Cook times

Bhaynes85

Hello everyone!!!

I'm new to the forum got my egg at eggtoberfest this year and have done about 3 cooks on it so far. Last night started 2 boston butts on my egg 18lbs total. Filled up my egg with lump started the fire with a BGE fire started and settled it in at around 230 degrees. This morning when I woke up around 630 am my egg was out and their was a ton of lump left. I then fired up the egg using an electric coil starter in multiple spots. The eggs settled in around 250 degrees. Anyone know why myou egg went out last night?

StillH2OEgger

If doing an overnight cook without a controller I would suggest 250 as a target temp.

Bhaynes85

Ok thanks !

StillH2OEgger

Realize I didn't really answer the question about why the fire went out. Could be ash restricting air flow or how the lump was stacked or packed in there, but there's not a lot of wiggle room while trying to maintain 230 over a longer period of time.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
If running L&S (w/o a controller-which is how I cook) I start the fire a good 2+ hours before loading the protein to ensure it is stable (no vent movement once at temperature) for at least a hour.  And as above, I aim for the 250-260*F range as most BGE's have a "sweet spot" in that neighborhood.  
Once you load the protein the dome temp will drop but will then return.  You hit it with 18lbs of cold meat so recovery will take awhile.  FWIW-
BTW-dome thermo calibrated?

Bhaynes85

I see. I just thought 225 was what u wanted for a low and slow 

Bhaynes85

I picked up the egg from the fest and have not calibrated it! And that makes sense bc it's cruising right now at about 250 degrees !

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

@Bhaynes85 Any idea how long the meat was above 40°? If you put it on last night and the fire went out somewhat soon and it sat on the grill for 6+ hours you may want to be cautious of who you serve it to. Just a thought from a safety perspective. 

Bhaynes85

I checked the temp this morning and the meat was 137, you think that's OK to keep going with? 

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

It's hard to say. Maybe one of the more educated food safety guys will chime in. Meat should not be left in the danger zone of 40°-140° for more than 4 hours. What time did you put it on last night? Was it thawed completely or partially frozen? 

dmourati

https://media.giphy.com/media/zvOGKP1ZYRlqE/giphy.gif

Bhaynes85

It was thawed and 930pm

dharley

What kind of lump? How long was the dome temp stable before you put the butts on? 

Theophan

I think 200°-225° are the temps people burning wood in offset smokers aim for.  Different types of cookers do best at different things, and techniques can be rather different.  You tend to need to mop and/or wrap more with an offset smoker than a BGE because BGEs hold moisture a lot better.  BUT... BGEs really don't do well, at least in my own experience, below 250°.  So for a "low and slow" I'm usually aiming for 250°-275° similar to @lousubcap above.

I'm also paranoid about having a fire burning without anyone awake keeping an eye on it from time to time.  There have been terrible stories and frightening photos of house fires started from any kind of grill, including Big Green Eggs.  Lots of folks here to overnight cooks and they're fine with it, but for me, I try to get the cook done by the time I want to eat, and I'm willing to raise the temp a bit if necessary to do it.  It's been a while since I've smoked a pork butt, but I think I usually do it around 275° and don't have much trouble getting it done by dinner time, but maybe I'm not remembering that right and I've nudged it up to 300° or even higher, but I don't think so.  I just don't want a fire burning on my property and then go to bed.

I've never gotten a controller because I've never felt like I needed one.  I have a wireless thermometer so I can keep an eye on the temp without having to go outside, but I like going out to check on it from time to time.  The Eggs keep the temperature amazingly stable without a controller, and I enjoy keeping an eye on things from time to time.

jtcBoynton

Bhaynes85 said:

I see. I just thought 225 was what u wanted for a low and slow 

The 225º used to be "gospel" for low and slow. It's a good temp for metal wood burning cookers.  Ceramic cookers are a different animal.  Even in the land of stick burners, higher temps are now quite acceptable.

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

I really can't say if the meat is safe or unsafe to eat. If it were me and I was serving to anyone other than myself I would toss it. If I had to guess I would say it spent a minimum of 7-8 hours in the danger zone. I'm sure the egg was 200°+ when you put it on so it came up to +40° pretty quick. Then you relit the fire this morning 9 hours later and pushed it on through 140° I assume. 

Another senario would be you put it on at 930, it got to 170 within 4 hours and then the fire died out and it slowly cooled to under 140. In this case you may be perfectly safe. It's just hard to really know what happen and how long everything took. Better safe than sorry, I can assure you that from past experience. 

gdenby

The "safe zone" guidelines are simplified, and are set for very cautious use. If the food was at 137, any pathogens that somehow managed to get into the Egg, and were not killed by the rub's ingredients, the formaldehyde from the smoke, or any creosote inside the Egg should not have been able to start growing at 137.

I've done a couple of tests where I put the fire out with a dome of 250, and recorded how long it took to drop to below 140F. Depending on the outside conditions, from 90 min to 2 hrs. I haven't measured the meat, I suppose I should. Considering that even mostly cooked meat is full of water, I suppose it would take longer for it to cool than the air around it.

As to why the fire went out, there are a couple of common scenarios. A dome temp of 230 could be just 1 piece of lump burning. If that was not in good contact w. other pieces, the fire dies because the contact points are not hot enough to kindle the lump. For me, what is more common is that the fire burns straight down the middle, leaving a column of ash about the thickness of a baseball bat handle. Seems to be from a chimney like effect centering the airflow.

Bhaynes85

Thanks guys I think I'm gonna keep the meat! I finished the coom about 2 o clock today and it was really good got the internal temp up to 200 degrees ! Hope I live lol

Hans61

Bhaynes85 said:

I see. I just thought 225 was what u wanted for a low and slow 

The sweet spot on my xl is 275ish I just let it roll and don’t worry about it temps are not as big a deal as temp ranges 

I don’t do over night cooks anymore cause I wrap and cook at higher temps, sometimes up to 325.

There’s a lot of guys on here who swear by turbo 350 cooks 

welcome me to the forum! 

Bhaynes85

WeberWho

Bhaynes85 you still alive?  Looks good from here. Nice job saving the cook. Wings look great

Bhaynes85

Yes!!! I lived the butts were great, turned that sob up to bout 400 before I pulled them off.