Big Green Egg, Pellet Grill or Built-In Gas? Choosing for an Outdoor Kitchen

Walk into a grill showroom and the first question isn't which brand. It's what you want dinner to be. The cooker that's perfect for a Saturday brisket is not the one you want on a Tuesday when everyone's hungry and you're in a hurry. Most of the choice comes down to three families of cooker, and each one has a personality.

Kamado cookers: the Big Green Egg

A kamado is a thick ceramic cooker that burns lump charcoal. The ceramic holds heat and keeps the temperature steady, which is why one cooker can do long, slow smoking and then run hot enough to sear. We describe the Big Green Egg as a Swiss Army knife of grilling, and the comparison is fair. It grills, smokes, roasts and bakes, and there's a full line of accessories, which Big Green Egg fans call Egg-cessories, to stretch it even further.

The learning curve is real but short. You control the temperature with airflow through the vents, and small adjustments make a big difference. A kamado also needs some lead time to light and settle at temperature. Cooks who enjoy tending a fire love that. Cooks who want to push a button usually look elsewhere.

Pellet grills: set it and let it run

A pellet grill burns compressed wood pellets fed from a hopper. A digital controller manages how fast the pellets move, so you set a temperature and the grill holds it. Green Mountain Grills works this way, and we supply the pellets and accessories to go with them. Traeger makes wood pellet grills too, and both are on our showroom floor.

Pellet grills are forgiving on long cooks and give you a real wood-smoke flavor, which makes them a good fit for someone who wants to start dinner and walk away. Two things to know. They need electricity to run the controller and auger, and their top-end searing is often not as fierce as a kamado or a gas grill. If steakhouse crust is your priority, ask about that directly.

Built-in gas: the workhorse of the island

Gas is quick to light, easy to control and easy to clean. For an outdoor kitchen built around a counter and an island, a built-in gas grill is the cooker that disappears into the design. Delta Heat makes built-in gas grills for custom kitchens, and Napoleon and Weber are on our showroom floor as well.

What gas gives up is the smoke flavor of charcoal and wood. Many owners solve that by adding a second cooker next to it. A gas grill also needs a gas line run to the island, and that's a job for a qualified professional, so decide on it early in the plan.

You don't have to pick just one

Many of the best outdoor kitchens mix cookers: built-in gas for everyday meals, and a kamado or pellet grill for weekends. Add a pizza oven if the family likes it. Alfa Ovens makes wood and gas fired pizza ovens in Italy, designed for indoor or outdoor use. Because we build custom outdoor kitchens and sell the cooking equipment, one conversation covers the layout and the cooker.

One thing to settle before the island is built: whether the model you want is designed to sit inside a built-in cutout or needs its own cart or table. Follow the manufacturer's installation instructions on clearances. A ceramic cooker or a pellet grill dropped into an island that wasn't made for it is not something to improvise.

Try before you buy

Eating food off a cooker teaches you more than a spec sheet. Mannix hosts monthly cooking classes, and every member of the community is welcome to come and take part. Owner B.J. Mannix also hosts EggFests, which are Big Green Egg community cookouts. If you're deciding between a kamado and a pellet grill, that's a fine way to taste the difference.

Before you visit the showroom, ask yourself a few things:

• How many people do you usually cook for?
• Do you want to light it and walk away, or do you like tending a fire?
• How often will you cook on a weeknight compared with a weekend?
• Will it sit in a built-in island, or on a cart or table?
• Do you want to sear, smoke, bake, or all three?

The grills page and the outdoor kitchens page cover the lines we carry. The showroom at 3500 Cypress Gardens Road in Winter Haven welcomes walk-ins, or call (863) 326-9656.