Pit Barrel Cooker Review

I’m grateful to Neil Clifton of Pit Smoked BBQ for sharing his thoughts on the Big Green Egg Mini Maxi.

A few have asked for feedback so based on 1 cook – these are my thoughts.
For reference, at home I cook on a Primo Oval XL so I have a couple of years experience of cooking on ceramic bbq’s.

Delivery from Alfresco Concepts was 4 days including a weekend.

Assembly – 25 minutes.

Build Quality – superb finish on the metal brackets. Good solid gauge material and nice finish with the wooden handle on The Egg itself.

Lighting – my preferred method is chimney starter so no influence from The Egg, however, I did start by lighting some restaurant grade charcoal in the The Egg and ironically it was the largest chunks of the last 12 months so did take a little to get going in a smaller firebox.

Temperature stability – Just as easy as the Primo to hold at a specific temperature and really easy to ramp up the temp if required.

Portability – It is fairly heavy which is what you would expect from ceramic BBQ but not so much that it would prevent it being mobile. While it would be too heavy to take to the beach – it certainly shouldn’t deter you if you plan to use it when caravanning (several have suggested their purchase may be for this reason)

Re-action from non-bbqers (you are on this forum because you love BBQ but, unbelievably there are some people whose world doesn’t revolve around it! – my business partner, who, by his own admission isn’t a cook loved the idea of the minimax – he felt the size would be ideal for a family get together but may put off by the price for an occasion ‘que.

In conclusion, the look is better than the Primo, the build quality is just as good. For midweek BBQing I will be using The Egg – less fuel needed and gets to temp quicker. Otherwise it has all the other benefits of a ceramic BBQ.

Price : £550 RRP

Thanks Neil, looks a great bit of kit, feel free to visit Pit Smoked BBQ Facebook Page