Cooking Hot Dogs on the BGE

Unknown · June 2002

Any advice for a novice cooking hot dogs on the BGE?

Nature Boy · June 2002

Hal Turner,
With twin 7 year olds, we do a bunch. I like to cook them at 275 tops, on a slightly elevated grate for about 20-30 minutes. Turn them every 5 minutes to achieve an even golden brown, and pull them when they just start to split. [p]The kids dig them. No kids like charred dogs.
Beers!
NB

Tim M · June 2002

Nature Boy,[p]I don't do dogs and burgers as much as you, but I found that if you close the bottom vent and grill with the top open, it works well and you don't get the grease smoke from the dripping burgers baked into the burgers as much as if the dome is closed. Closing the bottom vent with dome open seems to keep the fire from going turbo.[p]Beers and dogs to all[p]Tim

Puj · June 2002

Hal,[p]We will grill hot dogs at 375°F to 425°F, turning every one to two minutes for about 12 to 15 minutes. This allows some control over the amount of char for each hot dog.[p]The temps and times are dependent upon which Egg is used to grill. The mini is our primary "dog griller", but if we have to, we'll put the small or large into service.[p]Puj

Cornfed · June 2002

Tim M,[p]You bring up a very interesting point. Conventional wisdom says to always grill with the dome closed. My personal experience supports this as keeping the dome open seems to quickly lead to an inferno and "turbo" temps, like you mention. Finally, it's interesting to hear that keeping the bottom vent closed helps to prevent this inferno.[p]Why do I find all of this so darn interesting, you might ask? I was reading Gourmet magazine's BBQ and Grilling special edition on a plane the other day. They had some good tips on grilling from Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. They were talking about kettle type grills, I think, and one of the things they suggested was to grill with the top or dome open when doing direct high heat cooks. The reason they gave was that with the top closed or dome on for high heat cooks, when fat and grease from the food falls on the coals and ignites, the resulting bad stuff is kept around longer and has a greater negative effect on the flavor of the food. Also, they mention that many folks close the lid or dome in response to flareups. Rather than doing this, they said to leave the tops open for high heat direct cooks and to simply create a multiple zone fire (big layer of coals in some areas for high heat, small layer of coals in other area for medium heat, then another layer with no coals for low heat). Rather than using lids to stop the flames, they suggest merely moving the food being subjected to flames to other spots on the grill.[p]Sorry for the long rambling post, but I thought that your points coincided well with the Gourmet magazine article and thought that this was a potentially good discussion. Does this mean that all ceramic cooking "conventional wisdom" should be thrown out the window? Certainly not. However, I did think this was an interesting way of looking at things that is different than the way I've been grilling on the BGE for the past few years.[p]I'll stop rambling now...[p]Heee,
Cornfed

Cooking Hot Dogs on the BGE

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