Keeping the egg lit

mike

During smoking i have a hard time keeping the egg at temp. When u have a drip pan and rack (with meat) in the egg, it struggles to breathe. How much of the charcoal do u get going prior to putting the meat on ?

tach18k

Mike, I use a Mapp gas torch and touch 3 spot for about 30 seconds each, it take about 15-20 minutes to get up to 250, proper venting and enough lump to last 8 hours of cooking is minimal, if your reading the owners book, DONT follow the directions.

Unknown

Thanks !!

Have u ever used any chunks of hickory instead of just soaked chips ? Not sure if the BGE "supports" chunks.

Clay Q

Mike,
Mornin. Well, the egg is not strugglin to breathe unless its loaded with ash or small pieces of lump preventing air flow. There is pleanty of space for air to flow around the drip pan and meat(assuming the pan is not too big) so you should think about two things, your fire and your draft door/top vent settings. Get your cleaned out egg going with a full load of lump. I like to use a chimney starter and I spread the burning lump across the top of the charcoal. The fire will find its way down and across the lump when air is feeding in from below. The best fires for low-n-slow are built with big chunks of lump on the bottom grate, then medium chunks followed smaller lump. Total amount is up to the top of the fire bowl or just past it. Get the fire going up to your target dome temp, lets say...250 dome. Let the egg soak up heat and become stable at 250 before the meat goes on for a good 45-60 minutes. If your using the plate setter put it in when you start the fire so it also heats up. Then put your drip pan, rack, meat in and adjust top vent to maintain 250. Often the dome temp will drop some when the cold meat goes in but will bounce back as the meat warms up. Make small adjustments to the vent so the fire and dome temp stays in control. Go to nakedwhiz.com on fire building and starting.
Good luck and Merry Christmas,
Clay

stike

Mike,
if you want to keep the dome temp from plunging when you put the meat on, the only thing that should go in the egg after it has reached temp is the meat.[p]let everything else come up to temp with the dome temp.[p]don't bother with water in the drip pan, unless it's just a little at the bottom. a full drip pan will drag temps down if you put it on with the meat.[p]don't get hung up on temps after you put the met on and notice it says 175 instead of the beautiful 250 you may have had. for one thing, you just dumped hot air from the dome upon opening. for another, the fire is no different than the fire it was before, really. the meat will hold the temps down a bit as the whole thing comes back up to your desired dome temp. the settings of the vent and daisy don't need to be readjusted to get it back to temp quickly. it'll get there soon enough on its own.[p]if you open them up to get temps back up quickly, you'll be letting in more 02 then your fire needed before to hold 250, and so it'll eventually overshoot 250. just let it come back on it's own schedule.[p]

mike

stike,
Thanks for the help.[p]One last Q - i'm 5 hrs into smoking a 15 lb shoulder. I'm wondering what u think about wrapping in foil and adding some beer to it ?