Ever lit your egg just to practice?

CAWjr

I just lit my egg up to practice playing with the temperatures.  I have no food I am cooking.  Just being a pyro practicing his craft.

Anyone else ever do this?

CAWjr

About as many times as I've practiced boiling water. Are you kidding? If not, I think you are over thinking this.

Nope...not kidding.

Regulating the temperature on an egg & boiling water are apples & oranges.  One you set it & forget it.  The other requires delicate adjustments.

Keep in mind that I have had my egg just over one week, so I would rather figure it out with just fire instead of wasting a $30 cut of beef.

Gato

You know you can practice with food on it right?

stike

"About as many times as I've practiced boiling water."

hahahaha
fantastic.

the egg IS pretty much set/forget.

don't overthink this stuff. 

CAWjr

You know you can practice with food on it right?

Yes, but my first three attempts at that didn;t go so hot, so before I have another smokey burger, I figured I would try a few things out.

the egg IS pretty much set/forget.

don't overthink this stuff. 

I'm not overthinking it, I'm just trying to figure it out.  For the last 15 years all I did was go outside, open the propane tank, turn a dial, and fire happened.  Jumping from that to regulating air flow & the amount of lump in the firebox isn't like jumping from a manual to a stick shift.  At least not for me so far.

I'm not saying that I am going to have a once a week practice session on the thing.  I was just asking if anyone else has ever lit it to try & perfect it without food.

Gato

I'm sure many people have practiced without food. Just messing with ya. Just make sure the heavy smoke in the beginning clears before putting the food on.

Geaux Tigers!

stike

it is as easy to toss on chicken as it is to not toss on chicken. 

the egg is as easy as a gassr.  you turn the dial on the gasser wide open, and the temp goes up.  ssame for the egg. 

the issue we all have when coming from a gasser is that the gasser said "low-med-hot".  we get the egg, and are suddenly beguiled by the micro divisions on the thermometer.  "my god, i can hold 227 degrees?"  yes.  you could also have held 227 degrees on the gasser, too.  but you never worried about it.

light it, set the vents halfway open, and when the smoke clears, check the temp.  you'll be around 350 400.  toss something on, and grill the thing.

Gato

I guess I was lucky. I've never liked the gassers. I will use some gas to cook up some gumbo or jambalaya though!

ButtNeckid

Lump is cheap(3 bucks for 10 pounds),here at least.If it makes you more confident or amuses you,go for it.Personally,I would have some cheap arse chicken or something on there.My dome therm crapped out.I threw it away.Never use one.I can set the egg vents to desired position for a certain temp and check it with the thermapen through the hole in the dome and be within 10 degrees+/- .It took a lotta cookin to get there though.

stike

...amount of lump in the fire box (BTW) doesn't have any effect on the temp.  it's just like a full tank of gas... doesn't make your car go any faster.  it's how much throttle you give it.

if the vents almost closed=225 (or so), and the events wide open=700, then half open will plop you on or around 350.  it really is that easy

Hillbilly-Hightech

FWIW - if you said you had "smoky" burgers, then there are only 2 (well, I guess 3) possibilities:

1. You didn't let the lump burn for a long enough time period b4 putting the burgers on
2. Did you actually put wood chips / chunks in w/ the lump?  Perhaps that combo was a bit overpowering for burgers
3. Perhaps you just don't like the taste of real charcoal grilled food - it is wood that you are cooking over, and because of that, it will give off smoke.  Some folks just don't like it [-(

Not sure if you posted a thread about your smoky burgers or not, so my 3 suggestions may have already been talked about...

But still, smoky burgers isn't really related to maintaining the temp (unless you had the temp too low & got some smoke from "smoldering" as the fire went out, or way too high & charred them to the point that they were burnt)

CAWjr

OK...experiment is completed.  I got the egg to burn off all the heavy smoke which I think is what ruined my first three attempts to cook real food.  I also got it to stabilize at one temperature for 5 minutes, go up & down on a whim, and then I opened it up & let it climb to 700*.  That was fun.  Added benefit, it cleaned my cast iron grate!

Another fun lesson, I got my first backdraft/blowback tonight.  I burped the egg like you are supposed to, but still got a nice surprise.  No big deal, knuckle hair is overrated anyway!

All in all this experiment took me less than an hour & it has made me a little more confident about this weekend when I will try my first low & slow with a brisket.

Gato

Dang, going from peewee to the big leagues. First low and slow, may I suggest a pork butt. Brisket can be a little more difficult. It will be fun either way. Look forward to it.

CAWjr

FWIW - if you said you had "smoky" burgers, then there are only 2 (well, I guess 3) possibilities:

1. You didn't let the lump burn for a long enough time period b4 putting the burgers on

I'll stop you right there HH.  That was exactly the problem.  I started the egg, got it to temp, and threw the burgers on in under 10 min.  I posted in another thread about it & the most popular reply was that I had to let the heavy smoke burn off & advice to "smell the smoke" before putting the food on because if the smoke smells good, so will the food.  If the smoke smells toxic, so will the food.

That was kind of my whole goal with this experiment.

CAWjr

Dang, going from peewee to the big leagues. First low and slow, may I suggest a pork butt. Brisket can be a little more difficult. It will be fun either way. Look forward to it.

LOL...the first thing my wife wanted when I bought the egg was a brisket.  I wanted to try a pork loin or something else, but she is quite insistent, and after all, she is the one who let me buy the thing!

Either way, I have a refrigerator full of Abita & nothing but time & patience.  Like you said, it will be fun!

Hillbilly-Hightech

CAWjr - Glad you got it figured out!!  Yeah, the rule of thumb is that whatever the smoke smells like to your nose when you fan it, that's what it'll smell (taste) like as it gets imparted onto the food. 

This is particularly important w/ new lump (usually don't have this problem w/ using leftover lump, as the VOCs have already been burned off). 

Anyway - glad it wasn't my THIRD option - SHUDDER to think if you don't actually like smoky food!!!  #-o

MrCookingNurse

I will have to say I have thought about just making a fire to practice low and slow but then kinda thought that was silly....

So tonight I just did burgers indirect and played with temp control. Didn't matter much if I screwed up burgers (I did take them off at what I thought was done temp tho)

I'd have to say surely you could throw some kinda of meat on there while you practiced. Although I would not dream of doing a brisket yet!

Gato

I've got to do another brisket on the egg. I've cooked some good ones in the past but the one I did on the egg was just ok.

MrCookingNurse

@gato
I dream of brisket at least once a week. It was one of the reason I wanted an egg or higher end smoker. Can't wait till I feel comfortable enough to buy one and do it. I also need some help eating it shouldn't be hard to find

CAWjr

Although I would not dream of doing a brisket yet!

I'm taking the same theory that my swim teacher took when I was a kid.  She was a very large East German woman.  She was not a coddler.  She took me to the deep end of the pool, looked at me, and said "YOU VILL SVIM, OR YOU VILL DIE!" and proceeded to throw me in the water.  Needless to say, I learned to swim very fast.

And if I eff up the brisket, what damage was done?  I ruined a piece of meat from Costco & drank a lot of beer while I did it!

Gato

There ya go! Git R Dun

MrCookingNurse

Lol. Proud for you man, just not my mentality and I guess without the beer I only have the food to look forward to

JerkChicken

At least throw a friggin Hot Dog on there! Jeesh!   :-O

BYS1981

I don't practice without food on grille, but I do test wood chunks on smaller portions of meat prior to doing them on a large smoke. For instance tested if I liked pecan wood on a single chicken breast.

butwhymalemodels

I didn't have food on mine until the fifth time I lit it. Directions said to keep under "x" for the first few cooks, so I just goofed around with temps.

Amount of lump has a lot to do with temperature. You aren't going to burn 6oz of lump at 800 degrees no matter how hard you try.

RichardBronosky

"About as many times as I've practiced boiling water."

hahahaha
fantastic.

the egg IS pretty much set/forget.

don't overthink this stuff. 

Last time I used set/forget it was follow by regret. I came back just a few minutes later to find my egg over 1000°.