Please Help Me Out

B747crew

I have a medium BGE  I have not so far done a low and slow cook and up until about 3 hours ago was planning on starting one tomorrow. That said for dinner tonight we had some burgers on the grill and charred them at about 300 top open for a nice char broil. I wanted to see what settings I needed to set to get a good low and slow temp so I shut down the bottom to about the thickness of a credit card and the new stainless top about 1 inch. The grill temp has climbed and stayed at about 350 ... how in the heck can I low and slow if I can't get the temp down without shutting down the grill??? Help Please!!

DoubleEgger

Bottom vent barely open. Credit card thickness. The top barely cracked open as well. I use the daisy and the petals are just cracked open. 

OhioEgger

You need to start your low and slow cooks low. Once the egg exceeds your target temperature it will stay there for quite a while. You have to throttle it back long before you reach that point and let it increase slowly. 

DoubleEgger

Close your top down to maybe 1/8th inch 

B747crew

DoubleEgger said:

Bottom vent barely open. Credit card thickness. The top barely cracked open as well. I use the daisy and the petals are just cracked open. 

Ok so I set the egg as you recommend how long before You'd think the temp should stabilize?

ewyllins

I have a large and I can start choking around 200 on the way up. Once at 200 close vents as described earlier and monitor. It should maintain around 230-240 in about 20 minutes, at least on mine.

DoubleEgger

It'll take a little while. A quick spritz of water will cool down the fire. 

gdenby

Medium user here also.

Once the Egg heats up for more than 10 minutes, it can take an hour, or more for the temp to drop. 20 min at 450F, expect maybe 2 hours to cool.

As above, low and slow vents are almost completely closed. For a dome temp of 250, I start w. the bottom at maybe 1/8", and the daisy holes no more than half open. After a few hours, all goes down to mere cracks.

Sometimes a full close is needed. The lump may continue to burn for 15 min w/o any fresh air.

Note, it is not necessary to keep the temp around 250 - 275 F for a lo/slo cook. Just don't go above 350.  Both can produce similar results, but take different amounts of time, and thus different amounts of smoke flavor. Hotter means faster, and in my experience less great smoke flavor.

And less time to enjoy some brews.

B747crew

DoubleEgger said:

It'll take a little while. A quick spritz of water will cool down the fire. 

Ok tried the water spritz and shut down the bottom a fraction more ... now the only visible opening in the bottom is under the tab itself. temp 290. Could it be that the stainless top is harder to adjust? The thing is just open a slit now

DoubleEgger

B747crew said:

DoubleEgger said:

It'll take a little while. A quick spritz of water will cool down the fire. 

Ok tried the water spritz and shut down the bottom a fraction more ... now the only visible opening in the bottom is under the tab itself. temp 290

Cool. Give it a few minutes and you'll be good to go. 

B747crew

I'm glad I'm doing a trial run... Crap I'd have burned up my butt ( no pun intended ) LOL

Legume

You won't burn a butt at 350, it will just cook more quickly.  How big is it?  Does your rub have lots of sugar?

B747crew

Its a 6.5 # butt for just a first try. will not be using a sugar rub

lousubcap

Search feature will yield lots of threads that will provide even more information than you have received above.  FWIW-

wbradking

You may also notice the temp drop when you put your butt on.  The egg should recover.....don't try to chase the temp you are looking for.

B747crew

gdenby said:

Medium user here also.

Once the Egg heats up for more than 10 minutes, it can take an hour, or more for the temp to drop. 20 min at 450F, expect maybe 2 hours to cool.

As above, low and slow vents are almost completely closed. For a dome temp of 250, I start w. the bottom at maybe 1/8", and the daisy holes no more than half open. After a few hours, all goes down to mere cracks.

Sometimes a full close is needed. The lump may continue to burn for 15 min w/o any fresh air.

Note, it is not necessary to keep the temp around 250 - 275 F for a lo/slo cook. Just don't go above 350.  Both can produce similar results, but take different amounts of time, and thus different amounts of smoke flavor. Hotter means faster, and in my experience less great smoke flavor.

And less time to enjoy some brews.

Super advice from you and everyone else ... thanks so much

B747crew

now 270 and holding..... Good enough i think so now I understand a bit more about the egg and set up. Thanks guys

td66snrf

You really want to catch the temp but one trick I've discovered is throw more charcoal on. The new charcoal will smother the fire and bring the temp down quickly. 

Sea2Ski

wbradking said:

You may also notice the temp drop when you put your butt on.  The egg should recover.....don't try to chase the temp you are looking for.

This is so true. Catch the temp on the way up.  When it is where you want it for 15-20 mins with no adjustments, you are good to go. When you put your meat on, don't touch a thing. Temp may drop, but do not open vents.  It will rebound.  Check back in an hour or two and you should be right about where you were. Do not sweat 25F either. Other than time, you can not taste the difference between something cooked at 225-250-275 on a low and slow that goes hours. At least I can't. 

GrillSgt

OhioEgger said:

You need to start your low and slow cooks low. Once the egg exceeds your target temperature it will stay there for quite a while. You have to throttle it back long before you reach that point and let it increase slowly. 

That's all you need to know. 

six_egg

Looks like the  got you covered. Some great advice in here.

SmokeyPitt

Like others have said theh reason it was more difficult is because you started with a big fire. If you start a small fire and set your vents to stop the temp from climbing then you wont have aby trouble maintaining 250ish.  

SaintJohnsEgger

Some good advice. I think the best is don't chase the temp. Only make small adjustments then give the egg plenty of time to adjust to the changes. 

Be aware that a lump of wood or charcoal will burn out and and the temp may drop a degree or two. Or a new piece may light and flare up momentarily increasing the temp.  When that happens it will adjust itself. Don't try to adjust it yourself.

Patience was the hardest lesson I had to learn.

Brisket_Fanatic

With ceramics it takes some time, to drop in temp. Also remember when you place a large piece of cold meat it will absorb lots of heat so it will take time to come back up to temp which is why you want a good stabilized fire before putting the meat on. Pork butts are very forgiving so it's a good cut to start with.

EggPerfection

The only way starting high and then choking back ever works for me is if I start hot 300ish direct and then choke down the temp while eating,  then load it up with the plate setter and all my intended meat to smoke.  That will help stabilize the temp and get you down into the mid 200s faster.  Still, it's not the best strategy for a low n slow cook.

dougcrann

DoubleEgger said:

Bottom vent barely open. Credit card thickness. The top barely cracked open as well. I use the daisy and the petals are just cracked open. 

These settings will get me right at 220* on our 3 Eggs, a Medium, a Large and an XL. Have you checked the seal (dollar bill test)?