Do large Eggs go below 250 degrees?

Unknown

I'm new here and about to buy my first Egg.

I talked to a dealer last weekend and he told me that the large Egg is very difficult to keep at temperatures below 250 degrees. The dealer suggested the medium instead.

Has anyone heard this? It would be unfortunate because I want to smoke pork shoulders and briskets so the more room the better.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

civil eggineer

I have 15 pounds of pork butt on my medium egg as I write. I can hold temperatures down to 200 degree without much problem.

Angie2B

Your dealer was wrong, most everyone here does low and slow. The egg will hold low temps on one load of lump for18-20 hours. I am betting that this dealer's large was not assembled correctly and had an air gap that gave him trouble keeping low temps. We just talked to someone wanting to buy an egg on this thread here.....

http://www.greeneggers.net/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=55&func=view&id=422519&catid=1&limit=16&limitstart=0

If you have any questions check in here...it's a fun place to hang out. :laugh:

Sundown

Holding temps below 250º takes a little practice and not just a little skill but, it can be done. 250º is the temperature that is the easiest to maintain at the low end without a lot of trouble.

What do you want to smoke/cook at a temperature lower than 250º?

Unknown

On my large I hold a temp below 250, but to do so I close the bottom vent with just a tiny opening, maybe one I could barely push a penny through. My lid has a fairly good seal, but not totally. My main concern is that I would like to have more fresh air coming in to generate a continuous stream of fresh smoke on the meat. It would be an exaggeration to say a ceramic cooker holds heat so well that it's kind of like cooking in an oven, but I don't get as much fresh air/smoke through the large as I would like. Maybe others do and will say how they do it.

Unknown

I put a butt on my large last night at 11pm and set the temp to 220.

I woke up this morning and peeked out at about 8am and the temp was holding at 220 (BTW, it was 34 overnight). Granted, I'm using a BBQ Guru DigiQ II, but I did plenty of

Unknown

Bozzy wrote:

I put a butt on my large last night at 11pm and set the temp to 220.

I woke up this morning and peeked out at about 8am and the temp was holding at 220 (BTW, it was 34 overnight). Granted, I'm using a BBQ Guru DigiQ II, but I did plenty of

less than 250 smokes before I bought it so I could sleep knowing that someone was watching my egg.

Check out the Naked Whiz website for plenty of info on keeping the temps down. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramic.htm.

Michael B

The large can hold temps below 250*.
What are you looking to do?
How low and for how long?

tjv

sounds like the dealer wants to move out a medium egg...........T

Eggtucky

All depends on the size of fire and how you ventilate it...I just did a bunch of smoked cheese a couple of days ago on my large and it never got above 90d for over an hour

tach18k

Well yes they can, but that dome temp which puts the grate at about 220-225, real no reason to go below that for 95 % of the cooking.

Beli

Change dealer.........not true at all!!!!

stike

250 dome temp IS 225, at the grate.

honestly, there's no diff between 225 and 250, or even 275.

i used to do them at 225 (ribs/butts) when i first got the egg, simply because i could (the egg IS easy at holding temps without devices). i also thought that if 250 was good, 225 must be better. more skillful and 'cool' sounding. bragging rights.

what it DOES do is add about 50% to your cook time, since the dome temp at 225 means grate temp starts out around 200, and if you are trying to get the meat internal temp to 200 also, it'll take a while.

so. to summarize. yes, 225, no problem. but 225-250 has virtually no effect on the meat other than length of cook.

Unknown

Thanks for all the good info. It sounds like the temperature control on the large is just fine. This is great news because I wanted to get the large. Thanks again!