Tuning the Egg for high/medium/low temp

egg_centric

There is an interesting visual representation of the % open of top and bottom vents from an old manual (I believe Naked Whiz site has the old manual) to reach various temperatures. As a new Egger this would be useful to me. I have an XL which is primed with lump and ready to go for the first time tomorrow for two rib eye steaks. I have calibrated the dome thermometer and am ready to go.

Has anyone systematically documented an SOP (Standard Operation Procedure) to get an Egg to the proper temperature as efficiently as possible?

Would the settings to reach high/medium/low differ based upon the size of the Egg?

Slotmercenary

dude,
relax and play. there are a lot of varying factors to achieve what you want to do such as type of lump, elevation, humidity,wind direction, barometric pressure, size of egg, lunar alignment,horoscope sign and the list goes on. just do a couple of test burns and play with your new toy. grasshopper you must become one with your egg.........

Mainegg

LOL relax and enjoy and start small. Never have it wide open and leave it. I have about 1/4 inch on the daisy wheel and the draft for about 350-375. But like slot said the lump and the weather and many other things can affect it. Once you start using it more you will get the hang of it.But I work with mostly 1/4 to 1/2 inch openings. But I have had days where the daisy is off the top and the draft is wide open and it will take 30 minutes to get to 300. Have a drink and relax.

stike

i hate to say it, but even that pictorial guide is just, well, a guide. it isn't precise, and it's never the same for each egg.

it's all relative. fully open is "high", fully closed is "off", and 50/50 is "medium". i know it sounds snarky, but it's very difficult to ell someone that "the width of a credit card" for the bottom and "an eighth of an inch" for the top will get you 250.

just practice.

some recurring themes and other people's mistakes that you want to learn from:

"i got the egg going and left it open to get up to temperature fast, then went inside" don't open it up and walk away... bad move.

"i have it closed as much as i dare because i'm afraid it'll go out, but it's still 300!" ...well, if it's open, and it's still too hot, it isn't going to go out. shut it some more (and next time, if you want 250, don't bother going to 300 or more. you won't establish a better fire, and the extra heat will be hard to lose in order to get back to 250)

Grandpas Grub

Are those openings for your XL?

GG

stike

....re-reading your question. re: a "Standard Operating Procedure"

i can tell you what i do. after a few cooks, you'll get used to vent settings. if i want 350/400 i'll light the egg, shut the dome, and put the daisy on with the slider mostly open (petals shut, though). bottom vent will be open slightly less than half. i can then go inside and prep the food. if i get sidetracked, i can come out 45 minutes later, and the egg is basically topped out at 400 or so. i do not believe that you get a 'better' fire by running the egg up to 600, then backing it down.

also, i don't think the fire gets temp quicker if you open it way up, let it go and then try to stop it where you want versus just setting vents for roughly your desired temp and letting the egg cruise up to it and stop by itself. personally, my experience is that the egg draws only as much as it can, until either the lower vent limits the amount of air it can draw or the upper vent limits what can get out.

egg_centric

Thanks.

I did my first cook. I filled the XL up to the top of the firebox after carefully placing the larger pieces on the bottom. I liet with 2 squares of BGE. I started with the lid open until it lit well and then closed the lid. I left the daisy full open and the bottom vent 1/2 open. The temperature climbed to 590 at which point I shut the daisy down to 50%. It had been at 590 since the last time I checked (about 10 min) and it did not budge for the next 20 minutes. All in all it had been heating for 1 hour.

Then I put a probe into one of my rib eye steaks which were only about 3/4 inch each. I also put on two ears of corn with no husk.

The steaks reached 100 internal in less than a minute and I turned them over and took everything out in under 2 minutes total cooking time. They were nicely done.

I can see that if I was entertaining that I could crank out steaks of this size in no time at all even if I had to cook in more than one batch.

Thanks for the advice. Any suggestions or comments are welcome as this was my first egg-sperience.