big green egg as a wood oven

I like my big green egg. I’m not a fanatic like some, mind you. But I do like it. It does a lot of stuff pretty well. Kamodos are the Swiss army knife of charcoal grills. They do everything pretty well. But they do one thing better than any other grill I know. The big green egg as a wood oven. That’s it’s wheelhouse. And nobody knows this. I don’t know why. It’s dead easy. You probably already have almost all the bits you need.

Use your big green egg as a wood oven to crank out some amazing meals.

One thing to note and I’m putting it right up front so nobody yells at me. Putting your plate setter in your egg legs down puts it right at gasket height. High heat and a plate setter legs down equals fried gasket. Doesn’t bother me. I haven’t had much of a gasket for years. Just look at the picture below. I don’t think it’s that important. You have to decide for yourself though. But once you stop caring it opens things up nicely. Pizza gets a whole lot easier with this setup. No more burning the bottom before the top is done. Naan works great too. It doesn’t seem to affect the ability to run it low and slow either. Non-issue for me, anyway.

The setup here is for the big green egg specifically but I’m sure you can adapt it to any kamodo grill. On the BGE, the heat diffuser is called a plate setter. It can go in legs up or legs down. To use the big green egg as a wood oven you need the legs down. This lets you get the temperature up to where you need it. Now you want to create an air gap between the plate setter and the roasting pan. Grab your pizza stone and some fire brick splits or an extra set of BGE feet and you’re good to go. Put the feet or splits on the plate setter and place your pizza stone on those. Instant air gap.

And that’s it. Dial your egg in at whatever temp you feel like roasting at and treat it like you would your oven. Expect to be amazed by the wonderful kiss of smoke only cooking over charcoal can provide. Don’t feel the need to add wood chunks or chips. You are wood oven roasting, not smoking. Have a little faith. It will be awesome. The big green egg as a wood oven. It’s what it does absolutely best.

Use your big green egg as a wood oven to crank out some amazing meals.

4 thoughts on “big green egg as a wood oven”

  1. Hi there I use your setup for pizza. But I have been using my xl egg for stir fries. I have an 18 inch carbon steel wok which fits inside a special hanging ring inside the egg. The wok is suspended just into the coals. I can get it scorching hot and smoking at 700 to 800 degrees. I have everything prepped an ready to go and all is done in about 8 minutes. Can’t replicate in the house.

    Reply
    • I get most of my after market BGE stuff at the Ceramic Grill Store in Texas. It is called a spider and you can use it in many positions in the egg it balances on the fire ring so you can use in the notches, out of the notches etc. It holds a wok or pizza stone or grill grate. I use a 19 inch pizza stone sitting on this as my plate setter.

      BTW, there is nothing on your site that says anything about you. Really enjoy your site, especially the Indian. I discovered your site yesterday and I was off to the Indian store today. I am Anglo Indian so grew up on the food and have been cooking it for years but learned some great new things (curry base, vindalloo base). I always assumed that most of the restaurant food was done in pressure cookers.

    • I can see how a spider would come in super handy. I’m going to get one.

      I keep meaning to write an about me bit but never get around to it. I’m half Indian/half French Canadian and love food. I like to write and I like to take pictures as well so this blog is my hobby.

      I started glebekitchen to try to teach people that good home cooking was something anyone could do if they set their mind to it. So it’s always really been about food and not me. I figure nobody wants to hear about my day or my dog or my day job so I try to keep it on point with a little Romain colour thrown in:-)

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