Getting and Keeping a Temperature

Driller

OK, I am a newbie re: the BGE.  I am having trouble getting to a temperature, even low, without having the vents wide open. The first three cooks were done at low heats 250 - 325 but it was nothing like the YouTube videos with the amount of venting they had shown.  I have viewed the fire lighting videos and they do not show a ROARING fire to start but just a few flames.  So..... is it that I am too cheap with the amount of fuel I am using or I do not fire it long enough.  I did manage a steak at 600 but the temperature would not hold at that... ergo I do not have a clue.  Help?

SoCalTim

Hi Driller, welcome to the forum family. Let me first say there is a learning curve on your new egg - for me it was a good year.

I too watched the video's .. and you'll get there, just not out the door.

You too will find your way and soon discover the vent settings that work for you, you too will discover that bringing the temp up slowly and adjusting vents about 50 or so degrees before your egg get's to desired temp is the way to go.

I'm gonna leave things right here as I know your gonna get quite a few insightful responses. Tim

kl8ton

Welcome.

Make sure that the opening in your fire bowl is lined up with the vent opening in the base.

Load up the lump to the top of your fire ring.

When lighting, keep the dome open for 10 minutes before closing and setting vents. (This timing will come with practice as you visually assess fire and what temp you want to cook at.)

jabam

Looks like @SoCalTim and @kl8ton just about covered it. 

So so I will just say, welcome aboard and enjoy the ride!

Driller

I made sure of the alignment.  The dome is open for at least that long and this last cook I did have the lump to the top.  Temperature goes up and as soon as the vented top is put on it drops like a rock to under 200, even with the lower vent wide open.  I'll be trying Salmon tonight and see what happens at 400.

Killit_and_Grillit

Good advice above. 

Fill it up every time to start. With practice you'll know what you need for specific cooks. You won't always burn through it. Shut it down when you're done and you will have lump in it the next time you go. Just stir the ash off, push the old lump to one side and refill. 

Also, what are you using to light your fires? 

fishlessman

when you open the dome at high temp you release the heat in the dome but the direct cooking heat remains the same or even rises a little, the dome temp in this cook doesnt matter much. if its a higher temp indirect cook with a platesetter, pizza stone etc, the heat mass holds more heat in there when you open the dome. just keep cooking and forget about all this

Driller

I am using the Egg fire starters.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
About all I will offer is that the BGE is an air-flow driven rig.  If you have adequate fuel and a source of ignition then the air-flow will dictate the size of the fire and associated cooking temp.  FWIW-
BTW-thermo calibrated?   

jabam

Just an afterthought, make sure your lump is dry. 

I know, because I ran into this problem once. Had left a bag out and what little humidity there was got into the lump. I could not figure out what was going on until someone on here mentioned the possibility of damp lump. 

Photo Egg

How long are you giving the EGG to stabilize before you start cooking.
The fire starters will give off a fair amount of heat when they are burning but will dramatically drop temp as soon as the flame goes out. They need at least 20 minutes to work and I use in 2 -4 spots depending on my cooking temp and setup.
Would really help to see a photo of your starting the fire and what it looks like when you feel it's ready to go.
What size Egg?
When you say filling to the top, the top of what? I go almost to the top of the fire ringlets of the time.
As others have mentioned, check your dome temp calibration but it should be fairly evident if your temps are in the 250s or 500 degrees.

Killit_and_Grillit

Driller said:

I am using the Egg fire starters.

Sometimes those fire starters take a while to get the fire going just FYI. I gave those up for the electric stick, then a MAPP torch (which is awesome, light for 1 minute and ten minutes later it is ready to cook.

 Also don't be afraid to open your vents or leave the top of the Egg open while the fire is getting started and then dialing it in after about 15 minutes to control it. 

@lousubcap also brought up a great point that a lot of time the thermometer is out of wack.

Driller

Size:  LARGE

Thermometer is right on.  I calibrated it to start, just as I do the speedometer on my cars.

So when the temperature did get to 650 I threw on the steak.  Temperature immediately dropped to under 500 and had no idea what to do now so guesstimated the cook/dwell time and did not guesstimate well.  Opened the dome after burping..... lost a couple of frizzy forehead hairs..... flipped the steak and watched the temp dive again.  Steak was rare but really juicy as have the other cooks.  I am pleased with the results (except the steak) just having a problem with the learning curve.

The postings on the recipes are not much help either in that people do not put in their cooking times of temperatures, but given that most are experienced cookers they probably just know.

fishlessman

Driller said:

Size:  LARGE

Thermometer is right on.  I calibrated it to start, just as I do the speedometer on my cars.

So when the temperature did get to 650 I threw on the steak.  Temperature immediately dropped to under 500 and had no idea what to do now so guesstimated the cook/dwell time and did not guesstimate well.  Opened the dome after burping..... lost a couple of frizzy forehead hairs..... flipped the steak and watched the temp dive again.  Steak was rare but really juicy as have the other cooks.  I am pleased with the results (except the steak) just having a problem with the learning curve.

The postings on the recipes are not much help either in that people do not put in their cooking times of temperatures, but given that most are experienced cookers they probably just know.

pretty much no one here uses time on the majority of their cooks. we go by internal temps for the most part. thermapen or any fast temp device.

dmourati

I have found it helps to visualize what is going on with the heat inside the egg. As in the charcoal at the bottom is the heat source and there is a huge mass of air inside that can fluctuate in temperature. The ceramic of the egg itself acts as a heat sink. The dome thermometer is just about getting a good average temp inside the egg but it can (as you saw) vary wildly as you open/close the dome and add food.

One thing that helped me get over the temperature frustrations was to buy and add a digital grid/meat thermometer (Thermoworks Smoke). That, plus the thermapen, plus the dome thermometer give me a much better sense of what is going.

I believe over time much of this becomes more intuitive. It explains why we can talk about dome temps so casually when in fact the conditions inside the egg are much more variable than just a single number.

Photo Egg

Driller said:

Size:  LARGE

Thermometer is right on.  I calibrated it to start, just as I do the speedometer on my cars.

So when the temperature did get to 650 I threw on the steak.  Temperature immediately dropped to under 500 and had no idea what to do now so guesstimated the cook/dwell time and did not guesstimate well.  Opened the dome after burping..... lost a couple of frizzy forehead hairs..... flipped the steak and watched the temp dive again.  Steak was rare but really juicy as have the other cooks.  I am pleased with the results (except the steak) just having a problem with the learning curve.

The postings on the recipes are not much help either in that people do not put in their cooking times of temperatures, but given that most are experienced cookers they probably just know.

OK, if you are getting 650 and burning hair you are not having trouble reaching high temps. But for the higher temp cooks it's better to start with full load of lump. Any time you drop cold meat on the grill your temps are going to drop a little. If flames are hitting your steak when open the dome you are good. As @fishlessman said. We don't give times because it's irrelevant. You cook your steak to YOUR likeness not ours. Same goes for most anything you grill or smoke. If you ALWAYS cook the same kind of steak, and put it on the grill at the same internal temp and cook it at exactly the same temp every time you could come up with a time and flip strategy.
This is the way steak houses do it as everything is very consistent. A fast read instant temp gauge is the way to go and worth every penny.

gdenby

Fire starters and the much cheaper paper towel soaked in cooking oil both give readings of a hot fire. But once their flames go out, the amount of lump that is burning will probably be quite small. I shifted to MAP Pro/Propane torches for just that reason.

If you use a torch, they will deliver a similar amount of heat in a couple of minutes as the lighters do more slowly.

You can close the dome right away after using a torch. You can then go the faster but harder to control way of leaving the daisy completely off, and the vents wide open, or set the top and bottom vents to approximately the right opening which is much slower but reduces the chance of going over temperature. The wide open method should get to 250 - 300 in maybe 20 minutes, depending on how much torch time there was, and then the vents must be backed down. The closed method, up to an hour.

Note: both methods may still be producing a "dirty" smoke for some time after the desired temp is set.

As mentioned, the Egg's fire is air driven. Given a particular air flow, the lump will give off a steady amount of heat. The dome therm doesn't record that. So when the dome is opened at 650, and the therm reading drops to 500, the lump probably is burning even hotter than before, because the amount of oxygen just jumped way up.

Driller

Thanks

jetman96

Agree with all of the above recommendations regarding lump. As for the heat management, give it time...
- Give it time to light the lump. I use the fire starters and it takes about 10 minutes with the dome open for the flame to go away and have lump that is starting to glow.
- Give it time to come up to temperature. If I want <300*, I use one fire starter along the edge of the lump opposite the bottom vent. If I want >300*, I add one directly above bottom vent. Leave the bottom vent wide open (screen too) and cap off the dome. It may take a while to get to high temps, but you should start closing down vents ~50* before target temp.
- Give it time to stabilize. You should have all heat sinks in place (PS, ceramic stone, pizza stone, water pan, etc.) You can put these in as soon as the lump is glowing and there is no more flame from the fire starter. These and the egg will take some time to stabilize.
- Give it time to return to temperature. Once everything is stabilized (above), when you open the dome, the air temperature will drop. When you close the dome, all of your heat sinks that have stabilized will allow your dome temp to re-stabilize fairly quickly, but it may take a few minutes to reheat the air.
- Give it time to cool off. If you overshoot your temp, it takes quite a while to come back down. And when you are done with your cook, close everything up and it will eventually cool off, but not quickly.

As you do more cooks, you will continually learn heat management and what it takes to dial in your egg. Good luck!

EggMcMic

I can echo a lot of the above and maybe add a little. At home I use a heat gun to light. At the cabin (no electricity) I use the starters (and I only use 1). Either way I light the edge a little to the right of the handle. I start with the bottom vent wide open and the lid open for 10 minutes. After that I close the lid but leave the vent on the bottom open and the top vent off for another 10 minutes. 

If I am shooting for a lower temperature (<300) I dial the bottom vent down to 1/4" to 1", depending on the goal. I'll put the top on and just crack it open. From there I wait for it to settle in before adjusting. Also know that if I put anything on (platesetter, big chunk of protein) that the temp will go down but then creep back up.

For a mid-range temp I do basically the same but my vents are more open.

For a high temp cook I leave the top off and the bottom open for an additional 10 minutes or so.

For a reverse sear I usually shoot for 300 to cook the steaks. Then I pull them off and take off the top and open the bottom vent wide open, take out the plate setter and fire ring to lower the grate. In about 5 minutes I usually have a pretty good fire going (~600) and am ready to sear. If I let it go 10 minutes like that I may wrap the thermometer around the dial.

One additional note (since I am being long winded): I find that the more cooks I do, without cleaning out the ash, the lower my airflow and the lower my temps. NOT a huge difference, but if I want to do a low and slow right after I clean it all out I will be lucky to keep it at 275, if I have done a few cooks on it and have some ask/small pieces in the bottom I can easily hold 250 or maybe 230. 

Hope something in there helps. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the journey along the way.

Legume

This will sound like a stupid question, but it did happen to a friend of mine, so don't be insulted.

Are you pouring your lump onto the firegrate, or is it sitting directly on the floor of the egg?  

When my friend picked up his egg, no firegrate was included, so he didn't know he was missing it.  Airflow sucked and he couldn't maintain temps.

whldch

You've gotten very good suggestions, I may be repeating some of what is written here but there have been times the thermometer shows a temp that may not be stable. Sometimes I have not waited for lump to really heat up with consistency and the temps swing. Then 20 or so minutes later the temperature is solid. Just eyeballing the lump is a good way to recognize when the temps will stay consistent. Once you get 10-15 minutes of consistent temp you're on the way.

Theophan

Driller said:

... is it that I am too cheap with the amount of fuel I am using ...

Others have addressed this, but I don't hear you responding about this point, so I want to add one more person's emphasis:

YES!!!  If you're asking that question, you almost certainly are NOT using enough fuel, and that is a certain way to have trouble getting up to temps.

As others said above, fill it up to the top of the fire ring.  Unlike my experience with kettles, for example, where I usually burned whatever charcoal I put in it, in the BGE you don't burn any more than you need.  It seals well enough that the fire goes out quickly and you don't waste lump charcoal.  So FILL IT UP and I'm really sure you won't have any more mysterious problems.  If you still do, then look again at the more involved guidance people have offered.  But if you asked that question, I'm guessing there just wasn't enough lump.

Toxarch

Driller said:

So..... is it that I am too cheap with the amount of fuel I am using...

Fill it up. Full. The egg is not like a regular charcoal grill where the coal will all burn off. When you shut down the egg, all the unused lump will go out and be saved for the next cook. Just top it off next time and cook again.

Woodchunk

I would get yourself a cheap bag of lump, fill your egg, lite, and practice raising and lowering temps with different top and bottom settings, put the place setter in and practice some more. No food. You will soon find out that the egg maintains temps very well with little hands on. As you cook you will get a feel for times/temps. 

In in the end, apply patience, and allow the egg to do its thing