Slow and Low question for a newb

very safe. the BGE is rock-solid at 250.

check before you hit tht e sack, set the alarm for about four hours later and check again, and then check when you get up in the a.m.

should be fine.

if it is 250 when you check it, even if you got up four hours later to find a cold egg, there's no way the egg died instantly after you checked it last. food would be safe and you'd have time to recoup. chances are though that the egg will plug along just fine.

I do not have a Guru, just do it the old fashioned way. I prefer to put the meat on early in the morning (6 or 7 AM) and let it cook 15 hours or so throughout the day, checking the egg temp every 2 hours or so. I recommend you try doing it that way for your first time - you will read many, many posts about the fire going out for the people that try to cook it overnight, just do a forum search for "fire went out" to read all about that.

Good luck and enjoy your egg.

Faith

All great advice. The EGG maintains it's temps fantastically. You will need your daisy wheel vent and bottom vent open slightly, but not too much. During your first few cooks you'll tinker with it until you figure it out. Just determine the temp you want (often around 250) and remember your dome temp (reading on egg thermometer) will be a bit higher than what is at your grate (where meat is). So 250 is a good dome temp for me. Sometimes I go higher, sometimes lower. Cooks perfect. Just use a meat thermometer and pull your meat at the appropriate time. When getting your lump going you'll want them wide open at first. Don't keep them near closed while getting it going.

Remember your meat will not always cook at the exact time and temps as others say theirs did, or how it did the first time you cooked with it. Many variables from type of charcoal, outside temp and so on can change things. Some butts I've done have been ready in 12 hours and others around 20. LOL. Whatever. They all taste good.

I have a BBQ guru and love it. Set it and leave it. I had lots of success for years without it.

As a last thing. Make sure once you set your egg up and seem to have a constant temp of say 250, give it a bit more time and check again. Just to make sure. You don't want that thing getting to hot during a low and slow cook.

Enjoy your egg.

You can absolutely do it without the Guru. I bought a Guru about 6 months after my egg. Before that I did low and slow through the night without too many problems. The Guru is great peace of mind, but not a must. As a matter of fact, I was at my lake home a couple of weeks ago and the wife wanted pulled pork for her birthday. The bad news is the Guru was at the other home.

I couldn't disappoint her so I drank a bunch of water before I went to bed and was up a 3:00 to check it, held right at 250. The above advice is great - one other thing I would add is to build your lump like the naked whiz suggests - big peices on bottom, the medium peices, then small. Also make sure it is cleaned out and you are good.

Good luck.

Fornia, you can absolutely do a lo and slo without a guru or stoker. My very first egg cook was a pork butt. I followed the Elder Ward directions on The Naked Whiz' web site: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/elder.htm It came out perfect and the directions were easy to follow.

One thing I found with the Guru is that my charcoal lasts much longer. Obviously because the vents are more open to the outside air (as minimal is it is) when doing a slow cook without the Guru, compared to when I use it. 8 hours or more, even without a pit minder unit is pretty easy.