Closing the lower vent trick - other uses?

Powak

Does the dome open/lower vent closed trick work good for getting solid bed of red hot coals to in-turn reopen the vent, close the dome and do some solid cooking? there are so many times I get the egg up to 400-450 to cook at the felt and I’m stuck with a hot egg but not a good bed of coals. 

Mattman3969

Yes it does.  Works great for paella too. 

nolaegghead

Yep.  Opening the dome and closing the bottom vent will spread the fire where there's oxygen... the top.  Whatever is burning when you close the lid and open the vents again will continue to burn.

lousubcap

That's the key to the bed of lava for the caveman cooks.  Give it a go sometime.  

cookingdude555

air is one of the factors for heat output, the amount of fuel is another.  If you want all of the coal lit, and hot, try reducing the amount of fuel you have down there.  its an old trick @Grandpas Grub taught me years ago.

nolaegghead

cookingdude555 said:

air is one of the factors for heat output, the amount of fuel is another.  If you want all of the coal lit, and hot, try reducing the amount of fuel you have down there.  its an old trick @Grandpas Grub taught me years ago.

That's a mixed bag.  True, if you get an egg full of lump all burning and run on vents there's not enough air to keep the coals hot and all burning.  A small amount all burning can keep up with the air flow, but the fire is way down at the bottom of the egg so you lose radiant heat to the sides.  The compromise is getting just the top burning of a full load of lump.  Not that there are alternatives to this, like put a small grate on the coals, etc.

RRP

The only time I close my bottom vent is when I’m using my wok on my spider. After my dome thermometer registers my desired temperature with my wok inside and therefore hot, I will close my lower vent, raise my dome leaving it wide open and wok my meal!

Mattman3969

Another use of full bed of lit coals and vent closed is grilling with dome open.  Say you are reverse searing a steak. All you really want to do is form a crust. With dome closed you are still cooking by convection, dome open only cooking from heat below and with vent closed you’re limiting flare ups.  I do this with anything I’m cooking/grilling hot and fast. 

Powak

Mattman3969 said:

Another use of full bed of lit coals and vent closed is grilling with dome open.  Say you are reverse searing a steak. All you really want to do is form a crust. With dome closed you are still cooking by convection, dome open only cooking from heat below and with vent closed you’re limiting flare ups.  I do this with anything I’m cooking/grilling hot and fast. 

Man that’s great idea. When you do this do you still gotta crank up the egg to 600+ First before closing that bottom vent?

lousubcap

Caveman takes the worry out of being close.