I got a call from a transport company on Tuesday, telling me they'd be around with my new best friend. It was pouring rain and although I'd cleared the path up to the front deck, they went 'Yeah, nah, we can't carry that up there.'
They muttered something about Occ Health and Safety, but I'd guess that it was more to do with schedules and time pressures. Ten minutes on every job means less jobs done at the end of the day.
So, down into the garage she went, while I scratched my head wondering how to get this big arse chunk of ceramic upstairs without slipping and breaking it or me.
In the end I settled on ferrying the component parts separately. The smaller ones I did myself. The big ones–the outer bowl and lid–I had to call on Thomas. We fashioned a sort of sling from old blankets and hauled it up like huffing, puffing storks delivering an especially fat and fragile baby.
Then I got to assembling.
The flat packed table was pretty simple, but as always with these things I'd occasionally get ahead of myself and have to backtrack.
Then, the egg.
The ceramics all went together without a hitch, but there's a complicated set of bands and hinges to go on and that's where I hit a snag. The printed instructions were hopeless, as usual. But they had a QR code to take me to a video. Brilliant!
Except the video ran about 10x faster than I could follow. (Faster than anyone can follow, apparently. I googled up a lot of grumbling about that vid).
Luckily the internet is a bountiful god and gave up any number of instructional videos by big bellied, tattooed fellows called Otis and Jim-Bob who should really send an invoice to Big Green Egg for their valuable service in helping complete noobs like me put together the hyper complicated hinge system.
From delivery to the final nut took about eight hours, I reckon.
Hi John. Just wondering if you are happy with egg? I have a chance at getting one in either large or xl for a good deal. Also interested in the area you use it. Is it on a verandah? Any issues with heat over the top of it? I'm in an old qlder as well, semi enclosed area, current weber is fine as long as not too smoky. Thanks,
Hey Pedro. I remain very happy with my (XL) egg. In fact I cooked a roast chook in the kitchen oven last night and was angry with myself for not using the egg. The oven dumped a lot of heat into the house and, of course, the chicken wasn't as nice.
I've got ours on the front deck, which is well ventilated. I did have some concern about rising heat affecting the roof above it, but that hasn't been an issue. The ventilation is important, however, because if you are smoking anything there will be, well, you know, smoke.
Awesome, thanks for that. I do most of our roasts in the weber outside and it's a game changer rather than heating up the house with the oven. Thinking of a wall mounted fan for smoke. The bbq area has shown no signs of discolouration using the weber, area has 3 walls and louvres but yes the smokers produce smoke. It's on a trolley with wheels, so I can move it around. Thanks
Congratulations on the arrival! Much jealousy over here. Happy cooking
I’m impressed with that two tiered table with a perfect egg-shaped hole in the upper tier. It looks good.
Hi John. Just wondering if you are happy with egg? I have a chance at getting one in either large or xl for a good deal. Also interested in the area you use it. Is it on a verandah? Any issues with heat over the top of it? I'm in an old qlder as well, semi enclosed area, current weber is fine as long as not too smoky. Thanks,
Pedro
Townsville
Hey Pedro. I remain very happy with my (XL) egg. In fact I cooked a roast chook in the kitchen oven last night and was angry with myself for not using the egg. The oven dumped a lot of heat into the house and, of course, the chicken wasn't as nice.
I've got ours on the front deck, which is well ventilated. I did have some concern about rising heat affecting the roof above it, but that hasn't been an issue. The ventilation is important, however, because if you are smoking anything there will be, well, you know, smoke.
Awesome, thanks for that. I do most of our roasts in the weber outside and it's a game changer rather than heating up the house with the oven. Thinking of a wall mounted fan for smoke. The bbq area has shown no signs of discolouration using the weber, area has 3 walls and louvres but yes the smokers produce smoke. It's on a trolley with wheels, so I can move it around. Thanks
Pedro
Gotta love the new online learning for technical stuff
after you finished 3.1, you could write a short novella on this I think: "How to lay an egg?" perhaps ;-)
Which model is that one, size wise? Just in case, you know, I could convince SWMBO...
Extra large.
Thank you 👍
Money would have eliminated their objections to carrying it to where you wanted it.
Lulz. True dat.