First cook, couple of questions

JohnfromKentucky

Since it's my first time with the Egg, I went with wings cooking indirectly. The recipe I got off of BGE was to get the egg up to 350 and add wings. I did that and of course temps dropped down...now I'm having a hard time getting them back up to 350. I have opened up both vents.  What's the average time to get the heat back up?

And I have to flip them over after 15 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture, will do so once I flip them.

Another question is, when I'm done for the day and close the vents, when can I put the cover on?

RyanStl

It usually recovers temp fast after opening and closing the dome. I don't have to make adjustments to compensate.  Be careful running it wide open, as temps can shoot up really fast.

For cover I usually forget and put on next day, but I would be ok putting on after I can touch the sides of the Egg 

cookingdude555

dont chase the temps too much.  doing so will cause you to overshoot, undershoot, and everything in between.  shoot for a range.  for me, wings can cook between 300-475 probably, and I dont concern myself with the temp too much.  put the cover on when you can hold your hand on the egg without pain.  congrats on the new egg, your gonna love it.  but you might hate it first. dont let the first few failures prevent the many successes that follow.

Langner91

If the cold wings are below the dome thermo, they will affect the reading.  How many wings did you put on?  Normally, you don't see much of a drop unless it is a big old hunk of meat.

Opening the vents will all the way will probably cause it to overshoot your target temp.

When doing anything Chicken, I do raised direct.  Indirect chicken results in little to no char/crispiness in my experience.

I usually just cook by temperature.  If the egg cools down some, it will just take a little longer.  I don't worry about time. It gives me a chance to drink.

Good luck!

Langner91

Another thing, since the BGE has a lot of thermal mass, it doesn't respond quickly to temperature changes.  However, the thermometer in the dome can be fooled easily.  It sees the lump directly below it (when direct), and it can see more heat if the plate setter leg isn't directly below it (when indirect).  It drops like a rock when you open the dome and cold air rushes in, but the grid doesn't really change that quickly.  

Cook your food to temp, use the dome thermo as a "reference" only.  It really should only have "low"/"medium"/"high" on it, instead of degrees.  Everyone thinks they should be cooking at an absolute dome temperature.  It will never work that way.  Outside temperature, fire size, wind, and a lot of other stuff affects your heat source and dome temperature.  Worry less about what it reads and more about how it acts.  Is it climbing, is it steady, is it dropping?  

If you want to cook at a constant temperature reading (even though it isn't a constant temperature), use your oven.

JohnfromKentucky

well, the wings turned out excellent! I didn't open up the vents wide open...just a little bit. Talking to my younger brother, he told me that he keeps the bottom vent open about a thumbs width max, and then adjusts with the top one.

lousubcap

Off and running-way to get after it as we all love to fire up new Q toys.
What follows are some thoughts I have collected that may help you along the way in addition to the great insights from your brother:

BGE Welcome info

Don't worry about the initial white smoke.  It's VOC's (search function for more on that topic).  A couple of things-BGE fire is air flow controlled (assuming you have enough lump and got it going).  So, temperature control (aka fire volume) is a function of the amount of air flow through the bottom and out the top.  You can control by top or bottom vent or combinations of each (preferred for low temp cooks).  With any BGE the trick is to catch the temperature rise on the way up to the desired end-point.  You have a lot of ceramic mass and if it gets heated above the target temperature it takes a while to cool down as you have experienced.

With regard to quantity of lump-bottom-line you can never load too much lump.  The air flow will dictate the size of the fire.

Misc info-on indirect cooks (platesetter or today's term for heat deflector loaded) your dome temp will initially read around 20-40*F hotter than the temp at the cooking grid-gap narrows the longer the dome is shut.  If not specified, cooking  temperatures here reference the dome temp.  Check the calibration of your dome thermo before you start.  Always wait til the smoke is burning "clear" before putting your food on..(if smoke smells good then all is well, if not-wait).

Should you want to acquire a controller, my opinion (and we all know what those are worth...) is that you should get comfortable using the lower vent and DFMT (or whatever the deal on the top is now called) for temperature control before even considering that purchase.  Many of us think the BGE will do fine at low & slow cooks without the electronics...but your choice.

No need to worry about time to get to the low&slow cook temp-a few minutes delay on the many hour cook is not a deal-breaker.  Key is to not grossly overshoot your target temp-if you leave the dome open to initially get a good fire going (I go with around a softball sized burn for L&S-set the lower vent and DMFT to about where you expect them to be when steady-state at the time you shut the dome. Then adjust as necessary-and don't sweat "dead-on" temps for the low&slow cooks. 270*F+/- 30* is close enough.  Just get the BGE stable (45- 60 mins) and then let it do the work.  You can spend the cook chasing temperature (remember the fire is responding to air flow changes so the feedback loop has quite a delay time).  Relax and enjoy the journey.

Best basic info site going- http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramic.htm 

Make sure you calibrate your dome thermo-boil some water, then insert the thermo and check the temp.  If not around 210*F, then note the off-set and use the nut on the back to correct.  Then recheck.

While rambling:  One measure of success (and weighted heavily in my book) is the reception of the food by those eating.  As you wander this BGE journey you will find that you will quickly become your harshest critic-good for challenging yourself to improve-but the lens you are looking through is much different than that of the consumers.  If they love it, you nailed it!

I get that the above could qualify as TLDR.  But as said before, Above all, have fun.

JohnfromKentucky

@lousubcap
Thanks! Some very good info. I'll take it and use what you say to heart. I'm looking forward to cooking more on the BGE.

So the wings were very good, but most of all, my wife said they were the best I have made, so I have that going for me. Granted, wings are simple...it's when I put on ribs, boston butt, etc is where I'll be tested.

I'll do that with the thermometer. What's the nut on the back do..how does it correct it?

lousubcap

@JohnfromKentucky - From my perspective, if you follow the info here thru the search function or ask for assistance, all cooks (in my book) are quite straight forward (although some can get quite complex in prep and execution)  save the brisket which is why I enjoy and am challenged by it every time.  

Regarding the nut-That is there to enable you to take out (aka adjust) any deviation from what you expect in boiling water (212*F-elevation depending-but 210-212 is close enough given E'town).  Should you run the check and see that your thermo is missing the mark then use a wrench to grab the nut and twist out the difference.  After your uncalibrated shot at it-check again.  BTW- the BGE Tel-Tru analog thermos are extremely stable and accurate.  No worries if no adjustment needed.FWIW-

loco_engr

you might want to have a drip pan to keep to the grease from burning on the platesetter.  HTH

RyanStl

JohnfromKentucky said:

well, the wings turned out excellent! I didn't open up the vents wide open...just a little bit. Talking to my younger brother, he told me that he keeps the bottom vent open about a thumbs width max, and then adjusts with the top one.

Looks great.  That's the exact same setup I did today except I had the drip pan to keep the drippings off the platesetter.  If not overloaded I usually avoid the edges and keep over the platesetter, but you could always rotate.  The edges will be hot spots.

StillH2OEgger

Congrats and the first cook. I will just add one thing that I recall reading from someone on here that was great advice. I wish I saved the actual statement or who it came from because they deserve credit, but the example was something like this:

Think of the BGE like a giant ship rather than a small boat and how they make turns. A gas grill or some other cookers are like the small boat you can make quick and sharp turns and the boat/temps will react quickly. The BGE with its thick ceramic is like the ship and the minor adjustments to the lower draft door or daisy wheel are like the large ship turning -- it takes time, so be patient.

That's the gist as I recall, but I think was good advice. Also, the longer your BGE is stabilized at the target temp the less it will change after adding some cold food. It should catch up to your target temp without adjusting the vents. Also don't worry about relatively minor changes, 10-25 degrees doesn't really change much of anything in the final product.