Little Blue Egg Flower Pot Grill

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Little Blue Egg Flower Pot Grill

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Inspired by our coverage here on MAKE of flower-pot cooker/smokers, Nigel Vezeau (Ottawa, Canada) created this lovely “Little Blue Egg, a Big Green Egg knockoff. He used two big flower pots, an Ikea table, and a few other scrounged bits and pieces.

About six months ago I was at a friend’s place jamming, hanging out, generally having a good time. The host said he’d throw a few wings on the big green egg for a post-jam snack. I hadn’t heard of a Big Green Egg before and so assumed he had a nickname for his BBQ, and didn’t think much more about it. That changed when the wings were ready and we dug in. Admittedly my judgement may have been slightly clouded, but to me those wings were the best food I had eaten. Ever. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had just been sucked into the cult of the big green egg.

Months later, still salivating over my memory of those wings, I started looking at pricing. Stunned to find the brand-name commercial eggs cost $1000-$1500, I almost dropped the idea. Not long after, I read the article on blog.makezine.com about home-brewed smokers using flower pots and electric hot plates. I was inspired! How hard could it be to go a step further and make and honest-to-goodness, charcoal burning, big green egg knockoff? As it turns out, not very hard at all. May I present the Little Blue Egg.

Little Blue Egg

4 thoughts on “Little Blue Egg Flower Pot Grill

  1. craig says:

    I’m always for different ways to grill/cook. From 8 briquette hibachis, to solar cookers to this type of apperatus. I grill year round on gas and charcoal IN WISCONSIN! Grilling season is always on. Now… how ’bout the marinade recipies?

  2. Dominic Muren (@dmuren) says:

    Beautiful build! One thing to keep in mind though, when using non-food-contact objects for food-contact applications — usage of lead or other heavy metals in glazes isn’t regulated (unless specific claims of being “free” of them are made). Since most bright colors in fired ceramics (and even clear glazes in the case of lead, which makes them perform better) HAVE to use heavy metals (cobalt = blue, copper = green/red, cadmium = yellow, etc), DIYers should be careful with how their hacked ceramics contact foods.

    In this case, thermal shock may even increase the surface area available to contact (by creating thousands of tiny cracks. On the other hand, carbonaceous smoke residues may plug these pores and keep glaze particles from getting away…

    Probably best to run the thing a few times, then do a swab test for heavy metals (lead and cadmium are available – If the pot is blue on the inside, I’d be worried about cobalt, which I couldn’t find a test for.).

    Makers need to be concerned about this, because recently these metals have begun cropping up in all sorts of products, since E-waste recycling results in large amounts of lead and cadmium, and new electronics specs prohibit use of these materials. So naturally, new outlets for these materials are found.

    http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-01-11/entertainment/17945139_1_cadmium-toxic-toys-costume-jewelry

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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