New Grill: Mac Vs. PC

I'm going to purchase a new grill. My dilemma is do I purchase a Mac or a PC? Sure the PC is steady, versatile, and cheaper but the Mac is flashy, has a cult following, a small learning curve, and more expensive.

The choice is between a Steady, proven, and cheaper Weber Performer. One of the most versatile grills in history. It can grill, smoke, or anything in between. It comes with everything you need to do both right out of the box at half the cost.

OOORRRRRrrrrr the Big Green Egg, a flashy, more expensive, and just as versatile cooker at twice the cost. It has accessories to purchase to smoke with or even bake with. Yeah you can bake breads, pies, cakes....well you get the idea.

The advantages are that the Big Green Egg is a ceramic cooker, a heavy ceramic cooker. It reaches temperature in ten minutes or less. That's about half the time the trusted mainstay of patio cooking can reach it's desired cooking temperature. The Weber was the first brand out there that moved the American family to the backyard for cooking. The kettle cooker is iconic if not legendary.

The Big Green Egg is fuel efficient with one bag of charcoal lasting around three months...if you cooked three times per week. That's a twenty pound bag! Take the same bag and use it in a Weber and it won't last half that time.

Both cookers will get used weekly and year around at my house. Both cookers will last for decades and might very well be the last grill I ever buy. Both are high quality cookers that will open up a world of food options I haven't had since my last grill that went bad a couple of years ago. The Things will love my smoked foods, they will love the pulled pork, smoked ribs, brisket, and other more difficult foods to cook that I haven't done in a while due to a lack of a proper cooker.

I know The Date hates to start the fire on a charcoal grill. Both of these make it very easy to start and achieve temperature. In fact both are so easy that even The Things could start either cooker with ease and be able to cook a big three or four dish supper on either!

Why am I leaning towards a cooker that weighs nearly one hundred fifty pounds and costs twice as much? I think it comes down to the fuel usage and it requires less attention during cooking. It is faster, cooking a one and a half inch thick steak to medium rare in less than five minutes at a much higher temperature than the Weber. You can set the vents, never touch the fuel, and get a rock steady temperature for the duration of a long smoke.

That means you can start smoking something before bed and be confident it'll maintain the temperature you want, until you get up the next morning to take the brisket or pork roast off of the smoker.

The Big Green Egg is so simple that a first time smoker could do competition level brisket with very few instructions. My whole adult life I've wanted a top level grill, today I'm going to get that grill and fulfill that dream.

I'm really on the fence as to which to purchase today but I am leaning towards the Mac.