Help needed

JannyB

hi all. 
I am struggling with the very basics of a big green egg every time I use it. Can some one tell me what I am doing wrong.
I lit the egg with plenty of lump wood charcoal. Left the lid up for 15 mins then shut it to heat the dome. After 5 minutes when I have the correct temperature (110) I put in the plate setter, grid and also my lamb that I would like slow cooked. I put the lid down and the temperature immediately drops to 0 and had been the same now for 40 mins. This happens pretty much every time I use the egg and I am just about to give up. Can anyone let me?

bgebrent

Don't give up!!  Need more information.  Where are you setting your upper and lower vents?  Temp needs to be stable for a bit before putting food on.  

Chubbs

You need to let the temp stabilize for 40+ minutes before you put meat on. Heat the plate setter with the egg. You put a cold plate setter in hit egg the temp will drop drastically until the ceramics heat. Once stabilized and smoke burning clean put meat on. It will drop slightly but don't worry. It will climb back to stabilized temp 

ChuckR

I grabbed this off of you tube. Along with this forum it is a great wealth of informations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q572WcA9cAE

jtcBoynton

You need to let the ceramics heat up before adding meat (5 minutes is way too short).  Air temp will be ahead of ceramic temp - it takes time for the ceramics to soak up heat and reach an equilibrium.  

THEBuckeye

@JannyB

Did you buy it from a dealer? Did they not give you any tutorial on how to use it? 

Don't give up. It's not the Egg. I use Rutland starters to light the Egg. I wait 15 minutes to get the fire going, shut the Egg and leave the vents wide open if going high or begin to close them if going low and slow. As the temp begins to rise to your desired temp, you'll learn to lock in that desire temp. Once at desired temp, give it another 15 minutes or so before putting your food on. 
I'll then do a sanity check in a while to make sure I'm still at the desired temp -and usually it is. 

Good luck, 

NonaScott

JannyB said:

hi all. 
I am struggling with the very basics of a big green egg every time I use it. Can some one tell me what I am doing wrong.
I lit the egg with plenty of lump wood charcoal. Left the lid up for 15 mins then shut it to heat the dome. After 5 minutes when I have the correct temperature (110) I put in the plate setter, grid and also my lamb that I would like slow cooked. I put the lid down and the temperature immediately drops to 0 and had been the same now for 40 mins. This happens pretty much every time I use the egg and I am just about to give up. Can anyone let me?

Did you really mean 110 degrees? That's  barely above room temp in Fla. I can't imagine the fire is going well enough at 110. 

SoCalTim

It seems @jannyB has left the building.

1move

NonaScott said:

JannyB said:

hi all. 
I am struggling with the very basics of a big green egg every time I use it. Can some one tell me what I am doing wrong.
I lit the egg with plenty of lump wood charcoal. Left the lid up for 15 mins then shut it to heat the dome. After 5 minutes when I have the correct temperature (110) I put in the plate setter, grid and also my lamb that I would like slow cooked. I put the lid down and the temperature immediately drops to 0 and had been the same now for 40 mins. This happens pretty much every time I use the egg and I am just about to give up. Can anyone let me?

Did you really mean 110 degrees? That's  barely above room temp in Fla. I can't imagine the fire is going well enough at 110. 

There are two types of measurements for temperature I presume the OP meant it in °C and not °F. 110°C = 230°F

NonaScott

1move said:

NonaScott said:

JannyB said:

hi all. 
I am struggling with the very basics of a big green egg every time I use it. Can some one tell me what I am doing wrong.
I lit the egg with plenty of lump wood charcoal. Left the lid up for 15 mins then shut it to heat the dome. After 5 minutes when I have the correct temperature (110) I put in the plate setter, grid and also my lamb that I would like slow cooked. I put the lid down and the temperature immediately drops to 0 and had been the same now for 40 mins. This happens pretty much every time I use the egg and I am just about to give up. Can anyone let me?

Did you really mean 110 degrees? That's  barely above room temp in Fla. I can't imagine the fire is going well enough at 110. 

There are two types of measurements for temperature I presume the OP mean it in °C and not °F. 110°C = 230°F

That is true. I hadn't thought about that.

Theophan

1move said:

There are two types of measurements for temperature I presume the OP meant it in °C and not °F. 110°C = 230°F

But the OP said the temp immediately drops to 0°, which still seems odd -- if it's Celsius, that'd still only be 32° Fahrenheit, and it's hard for me to picture an Egg dropping "immediately" from 230° to 32° unless it's the ambient temperature is 50° below or something.  I'm with the person who said we need more information.

So @JannyB, please verify that you're talking Celsius, not Fahrenheit, and did you really mean that the dome temp immediately drops from 110°C to 0°C?

I agree with those above who said to give more time to letting the whole Egg heat up and get stable.  What I usually do is open the bottom vent wide, take the top vent off completely (but I close the dome), and then check the temperature after 15-20 minutes.  Usually somewhere around 20 minutes or so the temperature is rising quickly enough that I want to watch it pretty carefully until it gets to my target temp, and then I close the vents down to what I'm guessing will hold it at that temperature, and watch it for another 10 or 15 minutes, maybe.

That means, though, that my ceramics (notably including the upper dome) have been heating probably for at least half an hour before I put the meat in, sometimes longer, whereas you said you put the meat in 5 minutes after you finally closed the dome.  That might be at least part of the problem: the cold dome maybe is sucking out a lot of heat until it gets hot enough to radiate it back into the Egg.

bhedges1987

Nothing to add - all good advice ^^^

Don't give up though.  The egg is an amazing cooking experience.

RiverRatSkier

Is the temp probe contacting your meat?  That would be in the neighborhood of zero degrees C.

JannyB

Thank you all. Your comments are much appreciated. I think I need to give my egg much more time to heat up before I put the plate setter and meat on. The video is helpful - thank you. This is definitely user error and not a problem with the egg! 

lousubcap

Acknowledgment is 90% of the solution.  The BGE is a simple cooker-fuel and air-flow.  Load the fuel, manage the air-flow.  Didn't watch the above video-but two basic issues out of the gate-rushing to start the cook (aka failure stabilize the fire and wait til the smoke smells good) and chasing temps. 
You will get this-FWIW.

WeberWho

Skip the top vent all together. Keep it off if cooking above 300 degrees. Not really needed. The only time I use it is for smoking low and slow. One less step to learn essentially 

johnkitchens

Most of us had a learning curve in the beginning. Do you have a friend or someone that is close by that can possibly come over and help you out? You will learn a lot from a more experienced egger. 

You will get it sorted out. We are all glad to help! 

onedbguru

JannyB said:

Thank you all. Your comments are much appreciated. I think I need to give my egg much more time to heat up before I put the plate setter and meat on. The video is helpful - thank you. This is definitely user error and not a problem with the egg! 

Once the fire is going, put in the PS. What size is the egg... With an XL, this is how I achieve perfect cooks.

First, I use a Weber Chimney  (1/2 full for low/slow - full for everything else), light it with a couple pieces of news print until is all going.  Dump this in the middle leaving it piled up. Fill the firebox to the top and maybe half-way up the fire ring interspersed with smoking chips/chunks.  Put on the platesetter and grid. Set the daisy-wheel cracked about 1/4-1/2 inch, bottom vent ~2 inches. Putting the PS in later will only delay stabilizing the temp. 

Now I go finish preparing the meat, having a drink ... wait about 20-30 minutes verify temp stabilizing to ~230-275 (Most eggs seem to have a natural temp - mine is right about 265 or so even with the bottom barely cracked at around 1/4")  

Throw on the meat and verify in another 30 min or so that it is where you want it.  

Cook to desired temp and ENJOY.  And Welcome to the cult.