Plate setter

Unknown

Bought my large egg on Friday, tried it out this weekend doing some steaks and smoked some ribs. My question is with the plate setter, do most of you use it with the low and slow smoking jobs or is it just used when baking. I was really surprised how hot and espically how quick the BGE gets to temperature. I did not buy the plate setter because I was not planning on doing any baking, but after seeing how hot this thing gets, it seems it may help when smoking as well. Just looking for some friendly advice.[p]Thanks!

katman

Tjeffer,
Congratualations on your acquisition. I use my platesetter whenever I want to do an indirect cook--low and slow as well as higher temp. For example, this weekend I did a beef rib roast. I warmed the egg to about 700 with the platesetter in. Then I removed the platesetter and seared my roast. Put the "prewarmed" platesetter back in with legs up, put a drip pan on the platesetter and grill on top. Returned roast to egg and cooked at about 325 or so till done.

WooDoggies

Tjeffer,[p]I think the platesetter is essential if you want to bake on the egg and it works great for low and slows.
However, for low and slows, you can use mostly anything that will act as heat barrier between the coals and the meat... be it a pie pan, a pizza stone, a layer of foil, etc.[p]Hope this answers your question.[p]John

Inna Avrelina

You need to spend the money for a platesetter. It is necessary for low and slow cooking plus anything that calls for indirect heating. It is as much a part of the egg as the daisy wheel top.

jake42

Tjeffer,
By all means, get the platesetter. It is perfect for baking and lo and slo. Also I usually just smoke my ribs with platesetter and drip pan in place at 350 until done. With simular results as if i were to cook them lo and slo. Also I learned from one of the many helpful people on the forum that the simplest way to get and maintain 350 cook which I think is ideal most of your basic cooking recipes is to get your fire started, close the lid, leave daisy wheel off until you get to around 325. Replace the daisywheel with small holes completely open, leave the bottom vent completely open. It will take a few minutes and you may even exprience a temp drop. But once it gets up to 350 with those settings it will hold that temperature rock solid for hours with little or no adjustments.
This works well with or without the platesetter.