Out of Fire

FatDog · January 2004

I loaded a cleaned out egg with Wicked Good lump, fired it off, stabilized at about 230 degrees. Started cooking a pork loin for my smoked pork chili for the game tomorrow. All went well until my wife and I went to the mall for a few minutes. When we got home, my fire had all but gone out and the loin was losing temp ... fortunately, the loin had gotten to 155 before we left and I will be "recooking" it tomorrow in the chili so no worries there. [p]My question is with the fire going out. When I opened the egg, the lump had burned out of the center of the pile while I had plenty of lump left around the edges.[p]Has anyone else had this problem and how can I go about preventing it in the future?[p]BTW, Wicked Good is just that ...[p]Doc

GrillMeister · January 2004

FatDog,[p]I've experienced that too, so now I start fires in two places. I also press down on the lump so they get settled and the pieces are touching each other.[p]On low and slows, I sometimes use a think metal rod to stir the lump a bit in the morning and it makes a difference too. I'm able to reach the lump through the grid without disturbing any meat cooking.

Chef Wil · January 2004

FatDog,
I had the same experience a few weeks back with wicked good, the next time, I fired it up in 3 spots, I regained authority of the egg with that cook. But I must confess, I had the GURU working too. Kept a loooooow @ 160 for 6 hours.

The Naked Whiz · January 2004

FatDog,
When I do a low and slow I start with a blazing chimney starter of hot coals. I dump them on top of the prepared lump and chunks, then add the plate setter, drip pan, grid and meat. By time I add the meat, the temp is down below 200 and I let the fire come up to 250 and stabilize. Using the chimney full of coals insures that there is a lot of fire going and not one spot to burn out. I have a webpage that describes it in detail:[p]TNW
[ul][li]Low And Slow Fire Building (and pulled pork)[/ul]

Sundown · February 2004

The Naked Whiz,[p]Another school about to heard from. I've been using Wicked Good since it first appeared and discovered it was a little difficult to light over Maple Leaf and some of the others. After a little experimenting I've NEVER failed to light WG with more than two sawdust starter cubes. I make sure they sit in a deep little depression dead center in the lump. I make sure both are lit and humming along. Then I take a few smaller pieces (sometimes hard to find in WG) and carefully pile them on top of the cubes . . . then wait to make sure they catch real good. As most of us know the fire will burn down and out very slowly. I can not remember a time when I didn't have enough lump left for at least one more quick cook. The only qualification I have on the above is I've used Elder Wards method of building the lump and I fill to the very top of the fire ring. Maybe I'm lucky or maybe I just have a funny little knack being able to do this but, it works for me every time. A freind of mine uses a chimmney and as many times as he watched me he still can't do it the way I do. That's the same thing as when I met Cat at the first Waldorf Event. She doesn't use the daisy wheel when she cooks she controls everything fron the lower vent - go figure!
TNW Have you heard from Larry & Lee lately?

glenn · February 2004

FatDog,
I always fill to the top of the fire ring and light up on 3 places around the outside perimeter and 1 in the top center
the fire is always consistant and all of the charcoal burns
I use a map gas tourch about 15-20 seconds in each location.
I get more than 24 hours out of a full load of cowboy at 230-250 deg . Never had a fire go out with this method.
Just my way of doing it..

Out of Fire

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