1st Butts on LgBGE - still a lot to learn

PapaB

OK, I got off to a late start...that's a different story. I fired up the Lg BGE with an AR from the CGS for the first time. I thought I was clever in the setup...I loaded the BGE to wihtin 1" of the plate of my setup. I used a spider from the AR to hold a plate, inverted the ceramic BGE feet and wedged them between the BGE inner surface and a 13" plate to catch the drippings. (I have my BGE sitting on stone). Once there, I wadded up some foil for the center and set it on the plate to hold a pizza pan which held an oversized pie pan for drippings. Everything looked good. I had 4 butts rubbed and ready with the BGE temp 250-275. I put 2 on the AR on the lower adjustable grid and 2 on the upper. I probed one of the uppper butts, and we were smokin'. Everything was fine for 4 hours as I had some Mesquite chunks mixed with the lump. After 4 hours, I noticed the temp. was slowly dropping off, and it didn't matter how much I had the vent opened. I poked under the grate to make sure the vent holes weren't clogged, but it still dropped in temp. Finally I had to open the dome to find that my lump was all but gone. I had to unload my butts and reload the lump to get the temp back. I got rid of the spider, but I put a pan on the lower grid of the AR and put all 4 butts on the upper grid. (A large pie pan isn't big enough for 4 butts to drip into). It took another 2 hours to get the butts up to 195 where I pulled them. We enjoyed some samiches and then pulled the rest for storage....The smoke was good, and I learned a lot about doin it on the BGE.....Smoke on!

texasAUtiger

So you did 4 butts to 195 in 6 hrs?

Last time I did 2 butts it took 16-17 hrs. I suppose we do it a tad differently.

One remark tho: the more gadgets (not talking meat here) you have in the egg, the more energy is required to bring it up to stable temp since all those things have to heat up and achieve a steady state. By my estimation, a plate setter, 9x13 drip pan with some water, and the regular grate at 225-250 is about the "same fire" as a direct cook at 350-400. I think this illustrates my point.

I have found that for long cooks (I wouldn't call 6 hrs long tho), I simply load it up with about as much lump as the thing can take. IMO, there is no sense in risking having to take things apart and add lump 12 hrs into a cook. YMMV of course...

Glad it turned out well. Be of good cheer, the more you use the egg the better you will "know" your smoker and how much lump various cooks take.

PapaB

Good point on the thermal load...manke sense, thanks.

Misippi Egger

I think you need to check the calibration of your dome temp probe, cause cooking 4 butts in 6 hours is pretty quick at 250-270*! Unless your butts were in the 4# range. (Average is about 1.25-1.5 hr per pound.

Also, unless the stone underneath your egg is on concrete, you need to put those little green feet between the base of your egg and the stone. There have been many pics on here of wooden table shelves burned through a stone or concrete paver - the air space created by the feet make all the difference.

One good thing about butts - they are sooo forgiving and turn out great even if the original plan falls apart ! :woohoo: :woohoo:

PapaB

Thanks, Clark. I'll make sure the dome probe is calibrated. My BGE is sitting on a stone shelf that is surrounded by other stone.

Hoss

FILL HER UP!All it will hold,better to have leftover lump than to run out!Try INVERTING the spider abd fill til it touches the stone!

SmokinParrotHead

I'm with the other guys here.....there is no way whatsoever that you could have gotten four butts to 190+ in six hours, especially not stacked for two of those hours, unless you were cooking them as opposed to smoking them. Check that dome thermo and make sure it wasn't poking into one of your butts too, that can happen and screw all sorts of stuff up with the temp.

PapaB

Thanks, Lee. I'll check that probe cal.

Bacchus

The setup sounds overly complicated. I just go with platesetter leg up, drip pan, grid, butts.

PapaB

RB, yeah, that'll be the way I go next. It was my first butt smoke. I think I didn't have confidence in being able to do 4 on one grid. I probably had too much going on and not enough lump. The dome probe was probably off too either due to cal or coming into contact with one of the butts....
Thanks for your feedback.