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can't get temperature hot enough

bert
bert Posts: 1
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Okay, I appeal to your help. My wife is the cook and she has an egg. She is a nutzo about having meat "done" and she is in tears now. She also says she can't get the temp up high enough in the egg to sear her steaks.

I saw the meat temp chart, can go with that to her.

How do I and how high do I get the dome temp for her to sear?

I use a electric starter and the egg charcoal. Can get it to 400-500 degrees, but the book she says says she can/should get it to 600-700 degrees.

Necessary or overkill? Please help me make the little lady happy!

Bert

Comments

  • Mainegg
    Mainegg Posts: 7,787
    Hi Bert, wipe her tears and take a deep breath :) make sure your ash pan is cleaned out. also use the ash tool or something like it to reach in the sides of the fire box and pull any ash out if you have not cleaned it in awhile. What size egg is it? use a wiggle stick to reach in through the draft door and shake the fire grate. I use a coat hanger bent at the end to do this if it needs it. give it at least 10 minutes and your temp should start rising fast. You should be able to get quite hot that way. you can use the coat hanger to poke out the draft holes in the fire box encase they have gotten clogged. try these and let us know if it helps. Julie
  • Otobiz
    Otobiz Posts: 82
    start with a nice clean fire box and put your lump in with bigger pieces on the bottom and smaller on top,light lump what everway you do it, open bottom vent all the way and take daisy wheel right off and let the fire go until the temp needle is maxed
  • if you have had your egg for a while i would recommend taking the fire box out and give it a good cleaning . after a while the space between the base of the fire box and the inside wall of the egg gets filled with ash and little lump it will keep you at the 350 400 range no matter what you do till it gets cleaned
    bill
  • Broc
    Broc Posts: 1,398
    Also -- make sure there's enough lump being used. When I first started Egging, I used a miserly amount of lump, thinking I was doing the right thing.

    More lump == more heat.

    ~ B
  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
    da0932c6.jpg

    Bert, I think 500° to 600° should be fine as long as you have a large mature fire, give it some time to get going, like 45 minutes or an hour. (and watch for flashback when you open the dome) Oh, here is a visual on a wiggle rod that Mainegg mentioned, they can help.

    Wigglerod3.jpg
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
  • You might want to stop by the pet store and purchase a small plastic dog crate fan. They run on batteries. Start the fire. Draft door all the way open, lid open. Let it roll like this for 2-5 minutes. When you have a nice fire, close the top. but keep the top off of it. Turn the fan on and place it in front of the draft door at the bottom of the egg. It forces air in and gets your fire hotter faster. When you see the egg stop smoking, remove the fan, your temp. should be high by now, almost super heated, thus not smoke. I know I am there when I see a wisp of flame shoot out of the top.. If that fails, get yourself a cast iron grid and sear away.
  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
    I have one of these, and they do work. I think I used it twice and it's somewhere in the big junk drawer.

    http://www.air-grill.com/html/goods.html
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery