.
Water barely gets in
In AmazingRibs' test, chunks soaked 12 hours gained only about 3% in weight (chips about 6%), and dye showed water reaching just the surface and cracks — about 1/64″ into a chip after a full day.
Wet wood steams first
Wet wood can't pass ~212°F until the water boils off. In Prof. Greg Blonder's test a wet packet sat at boiling for almost 30 minutes before it smoked; the dry one smoked almost at once. The white "smoke" you see is mostly steam.
So when does it matter?
Mixing soaked and dry wood only staggers the smoke — dry starts now, soaked joins ~30 minutes later. On the Egg you get the same effect by burying chunks at different depths. The real exceptions: cedar planks and bamboo skewers — soak those so they don't burn.
Sources: AmazingRibs — "Myth: soak your wood first" · BarbecueFAQ dye test · Bearded Butchers
Wood brands & where to buy
Look for "kiln-dried" or seasoned hardwood with little bark. Store links open a search for that brand.
Wood flavor chart
| Wood | Strength | Tastes | Best with |
|---|
Never smoke with
Cooking in any weather
Ceramic shrugs off weather better than any steel grill — but cold, wind and wet each change how the Egg behaves.
Tonight's cooking conditions
Season by season (U.S. Northeast)
| Season | Typical | What changes | Do this |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec–Feb | 15–40°F, snow | Slower heat-up, more lump, gasket can freeze to the rim | Allow 10–15 extra min; keep the cover on and accessories inside; crack the dome or foil the gasket before closing |
| Mar–May | 35–70°F, rain | Wet lump lights poorly; moisture after winter | Store lump sealed; do a dry-out burn on the first cook |
| Jun–Aug | 70–95°F, humid | Runs hot fast; mold risk if covered damp | Close vents earlier; never cover a damp Egg; burn mold off at 500°F+ |
| Sep–Nov | 40–75°F, wind | Gusts spike the temp; leaves near the vents | Turn the draft door away from the wind; keep 14″ side/back and 36″ front clearance |
Compare Egg sizes
Put any two Eggs side by side, to scale, or line up all seven. From the Mini to the 2XL.
To scale
Side by side
| Difference |
|---|
Capacities from BGE, plus Seared and Smoked's Large vs XL review for the XL-vs-Large extras.
| Egg | Grid | Area | Weight | Serves | Burgers | Chickens | 8-lb butts | Best for |
|---|
Gear that earns its spot
XL accessories are XL-specific — always buy the XL size. Big Green Egg items open BGE's store; the rest open the maker.
The dome thermometer reads air at the top of the dome; a probe in the thickest part of the meat is what tells you it's done.
Care, cleaning & fixes
An Egg is close to indestructible if you keep the airflow clear, the hardware snug, and water out of hot ceramic.
| When | What | How |
|---|---|---|
| Every cook | Clear the ash | Ash tool through the draft door, or lift and shake a Kick Ash Basket. Blocked grate holes are the #1 cause of a slow Egg. |
| Every cook | Clean the grid | Let it heat 10 min, then brush. No water on hot grates. |
| Monthly | Check the band bolts | Snug the band nuts; check the dome sits centered and the gasket meets evenly all the way round. |
| Twice a month | Look for buildup | BGE says inspect for creosote twice monthly; a clean-burn handles it. |
| Each season | Calibrate the thermometer | Stem in boiling water. In Morristown (~330 ft) water boils at ~211.4°F. Turn the nut behind the dial to match. |
| As needed | Clean-burn | Remove the grid and convEGGtor and run a moderate clean burn (about 450–500°F for 30 min), then shut down. BGE Europe says you don't need to burn the ceramic white — extreme heat only adds wear. |
| When frayed | Replace the gasket | Scrape the old felt off both rims, clean with alcohol, apply the new felt, let it cure 24 h before a hot cook. |
| Long breaks | Store it dry | Ventilated cover, rEGGulator closed, draft door nearly shut to keep critters out. |
Troubleshooting
- Won't get hot: ash-choked grate, small lump at the bottom, or the firebox notch not lined up with the draft door.
- Temp overshoots: close down sooner. On the way down the ceramic holds heat — be patient.
- Smoke leaks at the seam: worn gasket or a dome out of square. Adjust the bands, then re-felt.
- Mold after rain: normal. A 30-minute burn around 450–500°F clears it; wipe the grid.
- Cracked firebox or fire ring: hairline cracks are common from heat cycles and usually don't affect cooking. A crack that runs through the body, reaches the bands, or lets heat or smoke escape is a call to your dealer before the next cook. BGE's limited warranty on the ceramic may apply, so keep your receipt.
- Dome won't open in winter: frozen gasket. Don't force it — hair dryer on low around the seam, or light starters inside.
Manuals & drawings
Will it fit? Tables for the XL
Pick a cart to drop the Egg into it, drawn to scale. A tabletop holds a slice of the Egg, not its widest point — so how deep the Egg sits decides the fit.
The slice that matters
The XL widens from its foot up to the bands. Measured off BGE's product silhouette, it's about 26.2″ across 12″ up, 26.5″ at 14″, 26.9″ at 16″ and nearly 28″ at the bands. BGE's own XL table plans use a 26¼″ hole with the Egg about 12″ down — the same slice. A square bay only needs to clear the slice at its top edge, because everything below is narrower.
GDLF XL verdict: not confirmed. Its 27.56″ bay leaves about 0.5″ per side at the tabletop slice, so the width works on paper. Depth is the open question: BGE's XL table guidance is about 30–31½″ deep, the GDLF listing gives a 28″ bay, and GDLF doesn't say how far the Egg sits below the top. Ask GDLF in writing before you order.
How the openings compare
Bar = the opening each table gives the Egg; the green line is what the XL needs at the depth set above (dashed = 28″ bands). Tap a bar to load it.
Prices checked October 2026 and change often. GDLF dimensions from its Wayfair and shopGDLF listings (67.3″ × 28″ × 34.6″, bay 27.56″ × 28″).
Side carts to pair with a nest
Before you order
- The listing says XL in the specs, not just the title, and gives an opening at least 27″ at the depth the Egg sits.
- Platform capacity of 300 lb or more (the XL is 219 lb before food and lump).
- An air gap under the Egg: a nest, spacers, or a Table Nest plus paver.
- For NJ winters: steel, aluminum, stainless or HDPE rather than wood — and a cover.
- Room behind for the dome to open (handle to hinge is ~32.8″) and BGE's 14″ side/back clearance.
- Easy returns (Wayfair 30 days, Ace 30 days, BGE 45 days).
The best Big Green Egg videos
Hand-picked from Big Green Egg's own channels and the most-watched Egg cooks on YouTube, with a note on what each one teaches. Videos open on YouTube.
Where Egg people hang out
The fastest way to get better is to learn from people who cook on an Egg every day — and these communities are famously generous with help.