Does your medium BGE cook slow?

grin_phi

Hi Eggers

I've touched on this in other posts, but is there a definitive reason that a medium BGE seems to cook everything much slower than any recipe suggests? 

Today I cooked some pretty average sized beef short ribs, meat no thicker than 1.5". I was aiming for 225F at the grate for the 7ish hours that, in this case, Meathead's recipie suggested. The egg actually ran hotter than that for the first hour or so following a clean. 

After 7.5 hours the ribs were still only at 190F internal (the smallest one too) and I had to crank the temp to 250F to finish them off. Even then, they were juicy and tender in parts but mediocre in others. 

I've seen some people on here mention good results from 5hrs at 250F, which sounds good as I cant really get up any earlier to give them 9 to 10 hours here. 

Thanks in advance. 

RRP

Have you calibrated your dome thermometer? Sounds like it is off to me.

Photo Egg

In any grill it takes forever to get a chunk of cold meat up to internal temp around 200 with a grill temp of only 225. Same holds true for people insisting to cook brisket at 225. 

grin_phi

Thanks @RRP not reading from dome therm. I have a partyQ and dual probe reading from the grill. 

grin_phi

Thanks @Photo Egg so would your vote be for cook longer or cook higher (or both!)

hoosier_egger

The lowest I smoke at is between 250-275 wherever it settles in at

shtgunal3

The lower the temp the slower the cook no matter what type grill and no matter what protein your cooking. Also, size does matter, the larger the protein the slower the cook. I normally do beef ribs around 275 or as @ColtsFan mentions, wherever the egg decides to settle.

6baluts

- I have not noticed any difference in cooking times once the guest of honor is introduced to the cooking grate on my LBGE's or my MBGE.
- I have to admit the MBGE is my favorite kamado out if all my ceramics.
- The delta between your pit temp meat temp as it get near tbe finish was not helping much.
- Good suggestions from previous posters concerning pit temp and dome thermometer above. 

Langner91

grin_phi said:

Thanks @RRP not reading from dome therm. I have a partyQ and dual probe reading from the grill. 

On a medium, you don't have much real estate to get the probe away from the protein.  Are you sure you were reading actual grid temperature, and not a temperature that was slightly off the plate setter/indirect piece?  If you were near the edge of the plate setter with your grid probe, it would try to keep that grill very cool.

What was the dome reading?

Most folks talk about dome temperature when talking about the temperature they are cooking at.  I can't hardly get my grill to run at 225°F on the dome.  It always wants to go out.  I don't have a partyQ.  

I have much better luck at 250-275°F on the dome.

RyanStl

No difference for me.

bobroo

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

Photo Egg

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

Ozzie_Isaac

I have an XL, a Medium, a MiniMax, and mini.

Medium and XL perform similar except response time on the medium is quicker.  It is like a sports car compared to the XL.  As long as I keep the firebowl inlet aligned with the lower draft door, I don't have any issues.  Even when some of my air holes get clogged.

The minimax is the hardest egg for me to control and it is very finicky.  The mini works surprisingly well.

bobroo

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

One 10+ year relationship with a (definitely a female) Medium.

Photo Egg

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

One 10+ year relationship with a (definitely a female) Medium.

OK, you made it sound like you had experience cooking with all the different sizes. My Mini will get up to roaring steak searing temps faster than my Large and my XL. My Small Egg is the slowest to come up to temp but my Medium cooks very similar to my Large. Brand of lump and lump size has historically made more of a difference in start up time compared to what Egg I'm using.
Lots of smaller pieces fit tighter together in fire box and don't provide as much airflow. A dense hard lump also can take longer to get stoked up. As well as lots of old ash on the lump grate. Normally just a couple of thumps with the dome lid will drop and clear the ash from the air holes.

Canugghead

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

I saw what you did there 

Photo Egg

Canugghead said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

I saw what you did there 

This is just plain not the case…

Canugghead

My apology for reading too much into it.

Photo Egg

Canugghead said:

My apology for reading too much into it.

Definitely no apologies needed. It did appear trappy. I just wanted to understand what first hand information he was using to say smaller Eggs were not as good as the larger models. I have never owned anything larger than the XL. But I have cooked for many years on the other sizes. My Small Egg is the only only size that takes longer than the others to come up to temps. The lump grate and fire box intake is kinda small in comparison. But it’s a great cooker and I have 2. One has been my Eggfest travel Egg and the other stays on my back deck as my main cooker. I will admit I have poked fun over the years about the Medium Egg and it’s my newest addition. But it draws air and heats up faster than my Smalls and is very comparable to my Large Egg. Like @Ozzie_Isaac said above, XL is fairly similar but has so much ceramic mass that it’s slower bringing temps back down.

GrateEggspectations

Does your Med cook slow;
Does the gauge go to and fro;
Can you get it really hot;
More than a Kamado Joe;
Can you smoke a nice pork shoulder;
Fan the flames until they smoulder;
Does your Med cook slow?

bobroo

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

One 10+ year relationship with a (definitely a female) Medium.

OK, you made it sound like you had experience cooking with all the different sizes. My Mini will get up to roaring steak searing temps faster than my Large and my XL. My Small Egg is the slowest to come up to temp but my Medium cooks very similar to my Large. Brand of lump and lump size has historically made more of a difference in start up time compared to what Egg I'm using.
Lots of smaller pieces fit tighter together in fire box and don't provide as much airflow. A dense hard lump also can take longer to get stoked up. As well as lots of old ash on the lump grate. Normally just a couple of thumps with the dome lid will drop and clear the ash from the air holes.

The original poster’s question is asking that they feel their medium takes longer than it should for long cooks and mentions trouble holding constant temperature across that timeframe. It mentioned nothing about start up. 

Holding consistent temperature in medium Eggs and smaller for many hours is a flat out pain in the ass due to the clogging fire bowl.  

Ozzie_Isaac

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

One 10+ year relationship with a (definitely a female) Medium.

OK, you made it sound like you had experience cooking with all the different sizes. My Mini will get up to roaring steak searing temps faster than my Large and my XL. My Small Egg is the slowest to come up to temp but my Medium cooks very similar to my Large. Brand of lump and lump size has historically made more of a difference in start up time compared to what Egg I'm using.
Lots of smaller pieces fit tighter together in fire box and don't provide as much airflow. A dense hard lump also can take longer to get stoked up. As well as lots of old ash on the lump grate. Normally just a couple of thumps with the dome lid will drop and clear the ash from the air holes.

The original poster’s question is asking that they feel their medium takes longer than it should for long cooks and mentions trouble holding constant temperature across that timeframe. It mentioned nothing about start up. 

Holding consistent temperature in medium Eggs and smaller for many hours is a flat out pain in the ass due to the clogging fire bowl.  

My medium is rock steady for hours.  No issues. Inlet alignment is key for mine.

fishlessman

the egg lacks the airflow at 225 to heat the meat up like metal cookers. start with 250f. we used to do the 225 but gave up on it 20 years ago. i only cook that low when its convenient to me on a pork butt on an overnight where i dont want to serve until mid afternoon the next day and im still bumping the temp up towards the end.

Photo Egg

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

Photo Egg said:

bobroo said:

The reason is the holes in your fire bowl get clogged with ash and stifle airflow. A KAB will help out quite a bit but will not eliminate clogging.

As much as no one wants to admit it, the fire bowl is a poor design airflow wise. Any partial clog in the fire bowl matters substantially more on smaller sizes of Egg, Large Egg and above? A partial clog of airflow is much less noticeable/impactful. Therefore the trouble of Mediums and less staying on recipe.

The mothership and most of the posters here want to believe that smaller Eggs are just as good as their larger counterparts and are just scaled down. This is just plain not the case, comparable performance deteriorates the smaller Egg you buy.

How many different sizes of BGE do you own?

One 10+ year relationship with a (definitely a female) Medium.

OK, you made it sound like you had experience cooking with all the different sizes. My Mini will get up to roaring steak searing temps faster than my Large and my XL. My Small Egg is the slowest to come up to temp but my Medium cooks very similar to my Large. Brand of lump and lump size has historically made more of a difference in start up time compared to what Egg I'm using.
Lots of smaller pieces fit tighter together in fire box and don't provide as much airflow. A dense hard lump also can take longer to get stoked up. As well as lots of old ash on the lump grate. Normally just a couple of thumps with the dome lid will drop and clear the ash from the air holes.

The original poster’s question is asking that they feel their medium takes longer than it should for long cooks and mentions trouble holding constant temperature across that timeframe. It mentioned nothing about start up. 

Holding consistent temperature in medium Eggs and smaller for many hours is a flat out pain in the ass due to the clogging fire bowl.  

Ok, I will make it super simple.
My smaller size Eggs cook as fast as my larger size Eggs.
In fact my Small will cook a pork butt faster at the same temp as my XL because it’s closer to the radiant heat of the dome.
The shower start up time of my Small was only mentioned because it’s unique compared to the other sizes.