am i doing something wrong?

Unknown · August 2006

I have owned the large egg for almost 2 months. I seem to be running out of lump charcoal fast. Ive been through 3 20lbs bags already. I use the egg 3 or 4 times a week. is it burning too quickly? am i doing something wrong? or is this normal? i love the fact that i am still saving money with lump charcoal vs. gas.

wobin · August 2006

Luis,
Cooking all the time I use 50# per month. Some of the cooks buy it by the pallet.[p]Naw, your doing just fine, enjoy.

Unknown · August 2006

wobin,
but one of the reasons i got the green egg is because people said a 20lb bag could last you months if you use it 3 or 4 times week. i go throug a whole bag in 3 weeks. the food comes out better than anything ive ever cooked in the house and all grills ive ever bought.[p]my point is i guess, why the lies?

SMITTYtheSMOKER · August 2006

Luis,[p]I have lined my ceramic top with a double layer of aluminum foil. I place the ceramic top on my Egg right after I pull the cook off the grate, along with shutting down the lower vent. This shut off air flow to your fire thus keeping any kump from buring after you are done with your cook. This usually allows my to reuse up to half of the lump from the cook before.
I clean my eggs before every (most anyway) cook and mix in new lump with left over lump. [p]-Smitty [p]Maybe this will stretch your consuption if you haven't tried it.

gdenby · August 2006

Luis,[p]I've had my egg about 11 weeks and I've used just about 65#. It seems that indirect cooking uses more lump than direct. A full fire box of lump will last me three sessions for quick stuff like chicken thighs, burgers, pork chops, but cooking at high heat for a couple of pizzas will use almost a whole load.
I do start cooking a little fast, usually after no more than 20 minutes, and I do try to shut down just as soon as I take the food off. Also, I save all my partially burned lump from low and slows for quick cooks.[p]gdenby

mad max beyond eggdome · August 2006

Luis,
that "it only takes a couple of handfuls". . .and "a bag will last months"...are the two great lies in the bge literature.. ...

Sundown · August 2006

Luis,
Had my Egg for 7 years. My learning curve has been constant.[p]We cook 4 or 5 times a week year round and, first, I found the cookbook should be thrown out as soon as you get it. NExt I found that if you control the temperature on your cooks just marginally well you;ll save on lump. By that I mean if you sneak up on your target temp and manage to hold it then extinguish the fire immediately after you've finished your cook you'll save lump. MAke sure your rain cap is fairly tight. I've started with a full, well laid fire for a low and slow and when a 20 - 24 hour cook os done I'm still able to cook 3 sometimes 4 meals on what's left over. [p]It takes some time for the newbies to 'get the hang' of some of the tricks but stick with it and ask your questions here in the forum and you'll soon be doing just great.

fishlessman · August 2006

<p />Luis,
if i had continued to cook on the egg like i did with my old kettle, the lump would last a long time. however the egg changed how i cook, before the eggs i did low and slows rarely and the types of cooks were short and simple for the most part. another thing that was mentioned below. low and slows with plate setters and those pizza cooks create a huge fire below the stone that is much hotter than above it, burning much more lump than is needed. ive been doing ribs lately with minimal lump and a direct setup and burn way less lump during the cook. the amount you see in the picture will burn roughly 10 or more hours maintaining a dome of 225 with a direct setup and most of that lump is small spent pieces from another cook. that being said, i burn 400 pounds of wicked good a year and the wicked good is a long burning lump

BBQEd · August 2006

Another thing to consider is the brand of Lump you are using. WGC weekend warrior blend lasted more than twice as long as bbq-pro lump from Kmart did. On Sunday I cleaned the Egg and loaded it to the bottom of the fire ring with bbq-pro lump, first time using it, 250 deg. for 5 hours and more than half of the lump was gone. I cooked a butt with WGC lump for 15 hrs and used about the same amount of lump. At this point I would be a little uneasy using the bbq-pro lump for anything low and slow.

On a side note, I noticed the temp was more stable, i.e. held at 250 +/- 5 deg for the entire cook, using the bbq-pro lump.

Unknown · August 2006

Luis,are you using high quality lump?

Big Hoser · August 2006

Luis,[p]I've owned my Egg a few months now and am on my 2nd 20lb bag of lump (cooking 2-4 times a week). Like Fishlessman, I try to use the direct setup as much as possible to save on lump and I cap the top and close the vents right after the food comes off. The other thing I do that seems to help is I use the ash tool to rearrange the left over lump, letting the ash go to the bottom while still retaining as much of the smaller chunks as possible. Then I rearrange the old lump to form a "bowl" in the middle into which I pour a few chunks of new lump and light with the electric starter. I get great results so far doing this with either high temps for searing or for low-n-slow (for the low temp setup, I set the bottom damper to about 1/4" so the temp doesn't ramp up fast, thus cutting down the time waiting to throw the food on and uses less lump). [p]Happy Eggin'.

Celtic Wolf · August 2006

fishlessman,[p] Geee 400 pounds a year!! I could burn through that each week with my offset (bad offset). I easily went through 40 pounds in a long and slow cook.[p] Even if they lied I am getting better effiency with my Egg.[p]

fishlessman · August 2006

Celtic Wolf,
oh im not complaining, ive got a pallet and a half on reserves. when the wicked good is gone though and all the choices are faster burning lump, i can see that jumping to 6 or 7 hundred pounds which has me a little nervous. the pallets are the only way to go in newengland as lump can be expensive by the bag around here.

Dos Huevos · August 2006

fishlessman,[p]I ran thru nearly 900 pounds last year. [p]and I loved every bit of it.

gman · August 2006

I don't think it's lies per se. It depends highly on what you're cooking. i.e. temps, duration, etc.[p]Since I've gotten my BGE earlier this year, I've been revisiting every single meat I've ever had. I've just been so excited. And I've been blowing through about a 20lb bag / month. I imagine I'll eventually settle back to my usual fare and a 20lb bag will last me a little longer.[p]

Meinbmw · August 2006

Dos Huevos,
There goes the friggin' OZONE layer ... LOL!![p]Maybe you should change your handle to MUCHO LUMPO ?

am i doing something wrong?

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