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Power Outage?

It's been a while since posting, but I thought I'd share a recent experience and look for some understanding…
I hosted a neighborhood birthday party gathering and decided to have chicken and pork off the BGE.  I had a crowd, so I planned on thighs, breasts, and pork tenderloins off the BGE for the main attraction.  I planned for plenty of time to get through the cooks before dinner since I was cooking off a LGBGE.  I used my raised grid assembly/stone from the CGS with cooking at 2 levels at 325-350.  I was able to do thighs in round one.  I pulled them after 1.5 hours and put the breasts on at that time.  They went for an hour and I tried to finish with my pork tenderloins.  However, I ran out of fire power and had to cook the pork in the oven.

I never ran into this before.  I was able to cook at 350 for hours….The only thing that I know can explain this is the heat load that the thighs placed on the cooker caused more fire power than normal and caused more burn that I had expected.

Any thoughts on how/why this happened?  I know I've cooked roasts for hours at 325-350 that didn't die out on me…


Comments

  • bud812
    bud812 Posts: 1,869
    Not enough fuel/ pluged fire grate ? 

    Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution...

    Large & Small BGE

    Stockton Ca.

  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    Did the fire go out or did you run out of lump?
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
  • I had a similar experience this past Sunday where my (normal) lump seemed to burn through a little quicker than normal. I have no idea why, however, it was very windy all day with the wind blowing directly towards the front of the egg. I did not have any trouble with temp control but thought maybe the extra wind contributed to the faster burn.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Well, "spa-Peggy" is kind of like spaghetti. I'm not sure what Peggy does different, if anything. But it's the one dish she's kind of made her own.
    ____________________
    Aurora, Ontario, Canada
  • PapaB
    PapaB Posts: 146

    Thanks for the feedback, but I used BGE lump.  The fire looked like it was really hot although the temp in the dome was 325-350 most of the time.  I just ran out of fire from burning all the lump I had in the fire box.  It was filled when I started, and it didn't last. 

    One thing I did notice was that I had a drip pan under the thighs as they were really fatty and it filled about a 1/2" of grease in the pan.  I dumped it before putting the breasts on.  I wonder if the grease put a heat load on the egg such that it had to work harder to get the 325-350 that I needed....?

  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    Was lump filled to the top of the firebox or the top of the fire ring? A pan full of liquid has to be heated up first, so it acts as a heat sink. The difference between dome temp and grid temp is probably larger when you have a pan in between.

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • vidalia1
    vidalia1 Posts: 7,092
    Simple...you did not load enough lump to maintain your fire for a long period...load the BGE up to the top of the fire ring...
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    What I was trying to (not very clearly) say was that if you didn't have enough lump, and had a pan full of fluid in there, the lump was likely burning hotter than you thought by looking at the dome temp. You may have been using more fuel than was apparent and hence you burned through all the lump. 

    If you use a pan with liquid in it, and a re planning a long cook, fill lump up to the top of the fire ring and see how things go.

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,162
    Thermo calibrated?
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • PapaB
    PapaB Posts: 146
    Thanks for all the help and responses.