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NYE Pizza semi fail

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xfire_ATX
xfire_ATX Posts: 1,113
in EggHead Forum
**Not sure what happened to pics so text will have to do**

As the last use of the egg was for cold smoking cheese the egg was clean- ash empty, mix of new charcoal and some leftover I cleaned out before cold smoke.  Temperature was below 40 and falling to ~27 by end of story.

Started day (10.30) making a rack of ribs and a chicken for my neighbor.  Noticed then I couldn't get the egg to really hold temp where I was used to it being with bottom and top openings.  I was running the openings at basically 450 to get 325- oh well its cold and windy i figured.

After pulling the meat off I knew I wanted to make pizza later and didn't feel like re-lighting the egg later so I put the openings at basically the minimums and left her alone for 5 hrs.  When time came I opened the egg up to make sure there was even still fire as the thermo read ~50 degrees or so and sure enough, nice big pile of lump.  Knowing I was going to be burning at 500+ for a few hours I added some additional lump on top and opened the bottom fully and no top.

After 30 min thermo was just approaching 400 and I started to back the dampers down.  Went back out 10 min later and thermo is showing 700- whoops, brought it down more and when temp hit 450 I was ready to go.  Now comes the problems- at no point after that was I able to get the egg up over 450 and frankly I was fighting a downward trend and I ended with no top and the bottom 100% open with no screen.

Thoughts- I made 5 pizzas, was opening and closing killing my heat- likely but with those settings I figured it would come back.  Did I smother the lump adding more- maybe but it sure did get to 700 at one point.  By the last two pizzas most of the guests were already full from other food anyway and they were pretty plain kids pizzas.  I ended up putting the stone in the oven last night and reheated most of those two and they were just as good.

XLBGE, LBGE, Charbroil Gas Grill, Weber Q2000, Old Weber Kettle, Yeti 65, Yeti Hopper 20, RTIC 20, RTIC 20 Soft Side - Too many drinkware vessels to mention.

Not quite in Austin, TX City Limits
Just Vote- What if you could choose "none of the above" on an election ballot? Millions of Americans do just that, in effect, by not voting.  The result in 2016: "Nobody" won more counties, more states, and more electoral votes than either candidate for president. 
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  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 9,835
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    It sounds like maybe your charcoal grate got clogged with charcoal pieces and your airflow got restricted.  I had that happen the first time I tried to cook pizza on my XL - I couldn't get the egg above 350.  Since then, after I dump in the lump, I clear a small hole in the charcoal at the very front of the egg and make sure at least one hole of the charcoal grate is uncovered by any lump so that air can freely flow through it.

    Others have solved this problem with an aftermarket grate (Hi-Q I believe) that has bigger holes in it for air flow.

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

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  • Photo Egg
    Photo Egg Posts: 12,110
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    Agree with @Foghorn
    If you feel you still had lots of lump but just could not get fire stoked it's air flow issue at the the lump grate.

    Check out this link to images of "Wiggle Rods". Proven to work over the years. 

    https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrSbmmqyEtaTJQA2AlXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0MjJtcjZyBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjI5NDRfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=big+green+egg+wiggle+rod&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t


    .
    Thank you,
    Darian

    Galveston Texas
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  • SoCal_Griller
    SoCal_Griller Posts: 516
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    +1 on the wiggle rod.  That has saved me many times.
    Simi Valley, California
    LBGE, PBC, Annova, SMOBot
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  • BikerBob
    BikerBob Posts: 284
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    A lot of ash mixed with small pieces of charcoal along with the clogged grate have kept my temps low more than once.
    Cooking on the coast
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  • xfire_ATX
    xfire_ATX Posts: 1,113
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    BikerBob said:
    A lot of ash mixed with small pieces of charcoal along with the clogged grate have kept my temps low more than once.
    Opened the egg up tonight to cook the normal chicken and Salmon.  Thats a good statement above- at first glance egg looked full, but once I stirred it up it was lots of ash and small pieces.
    XLBGE, LBGE, Charbroil Gas Grill, Weber Q2000, Old Weber Kettle, Yeti 65, Yeti Hopper 20, RTIC 20, RTIC 20 Soft Side - Too many drinkware vessels to mention.

    Not quite in Austin, TX City Limits
    Just Vote- What if you could choose "none of the above" on an election ballot? Millions of Americans do just that, in effect, by not voting.  The result in 2016: "Nobody" won more counties, more states, and more electoral votes than either candidate for president. 
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  • bluebird66
    bluebird66 Posts: 2,727
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    That wiggle rod is interesting.
    Large Egg with adjustable rig, Kick Ash Basket, Minimax and various Weber's.
    Floyd Va

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  • KiterTodd
    KiterTodd Posts: 2,466
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    I would have given that lump a stir before I added new lump.  I also now have the kick ash basket which helps with avoid clogs.

    So, I agree, what happened is you ran out of lump and also had some ash clog.  I suspect even though it looked like you had a lot of lump left, it was more consumed then it looked like so that first rise up to 700 cleaned out your old lump, which collapsed into ash.  That resulted in the poor airflow which did you in.  High temp cooks consume considerably more lump.

    So how were the pizzas?

    I mean, you have to post some pictures of the 'za or the cheese!!  :grin:
    LBGE/Maryland
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