Consumer Reports: Is the Big Green Egg Worth It?

We aren’t here to judge the cultural phenomenon that has formed around the Big Green Egg since its 1970s debut. Let’s just say that this ceramic beast of a charcoal grill and smoker has hatched numerous copycat cookers and die-hard devotees, who call themselves Eggheads.

We can, however, evaluate its performance and help you answer the question: Does anyone really need a $1,120 charcoal grill? For that price, you might expect an actual fossilized dinosaur egg, not a grill that looks like one. After all, some of our top-rated gas models cost a quarter of that price.

But the Big Green Egg isn’t trying to be an alternative to gas grills, and frankly, it doesn’t share much in common with the cooking experience of most charcoal grills, either. Rather than arranging coals to concentrate heat, you fill the lower hemisphere to capacity with lump hardwood charcoal. Once the coals are going, the design starts to make sense. Cast-ceramic walls an inch thick and a heavy lid with a heatproof gasket team up to trap heat. That allows you to use the dampers to precisely control temperature……

For the rest of the “Consumer Reports Magazine explains why the Big Green Egg has a cult following of Eggheads,” Read Here and Share your Thoughts with us!