temperature

Grumpa

We got out our Egg for the first time today and planned to make steaks. We really did read the book carefully, but after 1 1/2 hours the temperature had reached 350 and held steady. Finally gave up and brought the steaks back in the house to do in the broiler. What did we do wrong?

Unknown

bob,[p]It could be several things. First, check the thermometer to make sure it's correct. There are instructions in the manual for calibrating it.
To build a fire, fill the firebox with lump until it is about 2" above the holes. With the bottom vent open and the lid open, place either an electric starter or some starter cubes on top of the lump. I pull my electric starter after about 8 minutes. When a fist sized portion of coals are glowing, I close the lid and take the top off. With the bottom vent open and the top vent open, the temperature should reach searing temps of 700-800 within ten minutes easily. Good Luck!

Char-Woody

bob, welcome to the forum..First, we do have a "Bob" here and I suppose we could get used to a mini "bob" but it might get confusing..[p]First lay the book aside and fire questions here. Half of use will respond, some good, some better :-) Mine I hope is good![p]Your fuel supply is in question. What did you use?[p]If real lump charcoal, then (my way) open all vents wide open lay a starter cube in the center of your charcoal (large chunks on the grate) and when it is burning brightly, start laying up a tier large chunks over the top of your burning cube. You won't smother it. With charcoal to the top of the firering.[p] Then replace the grill, and in 5 to 10 minutes you will see the pits of "H" and your temperature guage will be soaring past 700 degrees. Your not quite there yet, as the guage is getting raw flame, not true dome heat.[p] Wait till the coals are red hot in the major portion of the fire chamber and then your ready to put on steaks...Once they are on, you will see the temp drop to around 600 degrees and then creep back.[p] You have 2 minutes time per side on the steaks. Then close the top with the solid cap..shut the lower vent, and let em simmer over the dying coals for another 5 minutes. Open top cap, open lower vent, and gently waffle the dome till you see reignition of the coals..This is done to prevent the fire from flaring and whooosh as needed oxygen is again available to the fire.[p] You may still see a bit of a whoosh but your will be prepared for it...This is in the high temperature cooks and can occur even with fresh coals and nothing on the grill. Usually over 400 degrees F.[p]I had to cover one and fill on the other..Cheers..C~W[p]

Grumpa

Char-Woody,[p]Good advice from C~W on the High Temp fire technique. A great subject for tonight since that is what I had for dinner and WOW where they good.[p]I learned a little something with tonight's cook that may come in handy from time to time for us large BGE users. I had 2 filets for the wife and myself which only needed about 20 percent of the total grill real estate so I decided to build the fire to one side instead of in the middle in hope of reducing the fuel consumption. In so doing I achieved a good hot 800* cooking temp within 15 minutes with only 1/2 of the lump being on fire. The steaks came out as good as ever and I used much less fuel than I normally do yet still had the coals close to the steaks. [p]Try it next time....it works.

Char-Woody

Bob, your correct.. But the reason, and my secret is going down the tube..is that I went for center because it was easier to find :-) Now I gotta figure out all over again, if you mean the back side, right side, left side, front side , or hindside, er..I mean foreside...now I am confused.
heeeeee. So I just go for broke and hit the middle, dig me a hole (like I'm doing here) drop that baby down on the grate, poke some charcoal over it, and whooooooeeeeee, pistol packing mamma, it's chowtime again.[p]I have to insert tho, I use a diamond mesh grate system. Been doing it for the last 6 months with a experimental model. So my starting and fire results will be a bit different than most with standard ceramic grates.[p]Good post Bob and yours is also worth doing. Your advice is in the better bracket..:-)[p]

mollyshark

Curious as to the electric starter. I've been using one or two firestarter cubes and within 15 minutes, I've hit close to 1000 degrees. An electric starter just seems like..sigh..cheating or something. And doesn't speed up significantly. Only time I've had a problem is when I haven't stirred the ash around enough and it clogs the holes.

King-O-Coals

bob, I suspect there is a much more complex problem here than what meets the eye. Are you sure this is your egg? Eggs are pretty loyal. Like,, if this egg was a gift for your wife,,, like for her birthday or something,, it could be that you were a victim of an egg which felt jilted. When I cook on Guru's egg, I can't seem to get it above 350 either. He can come out and tweak it a little, and it seems to warm up a little more. Eggs are very sensitive about strangers cooking on them, and you may have to get to know it better,, or get your wife,, or whoever the proper owner is, to spend some time with it.
Of course I'm just kidding, but I was wondering if you are the same Bob who posted your plans to suprise your wife on her birthday with an egg. Congratulations on getting the egg anyway,, and remember that the egg really gets hottest once the ceramic is heated and the trememdous draft kicks in. Like a jet engine,, "the faster it goes,, the faster it goes",,, well the same thing applies to a wide open drafting egg,,, "the hotter it gets,, the hotter it gets". If you plan to do steaks at MAXIMUM heat, get your fire started,, open the bottom vent wide open, remove or slide your daisy wheel wide open and give it about 10 to 15 minutes. Some people build to a high heat by leaving the dome open, but I have found that if the dome is closed and the daisy wheel removed or (if you have the slide daisy) slid fully open,, the draft coming from below seems to act as bellows and that baby will be hummin quickly. Also if you feel that the egg was hot enough to do steaks but the temp gauge wouldn't get up there, you might want to check your thermometer. Boil a pot of water on the stove and stick the pointed end of the thermometer into the boiling water. It should read 212 degrees. It's kinda rare, but you could have a defective thermometer. Good luck, and stick with us here on the forum. You are shortly going to have some great ideas for us too.

Unknown

Irish Smoker, I feel so silly. You had already told him everything on my mind. I never read down the thread. I just jumped in and started spouting off. I could have saved all that ink.[p]Good Golly Miss Molly, Guru uses an electric starter too. It seems to work pretty well, but like you said, it's kind different, emotionally. Besides,, he is still learning how to get the starter cubes out of the package.. heehee!

Tim M

King-O-Coals,[p]" Boil a pot of water on the stove and stick the pointed end of the thermometer into the
boiling water. It should read 212 degrees. It's kinda rare, but you could have a defective thermometer. "[p]That's always good advice - I have checked mine 2 times in the past year and its been off 5 deg both times. One tip/trick is to not let the tip touch the bottom of the pan. Having it in the center of the water mass would even be better - I drop in a ceramic spoon trivet in the boiling water and let the tips touch that, keeps them from touching the hot bottom of the pan. Works for me.[p]Tim

Unknown

MollyShark,[p]I hear you about the electric starter is cheating, but it works well. I just bury the ring under a few chunks and plug it in, it has them glowing in 5-6 minutes. I had one bad experience with starter cubes giving off an unpleasant chemical smell. (hey wait a minute, isn't the term "starter cubes" enough to tip me off that that's cheating too?)[p]

sprinter

bob,[p]One thing that has been mintioned but maybe not stressed is that to get some high temps you need to be sure that your firebox is full of lump. I generally fill mine up to the rim of the firebox, just at the "seam" of the firebox and the rim. Others say to fill the box to 2 inches above the holes in the firebox, may be the same thing. Anyway, I had the same trouble achieving the high temps on my first searing attempt and this was the trouble. Then, in addition to this, be sure that the firebox vent is aligned with the bottom vent so the air has a straight shot into the fire chamber. Be sure that the grate is not clogged with ash or small pieces of lump also.[p]Here's a bizarre problem that I had but was not aware that it was going on. Probably not the case in your question but may be. I have my metium in a BGE nest that I move around my driveway to cook on. I centered the bottom vent between two of the legs so it was easy to open/close. I was having trouble getting temps above 700 degrees on my egg no matter what I tried. Then, one day I looked at the bottom vent and during the moves around the driveway, the egg had actually shifted in the nest and I was actually only opening the vent 3/4 of the way, not all the way. Once I readjusted the egg in the nest, and was able to open the vent all the way, I can get 1000 with no trouble at all. Just my two pennies but just something to look out for in the future if you have your egg in the nest.[p]Troy

sprinter

Irish Smoker,[p]In reality, isn't everthing considered "cheating" short of rubbing two sticks together to make a spark? heheheh[p]Troy

Grill With Bill

Tim M,[p]I use two chop sticks tied together with kitchen twine and slide the thermomter stem between them. This lets the tip sit squarly in the center of the pot without touching anything.[p]I also heard recently that a better way to test a thermometer is in ice water since the freezing point is not effected by altitude the way the boiling point is. However, many cooking thermometers don't go down to 32* so the point may be moot.[p]Bill

RhumAndJerk

bob,
First of all, welcome.[p]On last thing to check is the position of the firebox in the egg. Make sure that the opening of firebox is lined up with the bottom vent.[p]This with all of the great suggestions will have searing with best of them in no time.[p]As for loading the egg with lump, do not be afraid to over stuff it, you are not going to hurt it. I have a small BGE and I regularly load my egg up with lump well into the fire ring. [p]When you get the high temperature steaks down then try some thick cut pork chops (1.5-2 inches) the same way. They will be the most tender and juicy chops that you ever had.[p]Hope this helps,
RhumAndJerk

Nature Boy

Mornin' bob,
Welcome to the group. I read through all the followups, and looks like (as usual), they are chocked full of great advice.[p]Depending on the quality of your lump, the moisture in the lump, and the airflow you are getting, sometimes it takes longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Once your fire is going, and your vents are wide open, and your grate holes unclogged, just give it some time. On numerous occasions (especially with slighly damp, or inferior lump), the temp will stall at 300-350 and smoke heavily. Once the lump is all heated up and dried out, it will kick into TURBO mode. There will be a slight whoosh, the smoke will stop, and the temp guage will really start moving. Sometimes this takes over 30 minutes. In optimum conditions, 10 or 15 minutes should do it, but we don't always have perfect conditions. [p]Good luck in the future. You'll have it down in no time.[p]You also might try picking up another bag of lump (maybe a different kind) if you continue to have troubles.[p]Enjoy
NB

JimW

MollyShark,
Cheating...Schmeating. Whatever lights your fire...
JimW

Unknown

Grill with Bill, that's another good idea. But since I'm at eggsactly sea level,, and being underprivledged due to my winters only get down to 52 degrees or so, I had to boil the water... I know,,, now you're going to say "why don't you use an ice cube?" Well,,,,,, they are strictly reserved for my Big-Boyz (adult beverages). guplphaaaaaaaah!

mollyshark

Irish Smoker,
Oops. Caught me!

Nature Boy

Grill with Bill,
I have also heard about the 32 degrees test, but it seems to me like the thermometer is best tested in the higher temp range where it needs to be most accurate for cooking. Not too difficult to figure out the boiling point for your elevation. Nice to take barometric pressure into consideration also, but being just a few degrees off won't hurt.[p]Ingenious idea about the chopsticks!![p]NB

Unknown

Bob,----how long you cood those fitlets for?
Tim

Grumpa

tim,[p]Did these 2 minutes per side and 10 with the egg sealed up. They came out med well. My wife don't like much pink showing :~( They were nearly 3 inches thick prime beef. Soooo goooood!

King-O-Coals

sprinter, that's right. I use a flint struck against iron to ignite my handy-dandy propane torch. That's not cheeting is it?