First cook......highlights and downfalls...comments most appreciated!!!!

Unknown

hey gang,[p]well....after days of staring at my lonely egg (no time basically) i decided it was time to take the plunge into eggdom. i cut open my bag of lump and low and behold i had some rather large pieces of lump in the mix. not just big, really big. i decided to remove the really big pieces until i had time to break them up a bit. is this common for all bags of lump? after loading the box w/ enuf lump to just about the top of the firebox, i lit her up w/ weber fire cubes otr whatever they're called. lighting went smooth and i sat back and watched...after a few minutes i had tempa of about 400 degrees. here's where i think i made my first mistake. i lowered the temp to 350 for some spatchcock chicken, but it looked as if not all my lump was lit. is this a mistake? should i let her roar up to 700 or so and make sure all the lump is lit before reducing the temp? anyhow, i laid the 2 chickens on the grill w/ 4 bakers and proceeded to close the lid and try to stabilize at 350. after about 5 minutes or so i was able to stabilize at 350 w/ no issues. after an hours time had elapsed i lifted the lid and saw what seemed to be a gorgeous meal. the chicken was a dark golden brown and the potatoes were soft when poked w/ a fork. now the test. i had been bragging to my inlaws all week about my new toy and it was put up or shut up time. i laid the birds on my cutting board and used my cleaver to bust them into pieces....to the table we go. they were tasty, juicy, and the skin a little soft for my liking. i would have preferred the skin a bit crispier. all in all i think for the first cook it went pretty well. should i have let all the lump get burning before cooking the chicken? maybe that's the reason it was sooo smoky to the taste or do all foods come out that way when cooked in the BGE? i added no wood chips whatsoever.....strictly lump![p]comments appreciated![p]thanx in advance,[p]Da_Butcher

Mop

Da_Butcher,...its not that uncommon to get some larger chunks of lump in the bag...you got lucky...its nicer to have that than a bag of dust....I have had a few of them..[p]There is no need to wait for all the charoal to light, it will continue to burn from one peice to the next on its own.[p]Next time try to bring the temp up slowly to your desired temp, its easier to bump temp up than it is to lower it due to the ceramic mass and its heat retaining qualities....[p]Also, to minimize the amount of smoke from the lump, look through your coals and make sure there are no big hunks of bark or any other crap stuck to the lump.
If there is any shiney stuff, take them out.
Also, its best if you have a well established fire prior to loading any meat into the cooker.
I like to have my cooker going for at least 15-20 minutes at 350º to do butterflied chickens.....leaves little to no smoke on the birds..(providing you removed all the crap from the lump)[p]The next time you do the butterflied chickens, get the cooker to a well established solid 350º, cook them direct on a raised grid.
I sometimes let mine go an hour and 10 minutes if they are larger chickens.....
If you like the skin on the crispy side, just flip the chicken over for the last 15 minutes of the cook, that should get you what you are looking for...use a really wide spatula though cause the bird will want to fall apart at this point.[p]Mop[p]

Unknown

Da_Butcher,
Yeah, I got my egg about three weeks ago and had a similar experience... Not all lumps are created equal. I got my egg at BBQ galore and bought a bag of their lump.... it had some very large pieces in it as well. Check out the Naked Whiz's lump review page he has good descriptions of what you can expect from the different brands... I have just tried my second batch of lump (Cowboy brand) and it is completely different from the BBQ galore stuff.... (the Cowboy has much smaller peices, they do not resemble tree chunks but rather cut ends of lumber, and have very little to no smokieness to them)[p]About the smokiness of your spatchcock... I too found that I got a lot of smoke flavor with the BBQ galore lump when cooking chicken. Poultry soaks up smoke much more so than other meats... I also have done a few chix breasts and they turned out great... just a hint of smoke in them from the lump alone.[p]About the spatchcock though... I have had issue with too much smoke flavor when I do a whole bird... I attribute it mainly to this... I have done them direct with no grid extender and the fat from the chix skin dripped caused flare ups and scorched the meat and gave a strong bitter smoke taste. I just made a grill extender this weekend and plan to try again soon for that perfect spatchcock.[p]As for the rubbery skin... I still have yet to get crsip skin but some say to try to 1)after rubbing chicken set in fridge without saran wrap letting it dry as the rub penetrates. 2) cook skin side down for some if not all of the cook.[p]Hey, I just tried my first lo n' slow butt this weekend... incredible stuff. I can't stop eating it.[p]Sorry for the long post... I have spent a lot of time reading through the posts here and this is pretty much a summary of what I have found thus far.[p] [p]

Unknown

MOP and Nardi,[p]thanx for the replies. well guess what, i used barbecues galore lump!! the large pieces of lump i found resembled tree branches and suck also. my guess would be to try and use a different brand. i live in southern california so i'm not sure where to find another brand? anyhow thank you again for the quik replies![p]regards,[p]Da_Butcher

Unknown

Da_Butcher,
Tell you what.. I have found the lo and slow style cooking to be much easier than any other method... I have done ribs via the 3-1-1.5 method and just did a 14 hour butt roast this saturday.... both went fairly smooth for my first time and the food in each case was great!![p]Hell I'm looking forward to my pulled pork sandwich for lunch tomorrow... it's damn good stuff.

djm5x9

Nardi:[p]Gently slide your hands up under the skin from the bottom of the breast (at the body cavity) to the top of the breast. Once you have separated the skin from the breast, introduce your favorite seasoning to this newly created void. In addition, I like to add a favorite Louisiana style hot sauce. Depending on your cooking technique (indirect/direct), this may or may not crispin the skin, but it certainly does taste good. Raising the temperature as the cook completes may help eliminate rubbery skin.