Fire Starting - Bottom vs. Top

Unknown · July 2000

Dear Forum -
Seems to be two different schools of thought re: staring Egg fires.
One group favors starting the coals from the bottom, while the other favors starting from the top. My main interest is "low & slow" cooking, & I have my own thoughts on the matter, but so far have been only been able to conduct one test burn (with no meat on the grill, as I was on call for work), so I would be interested in what the Pros have to say. Test burn was done with improvised alum. foil top vent (4 pocket knife slits for vents - still waiting for back ordered dual function metal top). With bottom vent barely cracked, top started fire eventually stabilized around 240* dome temp - polder on grill shielded from direct heat (Weber grill sitting on fire bricks sitting on main grill) showed about 15/20* less at any given time. Suspect meat mass/moisture in Egg while have some effect on dome vs. grill temps. Anxious to cook a real meal, but I'm on call for the railroad & have to wait until I know the the phone isn't going to ring (which is almost never). Doing research & keeping an eye on the forum in the meantime - Thanx

JJ · July 2000

E.B.,
My method is to start from top for low and slo and from the bottom for high temp

Cornfed · July 2000

JJ,[p]I concur. One weber starter cube on top of lump for low and slow, one weber cube under the grate for high heat.[p]The Egg is grand,
Cornfed

JimW · July 2000

E.B.,
The temp variance you got is normal. I figure about 20 to 30 degrees difference between dome temp and grate temp.
JimW

Fire Starting - Bottom vs. Top

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