How to start a fire for a slow low smoke....

The Naked Whiz

How do you start a fire for a low (200-250) cook? I use the small sqaure starters, and when I do steaks, I use three to get a big fire going to get the egg up to 650-700 degrees. If you wanted to do a slow low cook, would you, say, use 1 starter and get one small spot going or would you still want the fire started in many places, but close of the air before it gets out of hand?[p]Thanks!
The Naked Whiz

sprinter

The Naked Whiz,[p]When I start a fire for a low slow cook I'm typically cooking indirect so I dont care how many spots of fire there are. Actually, the fewer the better, easier to control one fire as opposed to a few small ones. I let the coals get going a bit, usually a small fist full of orange coals, then shut down the dampers to about a 16th on the bottom and a small opening on the top. This usually gives me a dome of about 150. Then, I work the dampers from there and dependign on what I'm doing, I add my wood and get a good smoke going. I slowly let the temp rise to the desired mark. I typically put my indirect setup in at the same time I start shutting things down and this is also the time I put in what I'm cooking. All of this extra mass in the egg gives me a longer time at the low temp to get some good smoke going while the ceramics and fire brick heats up. I can keep 150-175 for a couple hours this way and get great smoke penetration in the meat.[p]Hope this helps, holler back if you have other questions.[p]Troy

Smokey

The Naked Whiz,[p]I think Sprinter has some good advive! How you start the fire is not as important as not letting it grow to fast. Eggs heat up MUCH faster than they cool down. For low-n-slow cooking, I usually put meat on before the desired temp is reach (may go on at 150 degrees). There is alot of smoke at that temp (chips have just gone on) and I slowly let temp rise to 225 or 250.[p]Smokey[p]

JimW

The Naked Whiz,
Sprinter and Smokey give good council. You can also use an electric starter provided you don't let it get to the roaring stage before you remove it. Put on some soaked chips right after removing the starter to help keep the temp down for a while.
JimW

Vents

JimW,
I've had good luck with the electic starter,too.Just a couple of minutes does the trick,and its alot easier to use than the cubes.IMHO

sprinter

Vents,[p]"and its alot easier to use than the cubes.."[p]I just chuckled at this as it really shows how EASY the egg is to use. Lets examine the process of using the cubes.[p]1 - open package of cubes
2 - remove a single cube from said package
3 - set cube on pile of lump
4 - light cube[p]Yeah, I can see where that could get somewhat time consuming and tedius.[p]All in good humor this rainy S. IL morning. Have a great one.[p]Troy