Help a newbie with his first cook

grakk · December 2009

Ok so I am going to do a pork loin tomorrow.

I'm going to season it with a mix of garlic powder, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper and black pepper.

I'm going to get the green egg to 400ish then cook it until my probe reads 145 internal then let it rest.

I played with my BGE tonight and got it up to 500 degrees and couldn't get it lower. I saw the thread with someones tempature settings and will use those.

The basic theory is start with the vents wide open then close the bottom vent to a half inch to quarter inch shut and use the daisy wheel to fine tune the amount of air till you hit the tempature you want right? How long does it need ot hold tempature till I know its stable? Does this sound correct?

Another newbie question.. I know white smoke = bad but will the white smoke finish off at any tempature? I.E if I start playing with the vents at 200 will white smoke still come out until it is safe?

Also I read that instead of burping you should open the vents for 10 seconds... from what I've seen in those 10 seconds the tempature can shoot up really quick - is this only at higher tempatures you need to do this?

What I'm going to attempt this weekend is:
Pork Loin Tomorrow
Spatchcock Chicken saturday
2 hour smoke on a tri tip at 250ish on sunday.

I have jack daniels chips, cherry chips and hickory chips, which ones should I toss in for each? How do I stop from mixing chips from different cooks if I have lump left?

Thanks in advance for the help and I'll let you guys know how it goes! (Should be an interesting time going from a lifetime of gas to the egg)

BBQMaven · December 2009

Welcome
I'll take on one of the questions.... as for air flow - you have fuel in the middle and the ability to regulate air in, air out, or a combo of both... some of us never use the daisy wheel unless we are doing a low/slow. Others use a combination of the upper and lower settings... with that said, for your tenderloin you could leave the upper vent open and control the fire with the bottom... to avoid "chasing temp" stabilize Egg for at least 30 minutes before you put your meat in and don't touch the settings (no matter what the temp does - it will come back to where it was.)
hope this helps
ktm

Eggsakley · December 2009

I'll address another aspect of your questions. Burping can and possibly should be done when the egg in in a high temp situation. Some eggers say it is not necessary, some say to open the vents and some say don't worry about it. At 400 it should not be that much of a problem with flashback. Crack the dome for a few seconds and let the fresh air enter to egg, then raise the dome. The first few cooks can be very exciting with variables such as this, and is a part of the learning curve. You will do fine and follow the links on Granpas Grub page and you will do well. And by the way, do Not cook by time, but rather by Temperature of the product. Time is at best an estimate and at worst a health hazard. Check temp of product prior to removing from egg, don't check your watch.

Grandpas Grub · December 2009

Take a minute and calibrate your dome thermometer.

Don't overheat the egg then try to bring the temperature down.

Work up to the cook temperature.

The heavy white smoke will turn to a light white or clear or clear blue. Heavy white-no light white or clear or clear blue - yes.

Put your hand over the smoke if your hand smells acrid you food will taste acrid. If it is somewhat pleasant or sweet, you are ready to go. Sometimes you end up in the middle. about 1/2 hour should do the trick

On the tenderloin, set the dome to 375° - 400° - indirect. Done temperature is good.

All three woods are good. Poultry takes on smoke flavor deeper than beef.

Any of the meat will be good with any of those woods. I really like cherry. JD is great too as is hickory. With chips you can hope they burn up in the cook as trying to get them out of lump is a pain.

GG

Grandpas Grub · December 2009

Cook to food temperature and not time is probably one of the best pieces of advice around.

GG

Mike in Abita · December 2009

The one thing I can recommend to new users is this. The EGG is not a instant cooking device, do not make changes to the EGG and expect it to react in 1-2 minutes.

It will ever react like and electric oven, microwave or cook top. It won't even react like a gas BBQ.

Trust in the power of the ceramics and start closing down the vents at or near your target temp and once it's there, go inside, answer a few, or read a few forum posts, get a beer, prep what it is you are going to cook, and don't return to the egg for 15 minutes. Go back out and check on the temps and smoke. If everything looks good then go back inside and answer a few more posts. Once a half hour passes from your last adjustment then the egg is stable. Get you food on the grill and close it up. Recheck that the daisy wheel is at the same setting it was before you opened the lid, and then go back inside. Just walk away, don't stand there and watch the temp rebound, don't do anything but go away. Trust in the power of the ceramic.

Yes the "bad" smoke will go away at any temp you set the EGG to. Might take a little longer at 250 vs 400, but it will eventually dissipate.

I would use the Jack chips on beef and not use it on pork. That's just me, if you like the flavor of the Jack chips then by all means use it on your roast.

I have not had a flashback in a few months. The trick to reducing the possibility of a flashback is to only allow enough lump to light to sustain the temp you want to cook at. If you have enough lump lit, to achieve a 800 Deg cook and then throttle it back until it's 400 then you will probably get a flashback requiring burping. If on the other hand only a 400 deg fire is burning, and you open the lid, the chance of a flashback is reduced because you already have enough oxygen entering to sustain that temp. The possibilities of a flashback occurring increase with the amount of new lump you use, also more dust means higher chance.

Enjoy your new grill and ask as many questions as you feel necessary. Remember we were all newbies at one point, and I'm still a newbie when it comes to some things. Never stop learning and learn from your mistakes. Welcome to the wonderful world of ceramic cooking.

Help a newbie with his first cook

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