Need Help!

jbenny

I had my egg cruising at 250 this morning when I put the boston butt. Took a little 2 hour nap and it shot up to 315! When I putt the butt on it's internal was at 44 now it's at 99.

What's the best way to cool down to 250? I've closed the daisy and have about a 1/4 inch on the bottom vent and removed the butt just to slow down the cooking time.

Egg Master 3000

A quarter of an inch may be too much. Try like an 1/8 inch and have the daisy cracked for ventilation.

Also, careful with that butt. You want it to be at 140F in 4 hours or less. Most of the cooking time is spent somewhere in the 160's usually!

Florida Grillin Girl

Put your butt back in. 315 is OK and won't hurt anything. Just let the egg come down in temp with the butt inside, you have to almost close both vents. Watch it and stay close by.

jbenny

It had shot all the way up to 340, down at 300. Thanks for the help!

gdenby

For future reference, note that it is pretty much standard to have the bottom open no more (and often less) than 1/8", and the daisy just cracked open, to maintain a 250 dome temperature.

What often happens is that when a big mass of cold meat is placed in the Egg, the dome temperature drops. If the vents are opened farther than the above, be prepared to close them down in the an hour or two.

Also, there are people who do butts at 350. Often they foil for a few hours to retain moisture when cooking hot and fast.

jbenny

Thanks for all the great info. Before I had always tried to cook at 225 and it would shoot to 250 and then go back down. This is the first I've tried 250. We're sitting at 260 right now

Grandpas Grub

 
Now that the temperature has gone down, how far open are your vent settings?

Here are where my settings usually are for a low temperature cook.



Pulled pork is very forgiving and I wouldn't worry about a temperature spike, just keep an eye on the bark and if it is developing too fast then tent it with some aluminum foil. I have had good results cooking a Boston Butt at 400° start to finish.

GG

stike

keep the butt in and close the dampers a little more, and wait.

it will take time, but 300 degrees never hurt a boston butt

Egg Master 3000

I have found the egg can be very deciving when first getting temp. stabilized. When you are in the lighting/warming stage, it seems that you need larger openings in our vent and daisy to keep a temperature. But once the ceramic gets around the target temp, it hold heat very well and needs little fuel to maintain that temp.

Most of my temperature mishaps have come from thinking the egg has stabilized at a certain temp. before the cermaic has a chance to warm up. That leads to leaving your vents open too far and the temp will slowly climb if you are not watching. This effect can be harder to catch if you drop a bunch of cooler mass in the egg at the same time. Etc. thinking you got the egg stable at 250 empty, then dropping in the plate setter, grate, pan and a large piece of meat at the same time.

I do not have nearly the experience as most here but these are my observations from my own mistakes.

jbenny

My vents look almost identical to your picture. I'm normally pretty good at catching the temp on the up swing and holding it but this is what I get for going back to sleep.

What will solve this is the BBQ Guru. I'm going to try and present my case to the wife.

Grandpas Grub

 
The Guru is a nice tool (as is the Stoker). With the guru if you leave the blower slider too open it too will overshoot temperature pretty easily. I have the 10 cfm fan of both the Stoker and DigiQ. The stoker has a gravity damper which shuts off the free air from entering the egg. The q2 has a manual slider on the blower and I have to close the slider down to 1/3 open in order not to overshoot the target temperature.

It's all in the vents (and an established burning bed of lump).

GG