Almost ready for action

In the late ’90s I got tired of replacing gas barbeque grills every couple of years. So I bought a charcoal grill and smoker called the Big Green Egg and have never looked back.

It’s ceramic, about 140 lbs., and made in Atlanta, and shaped like an egg. It flips open at its middle and will sear steaks at 750 degrees or so (I’ve gotten it a lot hotter) and it will hold 225 degrees for 24 hours to cook whole briskets.

The grill is guaranteed for life, and on those occasions when the charcoal grate would break (it used to be ceramic and could eventually crack; now it’s cast iron and indestructable), the dealer would just replace it, no questions asked.

So why am I on my third?

Well, I couldn’t bring it with me when I left Massachusetts for center-city Philadelphia, so gave it to my father, who later gave it to my brother. And after Philadelphia, the one I bought in upstate New York went to a friend of Janet’s when I moved to Boston, just before we got married.

So now that we have a house and a back yard again, I have the third and I hope, the last. Spatchcocked chickens are going on it in about an hour.