My 1st Cook

porterhouse64

I got my table built and assembled the XL BGE yesterday.

The first cook was a New York Strip about 2 and 3/4 inch thick.

I use a oven method to start the steak.

1. cook 1 pound of bacon in a cast iron skillet
2. let steak come to room temperature and season with a rub
3. roll the steak in the bacon grease and cook at 275 about 5-10 minutes per side
4. toss on a hot grill for about 2 minutes per side to sear (rotate at 1 minute for cross hatch grill marks)

With steaks 2 inches and above, this gets you a rare to medium are steak depending on oven time.

The dome temperature was reading 720 when I put the steak on. I cooked 1 minute per side and had a solid black char, not burned steak.

The steak was great, juicy and flavorful.

I melted the gasket, which from what I read meant 1100 degrees at grate level.

So my question to the experts is: What is the "ideal" searing temperature?

I want black grate mark and a brown crust. (The blackened crust was fine, but not visually appealing) The next steak cook I will attempt to stabilize the dome temperature at 600 degrees. Will this be too high?

Rick's Tropical Delight

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Austin Smoker

PH,

First, congrats on the purchase and welcome to the "club".

I've read of lots of folks who have fried their gaskets by doing a high temp cook early in the life of their new eggs....even at 700 degrees. Most of the sage advice I read from the Eggheads here recommend doing some low and slows, and oven temp cooks for the first several cooks (keep it below 500). That's what I was able to do, and have had no problems with more recent searing cooks. I normally sear a steak, or blacken fish between 650-700, which is plenty hot to get what you're looking for.

Good luck and good eggin!

porterhouse64

Thanks for the quick replies.

I will try the T-Rex method next time.

I have spent a lot of time on the Naked Whiz site. It is that site that ultimately made me decide on a BGE.

I will check on the alignment after it cools down. I had done the dollar bill test at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock. The seal was tight. I burped it after each opening to prevent flashback.

Should the interior edge be trimmed so that the absolute minimum of gasket material is exposed to heat?

I am planning on a Boston butt tomorrow. The gasket appears to still have a little cushion left. Should I wait for a few more cooks or go ahead and repalce it?

lowercasebill

large bge cast iron grill 600-700

porterhouse64

That is what I am looking forward to. My were entirely black.

usc1321

Searing steaks at 700+ is fine. You should check to make sure there are no gaps inbetween the dome and the base. If you have air gaps it may be the cause of you melted gasket. Mad Max shared a great trick with me at Thanksgiving to make sure the dome is postioned correctly with no gaps. It is very simple. Take a sheet of plain paper and place it on the gasket. Close the dome and you should not be able to slide the paper around. Make sure to check all the areas in of your gasket. If the sheet slides around.. you need to adjust your dome. Maybe this will help. :huh:

Txn in Fla

I wouldnt worry too much about the gasket. My large BGE has north of 100 cooks on it and the gasket is almost non exiistant. Doesn't seem to affect the cooking ability at all. Every once in a while I see a small puff of smoke come out but it still holds temp. well and I can get a 16 hr cook on one load of lump.

I was looking for one of the BGE new gaskets at the Florida eggfast...Fritz didnt have them and after talking to Spring Chicken, I'm almost convinced I don't need one.

Beanie-Bean

Welcome to the EggNation! Sorry to hear about the gasket, man. I sear between 500-600 degrees now, using a cast iron grate on the LBGE or the standard grate on the SBGE. Anything hotter than that really takes away any of the seasoning I've put on the steaks. It's basically the TRex-method, but not quite as hot on the sear. I still adhere to the 20 min rest, followed by the 400 deg roast. Steaks come out perfect every time, regardless of which egg I'm cooking them with.

Frank from Houma

:laugh: :laugh: Sounds eggzactly like my first cook. I almost had to pry my dome up the next day. Replaced my gasket with a felt one and have been cruising along. The gasket is looking a little weary so I called Atl and ordered a nomex on Friday.