Tec
Newbie here and happy I can add something to the discussion. I have a Great Green Egg which I've had for 15+ years and used little; I've had a TEC gas grill and use it a lot. The TEC was rated # 16 in a 16 grill cook-off by Cook's Illustrated and the only reason I could see for the rating(which really cut me to the quick) is that CI staff just didn't know how to handle the TEC's heat. It's an infrared grill and you cannot cook with it when both burners are on and the lid down. I don't do much BBQ but yesterday decided to do some spare ribs for the first time. Sadly when I uncovered my Big Green Egg I found the metal band holding the top on had rusted through. Could I do the BBQ with a hot TECH(it's said the heat at the burner/air interface in somewhere around 1500 F.). The answer is YES and this is how I did/and would do it again with some minor adjustments.
One burner was on LOW; other burner off. 4 lbs. rubbed ribs(four hours in frig), placed in rib rack sitting in a Pyrex casserole dish, placed over the burner which was on OFF. I had a meat and oven thermometer in place to gauge the whole process. The burner setting was set on low initially and I could not get the oven temp above somewhere south 150 F; the meat temp had risen from 45 F to 105 F after three hours. At this point(we were to eat in 3 hours) I felt I had to goose things up and therefore moved burner setting to between LOW and MEDIUM and moved meat from extreme left(entirely over off burner) to mid-way between the two burners. The oven temp(from somewhere below 150 F)rose to 200 F in half an hour; and was steady at 250 F within an hour. The ribs reached 170 F from 105 F in an hour.
The next time I do this I would place meat to extreme left over off burner and the burner setting on right set between LOW and MEDIUM which I know now the TEC grill will give me an oven temp of around 250 F which should be perfect; am guessing with adjusted setup my ribs would be done in around 3 hours---but that's for the next trial to be sure. Also, I had an aluminum packet of wet pecan chips on the right burner. Oh, and the ribs were really good. The real real plus in all this----and the probable reason I haven't used the Egg much---the whole gas process is 'messless' and quickly set-up. Only problem is the TEC is not cheap, but have had mine for 12 years in a salt water environment and it's given me 'o' problems.
