Stabalizing the Fire

Buckeye Fan

What a great holiday weekend here in Antioch, IL near the Wisconsin border just beautiful weather. Hope everyone had a great time with family & friends. Friday the wife and I went to Summerfest in Milwaukee saw Toby Keith in concert, man he is a true American Patriot, great tribute concert to the men and women in uniform. The end of the concert gave me goose bumps and choked me up a bit with his last song about the USA.

Anyway, folks I have a question about how quick some of you the get your egg stabilized to cook. Maybe there are some tricks to speed up the process I don't know about or tips that someone can offer. The wife was asking why it took 45 minutes to get the egg ready to cook. She loves the food we cook and Egging has become one of my most favorite hobby's. I have to start every day checking the forums, I feel cheated if I don't have time to take a look before work. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks, Buckeye

Austin Smoker

45 minutes is not unusual for me to trust that I have the egg temp where I want it. Just requires a little planning ahead.

A clean egg typically comes to temp more quickly.

Welcome to the Eggers Anonymous! :laugh:

tjl5709

After awhile, you will start to know where your egg needs to be set for a particular cook. Chicken thighs are my goto cooks when I want a quick grilled meal. I can have them on in about 20 min. Open up both vents, light with MAPP torch, go in and prep thighs, go back out when temps hit ~300, slide close top wheel and adjust so the pedal slots are full open, bottom vent about 1/4" to 3/8" open. Go back in and round everything up. Come back out, should be about there.

FSM-Meatball

Depending on what Temp you are shooting for, it could be 30 min.

If you want a cheap way to accelerate your startup, I have been using a heat gun (see link below). I use an Oiled paper towel to start the fire, once the coals are well lit, I use the heat gun. Turn it on high, put it in the lower vent and I can get the egg up to 400+ in about 10 minutes. You can get them at any Home Depot/Lowes/Ace/WalMart.


http://www.amazon.com/1500-Watt-Dual-Temperature-1112%C2%B0/dp/B001G3Y84O/ref=sr_1_6?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1309880369&sr=1-6

ShedFarm

As usual, there's many ways to get to the same result on the egg.

One thing to keep in mind, is if you're using new lump, it'll take longer to burn off the "stink". You might get to your target temperature more quickly, but you still have to wait for the smoke to clear.

I have what I call my "used lump bin", where the morning after a cook, I pull out all of the old lump and put it in the bin. If I don't, it picks up too much humidity during the day, making it harder to start and take longer to get up to temp.

Anyhoo, if I want to get going quickly that night, I use the bigger pieces from the bin, and don't mix in any new lump. Add in a hair dryer, pointed at the lower vent on "high", and I can be cooking in 15-20 minutes - easy. I have four eggs (L,Me,S,Mi), and have gotten pretty good at cycling the lump from one egg to another, minimizing the amount of new lump I need to introduce during the week. Come the weekend, I start off with a new batch of lump, and start the cycle over.

onedbguru

or - any old hairdryer will do as well.