Pain in the butt (pun intended) - temp tips?

Cheesehead64

Cooked a butt overnight - my first go. I'm about 10 hours into it and figuring on going another 7 or 8. Got up every few hours to check it and found the temperature dropping from about 230 to 150-180. Didn't get particularly cold here over night in WI - dropped from 70s to the 50s. Finding it a bit of a challenge to get the temp back up quickly although it seems there's a nice bed of coals in there. I added a bunch before I started.

My question: What's the best way to regulate temp when slow cooking? Do I need to stir up the coals? I've been opening it wide open then choking it down. That seems to work.

Celtic Wolf

BBQ Guru DigiQ II

When you start make sure that you have a full load of lump (up to the fire ring). Make sure the holes in the fire grate are clear of small pieces of lump.

Cheesehead64

Yep. Done and done. I think I should be okay. Just seems to take more time that I thought to ramp the temp up...

stike

don't open it wide and then chjoke down. that's like racing to the stop sign then slamming on the brakes. easy does it.

sneak up on temps. if the egg is heating up, keep an eye on it as it approaches your target temp. as it gets within about 25 degrees start sliding the dampers until you see the rise slow down. keep tweking it shut until it stops on the target temp (say 250).

most common overnight temp here is (i'd say) 3250. the egg sorta settles in there. after you master that, you can go lower if you want to.

you should have enough lump in there (at least to the top of the fire box, preferably higher than that, say half-way up the fire ring (the ring on top which the grid sits on).

you don't need wires and fans to maintain the temps, just a little trial and error.

you sound like you are out of lump. if that's the case, remove the meat to an already 250 oven, and call it a day. if you have plenty of lump, then just stop choking the fire. don't open it wide up to zoom back up to temp, because you'll find it overshoots. then you choke it to drag oit back down, and it'll undershoot. it's like a semi-tractor. takes a while to stop, and a while to get going.

gdenby

2 things you can do. Sometimes after 8 - 10 hours, the lump may burn straight down. Then there's just an outer-ring of fire. Take a long metal rod, or something similar, and work it around the lump to push it together. Also, ash sometimes builds up in the bottom, decreasing air flow. A "wiggle rod," a bent metal rod that can be pushed up thru the metal grate holes is handy for clearing the air path.

I don't do enough long cooks to warrant a Guru or Stoker. I just lay the lump carefully, as described in the Elder Ward how-to at the Naked Whiz's site, and let the fire settle in. Usually works very well, although one night I had nearly a 50 degree drop in the outdoor temp, and that seemed to dampen the fire some.

Cheesehead64

Seems like I've got it settled in again at 230-250. Looks like I've got a lot of charcoal left. Seem like when I'd just try to slowly ramp up the temp would take forever though. When I'd open it up and choke it down seems to go faster. I get it up to the target temp, choke it down, the choke it down a little further if it started to creep over the target temp...

Mike in Abita

Chasing temps was my MO for awhile. Have you read about temp control on ceramic cookers. TEMP CONTROL It now takes me a half hour to hour to get to a set temp then I don't make any adjustments to it till the food has been on for a hour or so.

Cheesehead64

Great link. Thanks. I read the BGE manual and watched the video, but this is helpful.

Right now it's dialed in pretty steady eddie at 230. Haven't had problems dialing it in for shorter things like ribs and chicken so I was surprised at how much work it was to ramp it up when it had cooled down to below 200. Still learning!

Grandpas Grub

"I get it up to the target temp, choke it down, the choke it down a little further if it started to creep over the target temp..."

Yes, it probably faster to get the temp high and then lower it back down.

When first lighting an egg and the ceramics are not at temp this will work a good amount of the time. I did this for a long time. It seems like I could really never get a good temp dialed in and I was chasing the temps a lot.

If you read a lot of the posts about fires going out, many of the people have taken the egg higher temp then cool it down to their cooking temp.

In reality working the egg up to temp and getting to a very good stabilized temp is much faster than to overshoot and then try to bring the egg down to temp.

I have cooked enough to know where my vents setting should be to get close to a given temp. The only time I run into problems is when the air vents are blocked with smaller bits of lump or if i end up getting a vertical burn.

After the novelty of my powered vent system worked off, other than overnight cooks, I find I very seldom use them.

Neverthelss, in the long run I think you will find it quicker and easier and a lot less problems if you work up to your cook temp an try not to overshoot.

If you don't have a powered vent system then check on your egg during the first few hours. If you are adjusting or playing around with the vents then you are not stabilized.

Also, if you are at temp and you add a setter or any other furnature or add meat or open the dome. DO NOT play with the vents. The egg will bring everything back to your set temp on its own.

GG

Jeffersonian

That method works on a vertical burn. If I see my temp dropping and I'm sure there's enough lump in the box, I'll just open the dampers 100% for a few minutes to let the fire get going hard again and jump to unburned lump, then I'll return it to the previous setting. The temp rarely jumps more then 25 degrees and returns quickly.

Cheesehead64

Yeah. That's been my issue. I've been dialing it in at 230 but it slips back to 200. When I try to incrementally increase the temperature it stays put but if I open the vents all the way for a few minutes I can get it back to normal.

Jeffersonian

I was in a hurry to get some butts done on Thursday and did them at around 300*. They came out very, very good...my family said they were the best I had ever done. I had to "bump" the Egg once at around 6 hours into the cook. It took just a few minutes and I had no more issues with temperature.

Brisket, OTOH, may well be different. I'm America's worst brisket cook, so I won't even begin to give you advice on that.

Cheesehead64

Fire went out after 13 hours. Surprised at how long the thing held 200! Stokin it up for a few more hours. Biggest lesson learned is to add more charcoal, as someone mentioned. I did but not enough.