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Tempature control - first time cook

thurwich
thurwich Posts: 2
edited March 2012 in Root
Today was first time cook with my large green egg and did baby back ribs. I was fine at about 240 degrees for first thirty minutes of cook so went to do an errand. When I got back home temp was 350 degrees and while I tried several things mentioned in forums, I could not bring temp down below 325.
I think I may have gotten fire to hot to start as I let coals burn for about 10 minutes and then put three chunks of wood and closed lid and bottom vent to 25 percent open but left top vent open. How long should I have left lid up with initial lighting and. Then when do I add wood. Thanks for the advice.
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Comments

  • odie91
    odie91 Posts: 541
    personally 25% open will get my egg hotter than 240, but YMMV....
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  • travisstrick
    travisstrick Posts: 5,002
    I open my bottom vent about the width of two quarters for 250. 25% open is above 400.
    Be careful, man! I've got a beverage here.
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  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    If I was to guess you had the fire going then added the plate setter and meat, now you adjusted the vents and thought that you were stable at 240º.  What would happen is that you have a hotter fire but the cold meat and accessories were absorbing a lot of the heat so the dome temp was showing 240º.

    What I do is stabilize the temperature without plate setter and meat, then I add those things and generally the temperature in the dome will drop to 190º or so but I will not change the vent settings and may take 40 minutes plus before recovering fully.  25% opening is large for 240º on my large it is less than a 1/4 of an inch to maintain 250º.

    Gerhard
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  • Steve753
    Steve753 Posts: 140
    You can also close down the daisy wheel on the damper.
    Large Big Green Egg
    Weber Gold
    Old Smokey

    San Diego, Ca
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  • biznork
    biznork Posts: 112
    For 240 I have open maybe an eighth of an inch.
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  • thurwich
    thurwich Posts: 2
    Thanks all for the advice. I think I also let the fire burn too long with lid open.
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Lid open wont hurt, but better to establish a draft from bottom thru to top. You can get a mean fire going with the lid open, like for paella. But it takes a while and uses more fuel than you need if you are just doing steaks
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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