Did I cook my gasket?

Uncle Phil · February 2006

Hi all:[p]Well while preheating the Egg tonight I stepped inside and when I returned a few minutes later the Egg was past the 700 mark and the needle pointing to the 'F'. It cooled down pretty quickly, but when I put on the salmon, I couldn't maintain the temp in the 300-350 range, it hled around 400-450. I had the top vent slightly open and the bottom vent about a 1/4 of an inch and that is all. I did not see any smoke coming out the sides and the fish was fine. I had just cleaned out the old lump and put fresh in for this cook. Any thoughts?[p]Uncle Phil

Kinger · February 2006

Uncle Phil,[p]I am still fairly new at this but I have a guess as to what is going on. I experienced a similar thing on my first try at Pizza. The egg was allowed to get too hot and the ceramics hold the heat so well that it never got a chance to cool off. The dome thermometer showed a lower temp after having been opened but when you closed it up all of the ceramic mass was holding heat energy and was not going give it up. I think that since there was no smoke leaking around the sides tell you that the gasket is still making a good seal. Everyone always say to approach the temp from below. I suppose that when we do accidentally shoot over the target temp we have to really give the egg a LOT of time to restabilize at the desired temp. This wait can cause problems when dinner time has already come and gone. I bet the salmon was still great![p]JNK

QBabe · February 2006

Uncle Phil,[p]Once you get an egg that hot, it takes a bit of time to cool down, since the ceramics are all retaining the heat. The needle may have swung down pretty quickly, but I suspect that the ceramics hadn't had time to cool down, which is why you couldn't get to 350. One time in the 700+ range shouldn't condemn your gasket. I'd give it a few more cooks before that, especially since you say you saw no leakage. Heck, there are cookers out there that have little to no gasket and do just fine without, so see how things go...[p]Tonia
:~)

stike · February 2006

Uncle Phil,
phil, you didn't fry your gasket. at least not from what you described.[p]what i like to do, if hoping for a 400 degree fire, is to light it and, if i need to walk away, set the vents for 400 even if it is just getting started. [p]i've never noticed that it takes any longer to get to the target temp, and it guards aainst coming back a few beers later to find that you already started the fire.... oops[p]

Dos Huevos · February 2006

stike,[p]To me it just sounded like it was a case of "it takes longer to cool than to heat the egg." [p]Patience, young grasshopper, is it's own reward.

Trouble · February 2006

Uncle Phil,
As the others said, it's probably the slow cooldown of ceramic that you were seeing, rather than any gasket problem. My gasket is fried enough that I see lots of smoke coming between the base and the dome right after I add the smoking wood, so I know there is some airflow other than the vents. I still have no problem cooking ribs at 250 for five hours.[p]When I get the egg too hot I shut the bottom vent completely, open the top vent a little and go inside for 15 minutes. A fire that hot won't go out anytime soon. I am not patient and it's best to just find something else to do for a few minutes. Then I set my vents to where they belong for the desired temp.[p]If you want some peace of mind on your gasket, you can do the paper test. Lay a strip of paper on the bottom gasket, hang on to the end and close the lid. Pull the paper out. It should offer some resistance. The resistance should be about the same when you repeat at four or five other locations around the gasket.[p]Have fun cooking.

Did I cook my gasket?

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