Hi!

One of the main things to understand is "what" stabilization means. Stabilization is the operating temperature you want to cook at. To reach it requires you to get the entire egg to that temperature. "Entire Egg" means the ceramic walls all the way to the outside, and all the inside parts and pieces. Getting to this temperature, and remaining there for say 30 to 45 minutes without adjusting anything. Thats stabilization. Why do you need stabilization? So any heat load, like opening up the dome, or placing a 40 degree, ten pound pork butt inside, or maybe even a rain storm, the egg will try to compensate and bring back to that set temperature first from it's "mass" and then more slowly by the adjusted vent openings. If you try to load the egg before reaching "stabilization", you will be over compensating for this cold meat load, then as the meat gets hot and the actual load begins to lessen, the egg temperature will go up way beyond what you are shooting for. Many here will recommend you to play with your egg to attain different temperatures, and get used to the way it acts. You will learn how fast it can increase and how very slow it takes to come back down. And you can't memorize setpoints by vent openings, because so many things continuously change, thats why i think you need to get the "feel" for how to control temperature. My $.02