Outdoor Smoking.

To Grill or Smoke?

Being in the industry definitely opens your eyes to the multitude of grilling options.  Grilling, smoking, searing, roasting are all options as you select your meats and fish.  I recently had the opportunity to invest in a Saffire Egg a competitor to the Big Green Egg.  They are both based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado style grilling.  I must say, after tasting the food off this grill it will be really difficult to go back to the conventional style grilling. While natural gas and propane style grilling has some of its positives, I'm at the age now where the taste of the food is more important.  Without a doubt the Saffire Egg was superior.  I was able to use a plugged in starter (absolutely zero lighter fluid) and Lump Charcoal together and within 8 minutes my Egg was up to 550 degrees. By not using any fluid the tastes was completely natural and the flavor was unbelievable.  The Kamado style uses reflective heat off the roof of the Egg to cook the food from all points essentially eliminating the single source burner that a conventional grill is based upon.  By keeping the Egg closed I eliminated those unwanted flare ups and hot spots a lot of grills naturally tend to have and the food was grilled to perfection.  I was also thoroughly impressed with the ability to maintain a level of heat at ease.  One of the competitive advantages the Saffire had in comparison to the Big Green Egg is the ability to add wood chips without opening the head unit (pictured below).  Egg heads are almost a cult with blogs, groups, recipe sites, and festivals, I am on my way to being a part of it all.  I will post some pictures later of some of the food!!!