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Questions after first cook

BostonButterfly
BostonButterfly Posts: 39
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Hi All,
I picked up my first egg at the NewEgglandFest on Saturday. :) I decided on spatchcock chicken for my first cook yesterday. Overall I was pleased with it, but I think I should have let it rest longer. It was probably about 10 minutes or so. When I cut, juices came POURING out. Live and learn. I pulled at 170....was a little nervous to pull at 165. I think I'll pull at 165 next time.

I started up the egg. Let it do it's thing and get up to temp. After it got to about 390, I let it just sit and stabilize for a good half hour or so......until I felt comfortable it wasn't going to change. Put the chicken on, and it promptly dropped to about 330/340. I expected a drop, and tried hard to not chase the temps, as I've learned here. I just left it alone for a good while. When the temp didn't really budge, I started to mess with it to get the temp up. Eventually got to to 375ish. I took a while because I was afraid of blowing past 400 and really messing things up.

Anyway - here is my question. When you stabilize the egg, do you account for the drop in temp when you put the food on the grill? In other words, should I have stabilized at 440ish, anticipating that it would drop to the 400 mark? That way it cooks out of the gate at 400??

Any thoughts or advice is welcome!

Thanks,
Kim

Comments

  • Hic
    Hic Posts: 350
    Once stabilized I don't usually account for the temp drop, eventually it will come back up. As a side note, I also let the meat rest on the counter before throwing it on the egg. So it's not right out of the fridge.
    Happy Eggin'

    Large, medium, small and a mini. Egg'n, golfing, beer drinking, camping and following football and baseball.
    Atlanta NOTP suburbia.

  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    >When I cut, juices came POURING out.

    Actually, that is proper for the spatchcock'd chicken from an Egg. The "Naked Whiz" has an amusing story about a fireman putting out a house fire because with a spatch'd chicken. Also, a lot of store bought chickens are placed in an ice bath, and have lots of extra water in them.

    The usual guide line is that if the temp doesn't come back up for 1/2 hours, start tapping the vents open a tiny bit.

    Something that can happen to change the dome temperature reading drastically is if enough food is placed on the grill to block most of the upward air flow. For cooler fires, 250-ish, a large mass of food actually can damp the fire some.

    It is problematic, because as the meat cooks, and shrinks, you will end up with a hotter fire. I did a brisket that just barely fit in my medium. It dropped the dome temp from 250 to 210, and stayed there. I got the temp back up to around 230 by opening the vents. Went away for an hour, and upon return, found the dome at 310, and the brisket about 2" smaller than at the start. So if you open, expect to close later.

    Also, if you were doing the chicken direct, the dome temperature is not a good indicator. The amount of IR energy coming off glowing coals is immense, and a much greater cooking effect than the hot air circulating in the chamber.

    Average vent setting for various temperatures become habitual. Awhile ago, I was not getting a 450 temp with vents open for what I would expect for 500+. After the cook, I took the firebox out, and found ash almpst up to the box's side vent holes. You will
  • Lots of good info. Thanks for the responses. I look forward to the day that I don't have to think about the vent settings and worry throughout the entire cook!