Surprise High Temp

JimW

I was going to grill some lamb kebabs last night and I wanted the temp to be around 550F. So I lit the Egg and it seemed to be stabilized at 550F using the slide daisy top wide open and the bottom vent also wide open. I went inside to finish a couple of last minute things, went back outside and to my surprise the temp had jumped to 720F and stabilized there.[p]The lump was fairly good size and came up to about 3/4 of the way to the top of the fire box. There was no ceramic mass of any kind in there, just the grate.[p]In the past, I have read (and preached myself) that you couldn't get more that about 550F using a slide daisy top. I have proved myself wrong...again. In looking back, most, if not all, the times I used the slide daisy wide open was with some fire bricks and maybe a pizza stone. I never just let her rip in a clean configuration.[p]I would be interested if anyone else has been able to get 700F plus with the slide daisy top.
JimW

Spin

JimW,[p]I have seen this a few times myself and was equally surprised. Four things control heat in the Egg and we only have solid control over two of them (air in and air out). One we really can't control is the contact of each of the pieces of lump. This contact allows the fire to spread as it only spreads through contact with more fuel. Another is how the airflow runs through the lump (it will tend to run to the fire, but may be blocked from a more direct route by the lump itself).[p]What you experienced is the ideal and far from the much more common.[p]Spin[p]

Tim M

JimW,[p]That doesn't surprise me at all. Vent open and slide/daisy open = 750-600 deg. Thats my normal pizza setting. Maybe its the cast iron trivet I use that allows those temps easily. [p]Its different with the small and 550-600 is about the max I get with no top.[p]Tim

JimW

Spin,
I agree. I think maybe the fire got hotter than normal due to the larger size of the lump which allowed greater airflow.
JimW

Fritz

Tim M,[p]I get VERY high temps, above 800* in both the small and mini. In the small I am using an expanded metal grate. That works wonders for getting a high temp. The mini just seems to climb up there when one uses large lump.[p]Fritz

RhumAndJerk

JimW,
How did the Lamb come out? [p]I do like the higher temperatures (700+) when cooking Lamb kabobs. Most often I would make the Kabobs Tandoori stlye, which requires the higher temperatures.[p]Also, it is a good idea not to walk away from the egg when grilling at high temperatures. The cooking time is never as long as the time you will be away from the egg. Also, you can have what you experienced, a temperature spike. Be glad that the egg only got to 720 and over 1000, but slide top saved you there.[p]RhumAndJerk

JimW

RhumAndJerk,
Generally the only thing I cook at 700+ is straight meat. I'm not sure how the veggies would fare at that temp. so I closed things down until the dome temp was about 600-625F. I marinated the lamb for 4 hours in Italian dressing and coated the veggies with it too before they were skewered. I cooked the kebabs for just a little over 3 minutes per side. They were moist and juicy and the veggies (bell peppers, onions and mushrooms) had just a little char on the edges. Quite tasty.
JimW

RhumAndJerk

JimW,
You are correct about veggies being burned at the higher temperatures, I had not thought about that. One method to get around that is to separate everything on to its own skewer. Put each like veggie together and the meat separate. This way you can cook each part to its own time and temp and do the meat last at high temperature.[p]RhumAndJerk[p]