low and slow

barker9587 · January 2005

I just bought a larege BGE and decided to cook my first Boston Butt last night. I had read so much about how easy it was to put on overnight and cook at 225 - 250 and wake up the next day ready to go. Not so with me. I can't seem to keep the fire going. Temp gets up to 300 or so and then I put on the ham and then the temp seems to be in a constant state of decline over the next 4-5 hours. How do I get it to maintain 250? One thing to mention is I'm using BGE lump and each time I've had to restart the fire it seems the lump has burned up. I keep reading about how little lump these long burns actually use and I'm just burning through it.[p]Help!

eggor · January 2005

barker9587,[p]how much lump are you putting in and where are you lighting?[p]

barker9587 · January 2005

I filled up the fire box to just over the air holes and used an electric starter for about 7 or so minutes. Each time I've had a good fire started before proceeding. thanks.

Bobby-Q · January 2005

barker9587,
How long are you stabilizing for before you drop the food?

eggor · January 2005

barker9587,
well theres nothing wrong with the lump or the way you are lighting it. you read the manual that came with the egg didn't you. HA!! new it made the same mistake a year ago when i bought mine. go ahead and fill up to the top of the fire ring. you won't be wasting any lump. there will still be some left over.[p]Scott

barker9587 · January 2005

Bobby-Q, Well you know us rookies, the faster I get started the sooner I'm done, right. I pretty much got the fire started had some good flames and put the meat on and shut it up.

Bobby-Q · January 2005

barker9587,
Heh, I know that feeling well, I think we all do.[p]Try stabilizing the temp for a little bit (10 to 15 minutes holding steady). I think that could help you quite a bit on all your cooks until you get the feel for it.

barker9587 · January 2005

eggor, Just so I understand you correctly, there is the fire box with the little holes in it (which is where I've been filling up to) and you're saying to fill up to the top of the fire ring which is another 5,6,7 inches higher? Basically then I'm running out of fuel?[p]Thanks.

barker9587 · January 2005

Bobby-Q,
There is just so much to read on all of this. When you are going to cook low and slow do you let the dome temp get up higher than the 250 or so that you're trying to maintain or do you shut the dome before it gets there and let the fire work up to 250.[p]Thanks.

eggor · January 2005

barker9587,[p]yep, seldom do i ever run so low in the egg that i ever even see those holes. i just keep adding more lump on top. one other thing you should know is to let the lump burn for a while, a lot of foods will take on more smoke than you care for and the initial smoke from fresh lump is not at all tasty. in other words get a clean burning fire. the only time that i will try to get a quicky is with a steak(and no.... don't even say it)[p]Scott

barker9587 · January 2005

eggor, Couple more questions and thanks for taking the time. I'm just not one of those guys that this smoking comes natural to. Just went out and looked at my egg and the top of the ring is actually 10 inches above the grate so are you saying I need to fill this thing up with that much lump or did you mean to fill up to the top of the fire box which would be about 6 inches of lump (certainly don't mean to question you, either way I'm way off on what I've been putting in). The other question is you say you just keep adding lump on top, how do you do that, just pull everything apart in mid cook and poor the new lump on?[p]Thanks a bunch.

Bobby-Q · January 2005

barker9587,
Whenever you get the fire going (when you pull the electric starter in your case) that is when you close the dome and adjust your vents (during lighting the bottom vent should be wide open) try and creep up on the temperature by making small adjustments as it's much easier to raise the temp than lower it. once you have a dome at 250° to 275° for about 10 to 15 minutes you should be good to go, of course checking it very often at first helps a lot.[p]

Mark Backer · January 2005

barker9587,[p]You have two ceramic inserts in the egg: [p]the firebox (which has the holes)
and the fire ring, which the grid or platesetter (inverted) would sit on in this instance. [p]I fill to within an inch of the top of the fire ring before a lo and slo.[p]HTH[p]Oh, and it's much easier to sneak up on a temp than it is to get back down to a temp. When you get within 30-50 degrees of the desired temp, adjust the vents then and creep up on the desired temp.[p]

eggor · January 2005

barker9587,[p]mark backer answered the first part of the question. i've only run out of lump one time recently and that was doing a turkey, and then i had to add more lump midstream. what i meant was that after you shut down the egg there is always lump leftover and i just add fresh lump on top the old. remember this is not your typical weber style choarcoal grill and that you are not wasting a lot of lump if you put more than you actually need. Once you shut down the vents that will snuff the fire and save the remaining lump for the next burn.[p]Scott

BobinFla · January 2005

barker9587,[p]Here's what you need.
After you find all about the fire control, start reading through the other sections of the Whiz's website. It's pretty complete, and has lots of links to other helpful websites.[p]
[ul][li]The Naked Whiz Explains Fire[/ul]

barker9587 · January 2005

Bobby-Q,
Thanks a bunch.

Unknown · January 2005

barker9587, Do as the others have said a few times to learn how to control your fire and temps manually. When the learning process is over and you can do overnighters manually go out and buy yourself a BBQ GURU and let it do all the work. FatBack Out.

barker9587 · January 2005

FatBack,
I've just ran into something that mentioned this guru thing. I don't have a problem with not having to wake up in the middle of the night. Does it work and how much?

Unknown · January 2005

barker9587,
Don't get discouraged. Everyone that has an Egg has gone through this problem. Make sure all the air holes in the fire box are open. Clean out all ash before starting. I think the key to a good fire is lighting it all around the box. Try to keep the small pieces on top so they will not block the air holes. Make sure you fill the fire box a little over the top with lump. You can't have too much lump for a slow burn. Outside of using map gas, I find the Green Gel (Walmart) works best starting a fire. It is quick and works. [p]Jerry

Mike in MN · January 2005

barker9587,
Here's another thing you will notice, even if the temp has been stabilized for a period of time. [p]When you fill it up with cold meat, a cold platesetter, a cold drip pan full of water, and maybe partially smother the coals/flames with a couple of handfuls of smoking chips... the temp will drop as all that cold mass absorbs the heat you had stored in the ceramic. You will find that you will have to open the vents (top and bottom) wide open to get things back up to your desired temperature. This may take 15 minutes or better to get back to 225°. Don't walk too far from your project when you are doing this, as it is very important to creep up on your preferred cooking temperature.[p]Mike in MN

Unknown · January 2005

Mark Backer,
Thanks a bunch. I'm way off. Apparently not very good at following instructions.[p]Thanks again.

Unknown · January 2005

barker9587,[p]It works great and it cost's around $200. I reccomend the BBQ GURU Competitor Pit Viper package with the 10 cfm fan and don't forget to order your BGE adaptor door. Learn to do overnighters without a BBQ GURU for awhile. It's good to do the trial and error thing for a while just to get to know your egg and how to obtain your desired results, then make it easy on yourself and order one up. Good Luck !!!

barker9587 · January 2005

FatBack,
Thanks FatBack, appreciate the info.[p]

Butch M · January 2005

barker9587,
On my first few cooks, I had the same problem of not being able to keep the temperature constant. I was told to make sure the fire box was not blocking the vent. When I checked the fire box, I realized it was partially blocking the vent door. Once this was taken care of, it corrected my problem. I hope this helps

low and slow

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