Fire starting question

Fill a clean egg up to the top of the fire ring and light the TOP in the center, more to the front than the back.  Just light a nice area maybe 3-5" in diameter.  Close the top and leave the DW off with the bottom damper wide open. If it's going well, put the plate setter/grate in. When you get to your set temp, close the bottom damper to about 1/2 - 1 inch open.  Adjust to get the temp you want stable.  Let it run until the smoke smells good - you want dark grey/black/invisible smoke - not white.  Once it's stable and smells good, put your butt on.  The temp will fluctuate with the change.  Don't worry about chasing the temp.  Make small changes and wait.  The temp is fine between 200 and 300, you can fine tune it over the next hour.

nolaegghead said:

You can put the DW on when you're fine tuning the temp.  Some people don't use them.

I'm one who uses the daisy wheel for low and slows, just find it easier to adjust - I find the bottom vent is a PITA to slide and I hate to bend over, I spill my drink. 

The color of the smoke.  The white smoke has more steam in it - it's from cold lump burning.  You want your lump pile to heat up.  When the moisture cooks out of it, it starts burning cleaner with less of a creosote/chemical taste that can transfer to your food.  Smell the smoke after you light it. Smell it again an hour later.  It should smell pleasant. It takes a while to learn to tell the difference, so smell it often and ask yourself if you notice a creosote smell - took me a while to figure it out.

Take it off, wrap in heavy foil, wrap in towels and stick it in a cooler.  It will stay hot and you'll be good to go.

NOLA shoud know because he is the Sofa King around here.