thoughts and questions from first usage

You do not need to soak chips or chunks when using the BGE. It retains moister so they burn during the cook. Load the lump up to the fire ring when doing longer (4+) hour cooks.

Either use 2 cubes or break one in half as you should start the fire in 2 places. This gets a more even fire distribution and does not have the drill down fire effect.

Also let the smoke clear before you put the meat on. Yes you will still get a smoked flavor from the chips.

If you load up enough lump you can easily cook at 250 for 20+ hours...

hockeynut,

I don't use the starter cubes but you should light the egg in more than one place. I think folks that use the cubes cut or break them in pieces. Congratulations on your first cook!

Steve

not enough lump. you need enough so that (even though you had some left over) the fire will find new lump as it moves around. yours sounds like it burnt itstelf an island. there was left over lump, but likely there was an area on your grate where the fire burnt itself out. fill well above the hole.s you won't burn more lump the more you have in there, it will just give you more to work wit.

don't soak chips. the egg is airtight, and the chips won't burn any faster dry versus soaked. (they won't burst into flame for example, and burn up quickly).

if you didn't use a platesetter you probably would have been okay because the ribs were far from the fire (because you had not a lot of lump). the platesetter doesn't affect ambient temps in the egg som much as block the food from the direct radiant heat.

your thermometer outside says it's 80, but the sun is frying you. put on a hat and it's still 80 out, but your face is in shade. platesetter shades the meat from the lump. lump burns at 1100-1200 at least, with a lot of airflow it'll get to 2000 even.

so, if you can block the meat from the radiant 1200 degree heat (granted there isn't very much of it when the egg is running at 250 dome), then you are cooking at only 250. without a platesetter, you'd find that the ribs might have had scorching on the bottom. actually though, the guys that DO cook ribs and butts at 250 without the platesetter usually do it with very little lump, to keep the distance from the coals. it's a little "advanced" i guess. but it is essentially what you did. you just had the fire go out.

the reason you couldn't go higher after 300 hours was probably that you had an island of burning lump surround by a moat of ash or open grate. it couldn't find fresh lump

First, I want to tell you that I am a novice like you to use the egg, but only got 3 weeks of progress, but it passes my initial experience, which I can share.

1. Starting with a charcoal chimney:
Ÿ Start about 15 hardwood briquettes in a charcoal chimney. These are the only briquettes you are allowed to use; the primary charcoal for your BGE should be lump hardwood charcoal. When they are completely
ignited, place about 10 of them in the firebox, distributing them evenly.(from www.nakedwhiz.com)

In other words you need to use more than one starter square, I use minimun 4 distributed in 4 different places.

JLO

Hmmm-

Let me preface this with the warning that by 3 hours the temp should have caught up, but...

There are essentially two ways to start a fire in the Egg depending on the kind of cook you are trying for. For low and slow you put in the lump first and then start the fire at the top. (Best description ever of this technique is in the Elder Ward NC Pulled Pork BBQ recipe in the recipe section.) Lit that way, the fire burns slowly down from the top to the bottom.

The second way is to start with a handful of lump on the grate and light those - or use a chimney, or an electric starter, or MAP gas. Close the dome and have top and bottom wide open. When the handful of lump is fully red and burning, then add lump up to the top of the firebox. Leave the drafts wide open and wait about 10 minutes. All the lump should be glowing. Sometimes you start to have the "jet engine" effect where a concentrated flame jets a foot or more out the top. This method of starting is - understandably - for the hot fire of steaks or pizzas.

Couple more things: check to make sure that the wide opening of the firebox lines up with the bottom draft door. You can line them up with your fingers. Just make sure that the firebox bottom opening hasn't shifted around so that it isn't a straight air flow to the bottom door. Finally - make sure the fire is going really well *before* you put in the platesetter. The platesetter does disrupt the airflow, as you noted, and is also a big heat sink.

Also make sure your pizza stone doesn't block the air flow even further than the platesetter. I had this problem cooking pizzas on my medium. If you put a normal sized pizza stone on top of the platesetter for a medium, you're left only about an inch of airflow around the edge. You'll never get a hot temp with that.

Hope these help -

Bob V