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Cooked first baby backs today....got a question

I used Dr. BBQs method for the most part.....so darn good it will make you wanto slap your momma!! Question though.....at the end (5 hr cook) it called for raising temp back to 350....no way I could get it to that temp....so do I just need more experience tendering the fire.....but what if you wanted to add some charcoal while using the plate setter....any thoughts or comments would be welcomed....wife and I are 60 and new to the BGE....but damn it s good!!

Comments

  • Kempy
    Kempy Posts: 188
    If you want to get the temp up to 350, try removing the Daisy Wheel and adjust the temp with only the lower vent.  After a 5 hour cook you shouldn't need to add more lump, but if you do, grab a pair of welding gloves and remove the plate setter, add your lump and put the plate setter back in.
  • It seems to me that you should not be having to add more lump after only 5 hours! Did you start with a full fire box of lump! What did you do to try and get temps back up to 350*? Please give us the details of the cook. Congrats on the new BGE! You'll love it!
  • I did what I thought was a full load of charcoal ( used the BGE videos as a guide)....the temp was in the 250-275 range and I opened the bottom vent wide open along with the top...it went up to maybe 300....I had the plate setter and a drip pan on top of it....I am still not sure I am getting a good initial light of all the charcoal...using the fire starter blocks ( 4 at the start)....thanks
  • How much lump was left at the end of the cook after complete shutdown? With both top and bottom vents wide open, you should have been seeing temps in the 500-600 range! However, if your Egg was holding temps in the 250-275 range for 5 hours, things should have been okay. How open were your top and bottom vents during the cook to maintain 250-275?
  • Kempy
    Kempy Posts: 188
    AHill10 said:
    I did what I thought was a full load of charcoal ( used the BGE videos as a guide)....the temp was in the 250-275 range and I opened the bottom vent wide open along with the top...it went up to maybe 300....I had the plate setter and a drip pan on top of it....I am still not sure I am getting a good initial light of all the charcoal...using the fire starter blocks ( 4 at the start)....thanks
    I don't use firestarters but 4 seems like a lot.  For what I read from other people on the forum, for a low and slow cook, 1 should be fine.
  • Mkline
    Mkline Posts: 180
    It's not an issue of quantity of lump. Sometimes at that low of temp and extended cook the lump is covered with ash. Just use your ash tool from below and tamp on the grid to knock of some of the ash off then open up the vents.

    I had this happen to me last week. I finished the ribs and was trying to making a cobbler and couldn't get the temp up. Did some looking at the lump and quickly figured out what was going on and trick above resolved it quickly.
  • Kempy
    Kempy Posts: 188
    Mkline said:
    It's not an issue of quantity of lump. Sometimes at that low of temp and extended cook the lump is covered with ash. Just use your ash tool from below and tamp on the grid to knock of some of the ash off then open up the vents. I had this happen to me last week. I finished the ribs and was trying to making a cobbler and couldn't get the temp up. Did some looking at the lump and quickly figured out what was going on and trick above resolved it quickly.
    Yes, that reminds me, one time I had neglected to clean out the ash from the lower vent and air couldn't get into the egg, thus, I couldn't get the temps up.  (Nice run on sentence, eh?)  Anyway, make sure you clean out the old ash.
  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,168
    Welcome and congrats on the rib cook-as you are aware the whole BGE cook experience revolves around lit fuel (lump) and air flow-throttling the air flow-either intake (lower vent) or exhaust (DFMT) dictates the dome thermo temp.  And the dome thermo reading is impacted by whether direct or indirect cook.  All that said, you should be able to get there (350*F) after a low temp cook w/o any challenges -as has been mentioned it has to be an air-flow issue that contributed to the problem.  Just make sure the air-fow stream is good and you shouldn't have issues.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • What may be happening is that your air grate may be plugged with small pieces of lump if you have use this load before. I generally pull all the lump from my firebox every other cook, put large pieces on the bottom and then medium and then put the small on top. If your Harte gets clogged you can have the vents as wide open as they can get and you'll get not very much air flow. It seems that you had enough air flow for 250-275, but not much else! Look at things after the Egg has cooled down and see if yOur gray is clear. Just a thought!