New Egg User - help! Tips?

cprew11 · March 2017

I've cooked about 10 times. I've made pizzas, smoked ribs, pork tenderloin, 2 pork butts, and grilled some burgers, chicken and steak. Here are some issues I've had.

1) When making the pizzas, the hottest I was able to get my egg was about 550. Left the cap off and bottom vent completely open.

2) This prompted me to make burgers and get the egg as hot as possible by adding more charcoal. I was able to get it to 640ish, that was the peak.

I don't understand why I can't get my egg hotter. Any tips? I'll keep trying.

3) the first Boston butt I made was only 3.5 lbs, boneless. I left it on at 225 for 7 hours. I checked the temp of the butt and it was only at 165ish. I left it on for 3 more hours, still registering at 165ish. I decided to take it off, put it in the oven at 225 for another couple hours, and it was at 195. I don't understand why it wouldn't get higher than 165 on the egg. I calibrated the thermometer the next morning and it registered right at 100 Celsius in boiling water. So....

4) I put on a 8.5 lb butt this past weekend. Filled to the brim with charcoal. Got it to 250 and put it on at 7:15 pm, planned on taking off around noon the next day. So a good 2 hours per pound. I woke up and the temp was down to around 100. Who knows how long it was this low for. I closed the bottom vent too much. I left it on until about 2pm at about 250 and the hottest I could get it was around 165. Put it in the oven at 240 for a couple hours and it was done.

Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong? Regarding scenario #4, I'm assuming it's because of the low temp while I was sleeping, but scenario #3 has me stumped. And why won't the darn thing get up to 700 or above?

Thanks in advance, I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions.

Ps. Tried posting this 5 hours ago. Didn't go thru. I have my egg to 800 right now, just used a ton of charcoal.

lousubcap · March 2017

Welcome aboard and you will come to enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.
Now to address some of your above issues:
1. Given you are now at 800*F- IDK-the whole thing runs on air-flow which dictates the fire volume which leads to the temperature. Since your thermo is calibrated, make sure you have good airflow and plenty of fuel.
2. See 1 above.
3. proteins are "done when they are done" and that is based on feel. With a butt that is generally in the low 200's*F. It will take as long as it takes-it was transferred to the the same thermal environment in the oven and still took a few hours.
4. See 3 above.
If you have a calibrated thermo and are able to control temperature with air-flow that's all you've got. Oh, and patience. FWIW-

GregW · March 2017

3) the first Boston butt I made was only 3.5 lbs, boneless. I left it on at 225 for 7 hours. I checked the temp of the butt and it was only at 165ish. I left it on for 3 more hours, still registering at 165ish. I decided to take it off, put it in the oven at 225 for another couple hours, and it was at 195. I don't understand why it wouldn't get higher than 165 on the egg. I calibrated the thermometer the next morning and it registered right at 100 Celsius in boiling water. So....

What you are describing is commonly referred to as the stall. It can happen at various temp depending to the individual butt. The stall can last for a number of hours before the temp starts to climb again. Some say the stall is due to the rendering of the fat. Some say it's evaporative cooling of the meat's surface.
At any rate, there's nothing to do but wait it out. Some will bump up the temp to push through the stall. For me I just leave the temp alone a ride it out.

SmokingPiney · March 2017

1. Airflow problem. Make sure your fire box opening is aligned with the vent and you don't have a pile of fine lump pieces piled on the fire grate. A wide open Egg should be able to get well above 550.

2. 640 is a respectable temp to be cooking burgers. It will sear them well...unless you want to incinerate them.

3. Butts - Your butt stalled as they usually do. Every butt is different and you need to plan time for stalls. I like to cook them to around a 205 IT, probe them all over for "probe like buttah", and make sure the bone has a good loose wiggle before I pull them from the heat. I cook them 275 - 325. They're very forgiving and not like briskets. I've even turbo cooked them at 350 and they cooked and tasted just as great as a cook at lower temps.

4. A pit controller like a Flame Boss is great "peace of mind" on untended or overnight low and slows. No need to sweat temp as you sleep or tend to business - a great Egg investment and worth every penny.

PoppasGrill · March 2017

The longest cook I've done is about 4.5 hours and did not have a major issue maintaining the temp once it was zeroed in, so can't really help you there.
As far as max temp is concerned...
if you are doing a second cook and just adding more lump, the air holes on the fire ring can get blocked by the smaller pieces of pre burned lump. That is an issue I had, couldn't get over 550-600 I shop vac'd all ashes and removed all the old lump, filled it up and fired it up. Within 30 mins I was burning over 750 with the daisy wheel off and lower vent open wide.

cprew11 · March 2017

GregW said:

3) the first Boston butt I made was only 3.5 lbs, boneless. I left it on at 225 for 7 hours. I checked the temp of the butt and it was only at 165ish. I left it on for 3 more hours, still registering at 165ish. I decided to take it off, put it in the oven at 225 for another couple hours, and it was at 195. I don't understand why it wouldn't get higher than 165 on the egg. I calibrated the thermometer the next morning and it registered right at 100 Celsius in boiling water. So....

What you are describing is commonly referred to as the stall. It can happen at various temp depending to the individual butt. The stall can last for a number of hours before the temp starts to climb again. Some say the stall is due to the rendering of the fat. Some say it's evaporative cooling of the meat's surface.
At any rate, there's nothing to do but wait it out. Some will bump up the temp to push through the stall. For me I just leave the temp alone a ride it out.

Thank you sir. Never heard of "the stall". Hopefully "the stall" doesnt occur when I'm feeding 20 people. But seriously thanks for the info.

Legume · March 2017

Fill your egg with lump. Not having enough lump is a common problem when people start out and only add what they think they'll need.

cprew11 · March 2017

PoppasGrill said:

The longest cook I've done is about 4.5 hours and did not have a major issue maintaining the temp once it was zeroed in, so can't really help you there.
As far as max temp is concerned...
if you are doing a second cook and just adding more lump, the air holes on the fire ring can get blocked by the smaller pieces of pre burned lump. That is an issue I had, couldn't get over 550-600 I shop vac'd all ashes and removed all the old lump, filled it up and fired it up. Within 30 mins I was burning over 750 with the daisy wheel off and lower vent open wide.h

Thanks. For both of my long cooks (3.5 lb butt & 8.5 lb butt) I shopvac'd the egg before. Chance smaller pieces of charcoal were impacting airflow but wouldn't the temp go down if that was the case? Because I've been able to keep a consistent temp no problem. And when I cooked the 8.5 pounder, I bought an oven thermometer and it wasn't reading much different than the dome.

dldawes1 · March 2017

@cprew11... Butts will always stall. Usually as was mentioned around 155-165 IT. A couple - three hours stall is not uncommon.

For butts, at 260-280 F dome temp....it takes around 9-1/2 to 10 hours for an average butt (7 - 9.5 lb.) to reach ~205 IT. (Just a reference...always allow for adjustment.)

Turbo butts take about 5-1/2 hours at 400 dome temp.

PS. Butts are very forgiving. As long as temp is close, it will be OK. Cook it till it "probes like butta" and/or is around 205 F IT.

FTC (Wrap in Foil, Wrap in Towel, and put butt in Cooler) to hold until meal time if the butt gets finished early. I've easily FTC'd butts for 5 hrs with minimal loss of heat......And yes, it will still be just as moist!!

When filling with lump...fill er' up !!!! I always start with a full load....almost to PS. What you don't need will be leftover for next time (just close all vents when finished cooking). When starting a new cook when old lump is in egg, just stir the old lump good to allow ashed to fall through fire grate. Then add new lump to refill egg. This way, you know you have enough lump for ANY cook without Ever having to add during a cook. I have never completely ran out of lump on a cook ( longest marathon has been 23 hrs of multiple cooks).

Hope this helps a little. These folks here will give you plenty of instruction. They taught me over the past couple of years.

Welcome

DD

PoppasGrill · March 2017

Longer cooks at lower temps would mean less air flow is needed, so maintaining 225-250 would be okay, the higher temp requiring more air flow would be effected more.

Fred19Flintstone · March 2017

You got some good advice above so I will just say welcome & enjoy the ride.

cprew11 · March 2017

Thanks everyone. Seems like I just need to play around with it and get comfortable. But I really appreciate the advice/tips!

UncleBilly · March 2017

For some great tips, tricks and recipes go check out AmazingRibs.com. Meathead Goldwyn is a goldmine of good, science based cooking, grilling, & meat smoking advice.

bgebrent · March 2017

Calibrate your dome thermometer.

Cookinbob · March 2017

A butt takes a LONG time at 225 degrees. I start them slow, then take it up to 300 or higher. End result is the same. Also, where do you find a 3.5# butt? I never saw one under 7 lbs, usually larger than that. If I am smoking a butt, I want lots!

td66snrf · March 2017

A controversial point but when it hits the stall I put in a disposable foil pan and cover it with foil. This accelerates your cooking time.

GATraveller · March 2017

Patience Grasshopper. And when cooking for a crowd of 20 just plan on having the protein done hours early and FTC. That will buy you up to 7 hours where pork/brisket will still be hot when time to pull/slice/serve.

Judy Mayberry · March 2017

You shop-vac'd--and just reminded me to go out and take out the fire ring and fire bowl (which has been in three pieces for 10 years but the grease has kinda cemented them together), and clean out the ash that has accumulated outside the fire bowl.

I don't know if that affects the heat performance, but I never use that tool that supposed to scrape that area but doesn't reach around the back. So there's eventually a load of ash there.

da87 · March 2017

There is a discussion somewhere on here from my first butt - as I panicked that a small (4.5lb I think) was taking well over 1 1/2 hours per pound. The forum came through with lots of tips to help - including pushing me to order the pizza when it was clear the butt wouldn't break the stall anytime close to the planned (or even very late) dinner! Important lessons from the forum that day:
1. Small butts take longer on a per pound basis
2. When cooking for others follow @GATraveller's recommendation above - build in lots of extra time. If a butt FTCs for a couple of hours it only seems to get a bit moister with only a small tradeoff on the bark. Double down on that when doing a L&S with a smaller than normal protein.
3. Have a plan B - on our first butt we ended up ordering pizza for dinner, I pulled the butt at about 11PM, and we had pulled pork omelets for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch (helped that our guests were spending the night!)
4. With family and friends, the cooks that get a bit crazy always turn out to make the best stories and be the ones everyone remembers
5. Good wine and whiskey help keep the anxiety down and the laughter up

Enjoy the journey and reach out to the experts on here - they are wonderfully helpful!

bluebird66 · March 2017

Welcome!

New Egg User - help! Tips?

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