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Cleaning your egg

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CITYSWINE
CITYSWINE Posts: 48
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Managed to get some nice gobs of grease and gunk all over from egg and platesetter from doing for chicken thighs with no drip pan (now I know wy I need to use a drip pan).

I read on here I should do a high temp burn to get it cleaned out before doing any pizza or bread. Assume this is like self cleaning oven.

what is the actual proccess for the high temp burn/clean. get her to ~700 for 20 minutes or do oI need higher tempo for longer?
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    How new is your egg and have you taken the egg to that temperature before?

    GG
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  • Morro Bay Rich
    Morro Bay Rich Posts: 2,227
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    A suggestion: If you don't use a drip pan cover the platesetter with foil.
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    Great advice. Also, if you do use a drip pan cover it with foil, makes for much easier clean up.

    GG
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  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
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    If it's just the plate setter, ignore it. It will come off on the next cook or so. Just scrap off all the chunks and you're good.
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  • Semolina Pilchard
    Semolina Pilchard Posts: 768
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    It will come off on the next cook if it is a high heat cook. 400 degrees or less and you will still have a nasty plate setter.
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  • Morro Bay Rich
    Morro Bay Rich Posts: 2,227
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    And BTW, there is nothing that will give you a more acrid smoke than chicken grease.
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  • Michael B
    Michael B Posts: 986
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    700 is good, but I'd let it go an hour.
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  • usc1321
    usc1321 Posts: 627
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    700 plus for 30-45 minutes will cook off anything you want. ;)B)
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    700°, if that is a newer egg it probably won't handle that much heat.

    With older felt gaskets my medium won't hold 700° for much longer than 8 to 10 minutes. I am not sure what would happen with newer adhesive felt.

    just a thought...

    Kent
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  • CITYSWINE
    CITYSWINE Posts: 48
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    wrapping everything in foil is good advice (too simple for me to have thought of)

    egg is only a couple months old but already half fried gasket making pizza a few months back.

    Do I need to do high temp burn of grease and crud before doing any baking?
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    I didn't realize to foil the platesetter or drip pans until I saw another person asking the question. It sure is a lot easier to take off the foil and toss rather than scrubbing all the time.

    As far as baking, everyone says to use a clean egg or some of the off tastes will impart into the baked goods.

    Broc, here on the forum does a lot of baking as does egret, AZRP is believe does quite a bit of baking and there are others. Hopefully some of them will jump in and help out.

    I have only done a couple of things, chocolate cake and brownies which have a lot of their own taste.

    All my eggs have the old felt gaskets and I can't take my medium much past 650° without damaging the gasket. My large can go to about 700°.

    Cleaning, if you do a high temperature burn make sure everything is away from the gasket area, plate setter legs up. Keep the DFMT off of the dome so the heat can escape out the top of the egg. Use the lower vent to control how high you let the egg go.

    The egg doesn't need to be pure white to be clean.

    I am very hesitant to recommend any newer egg to go to high temperatures.

    There is also an issue with high temperatures if there are air gaps between the dome and base. This is all pretty subjective.

    The worse case you will end up having to replace the gaskets.

    How high did you cook the pizza and what was your set up?

    GG
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  • Michael B
    Michael B Posts: 986
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    I really don't know how long my large runs at high temp.
    For a clean burn I set about 700* with the bottom damper, cap removed, and just walk away. The next morning I clean out the ashes.
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  • DryFly
    DryFly Posts: 351
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    I eagerly await the post on your cremated Gasket.
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  • DryFly
    DryFly Posts: 351
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    I eagerly await the post on your cremated Gasket.
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    no time to read the other replies or for a long winded answer. trust me do not go above 700 ..600 is fine and for a longer time. i did 900 and melted two years of crud ran down outside of egg hardened like creosote
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  • CITYSWINE
    CITYSWINE Posts: 48
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    Grandpas grub- gasket frying was probably because of my setup.

    had platesetter in, legs down, ceramic feet on that with pizza stone on top of feet (not BGE stone, this was a slightly larger one my dealer sold me). Temp up to about 750. Lots of heat retention right around gasket

    Pizza was fantastic, great crust. Have yet to replace gasket with nomex one HW sent me.

    Bit nervous about trying anything else high temp but all seems good even with fried gasket.
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  • Buxwheat
    Buxwheat Posts: 727
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    Can't emphasize how important it is to foil these tools. I use my pizza stone for a heat deflector (no plate setter) and didn't cover it on a lo-n-slo. Had a drip pan on top of it but it didn't cover it completely. Short story long: stone got pretty gross. Decided to do a high heat cleaning of the egg and all tools. When I started smelling something awful and brownish smoke coming out of the top, I looked inside. There were multiple fires on the top of the stone: grease that had soaked in was burning away. The stone will suck up grease like a wick and then give it up with enough heat. Clean as a hound's tooth now.
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  • usc1321
    usc1321 Posts: 627
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    Veyr true GG, if the egg is newer, you will want to cook at a lower temp for a while. I clean @ 700, but have had my egg running for almost 2 years now. ;)B)
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    If your gasket held up with that set up I think you have worked the gasket pretty hard.

    There 'should' be less heat stress doing a clean burn with the setter leggs up as nothing will be radiating heat towards the gasket area itself.

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    Michael, any idea of the lump level in the egg when you are done cooking and do you open the lower vent full with the screen door closed or open?

    If I had newer gaskets on my large I don't think it would make it through that exercise.

    My neighbors house burned down so I don't leave the egg alone much when I am anything much higher than 550°.

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    There is a chance the gasket or adhesive may not fail.

    With the older felt gaskets I found if the heat on the outside of the egg just below the lower band reached 550° the adhesive would fail.

    It is pretty hard to get an egg wall that hot unless there is something at gasket level radiating towards the gasket itself.

    Last year I was really having problems with one of my eggs and I was doing some personal testing as to gaskets and lighting time. With some modifications I could get my medium upto and holding 500° within 10 minutes using 1/2 sheet paper towel and oil to light. 700° and holding in about 14 minutes. If I left the temperature there for much longer than another 10 minutes I would the gasket would begin to melt. The heat up would probably be faster at a lower altitude than where I am cooking at.

    The Naked Whiz had a very nice write up about temperatures inside the egg and at gasket level.

    I am guessing the weight and mass of the dome and base against the gasket is somewhat protecting the adhesive and felt.

    The newer gaskets 'bad batch' is a whole different story.

    GG
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