Technique for reducing temperature mid-cook + Dizzy Pig question?

Birdman · June 2003

Folks,
Often I want to modify an oven recipe that starts with a high temperature, but finishes with a lower temperature. For example, the cornish game hen recipe I'm trying tonight (Cornish Game Hens with Garlic and Rosemary -- see recipe link below, from Allrecipes.com), instructs to cook at 450 degrees for 25 minutes, then to reduce heat to 350 degrees for 25 minutes). How do you reduce heat on the egg? The only thing I can think of is to spray water from a spray bottle into the burning lump.[p]Also, I just got my first batch of Dizzy Pig & want to use it on theis recipe. What would you suggest -- tsunami spin, dizzy dust, or raging river rub, for this recipe?[p]TIA,
Birdman (west of Denver)
[ul][li]http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/cornishgamehenswithgarlica.asp[/ul]

Wise One · June 2003

Birdman, for chicken I would suggest the Tsunami but the chicken I had last week with the raging river was pretty good.

BBQfan1 · June 2003

Birdman,
For chicken, I think the best technique is to go without any top cap whatsoever and control temp simply via the bottom vent. This will allow you to hit your initial 450 target in short order. To get down to 350 quickly, capping with the daisy or slide-daisy and opening bottom vent should create a relatively quick reduction in temp into that 350 neighbourhood (worse comes to worse, put a drip pan of ice under the chicken; that will reduce air temp around the chicken quickly and substantially, but may affect skin crispness due to steam created, so maybe just use until desired temp is reached and remove).
As for the Dizzy Pig rub to use, I can't help but suggest my buddy NB's Tsunami Spin for chicken. It earned us a 2nd place finish in chicken category in a recent competition and has won over some top level cooks from what I've heard.
Qfan

The Naked Whiz · June 2003

Birdman,
If you don't allow the ceramic to heat up (i.e., if you put the food in as soon as it hits 450), the temp will fall faster when you need to drop the temp. But certainly short of using water or ice, the quickest way to drop the temp is close off all the air to the fire and then open them back up when you get down to where you want to go. [p]TNW

Nature Boy · June 2003

Howdy Birdman,
Been swamped lately, but finally got a moment to post! Yowza! I surely wouldn't think spraying water on the lump would be any sort of a good thing! In fact, I will say that that would be ungood. Like Qfan says, getting back down to 350 should not be too tough. If you close the bottom vent and leave the daisy holes open. Or shut it down totally for a few minutes. I doubt that it is real critical to follow the exact temps called for in the recipe, so aim for the ballpark!![p]As far as the Dizzy rub to use, like the fellas below, I usually reach for Tsunami Spin with Chicken.....But if you are using the recipe you linked to (with garlic and rosemary) I am thinking Dizzy Dust would be the best match. Raging River would work too. [p]I have doubts about Tsunami with the Rosemary. If the fresh rosemary was not in the recipe, I would go with Tsunami!! Maybe fresh basil would be a good way to go instead of the rosemary!! Tsunami would work perfectly with that.[p]just thinkin'
Have fun!
Chris[p]

Basselope · June 2003

You can bring the temp way down very quickly by adding some cold mass to the egg. I discovered this quite by accident one time during a low and slow where the temp got away from me.
In desperation to bring the temp down quickly I added a firebrick, and closed the vents down. The temp dropped like a rock. IIRC I dropped almost 100 degrees in just a few minutes.
I opened the vents back up and went back to low and slo.

Technique for reducing temperature mid-cook + Dizzy Pig question?

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