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Setting up the Big Green Egg for low and slow cooking is easy to do. This post shows you how to get your Big Green Egg setup for a temperature between 200° and 275° which is the perfect range for classic BBQ. Now sit back, grab an ice cold beer and and enjoy this post for How to set your Big Green Egg for Low and Slow.
How to set your Big Green Egg for Low and Slow
First thing you do is clean out the ashes from the bottom of your Fire Box. Make sure all the ash and debris is cleared from the Draft Door and the holes in the Fire Box, as airflow is key to successful temperature management. Here I am using the new Big Green Egg Fire Stainless Steel Fire Bowl. This device sits in your Fire Box and lets you clean up ash quickly.
Next add some fresh Big Green Egg Lump Charcoal
to your Fire Box.
I like to use wood chunks for my low and slow cooks. They burn slowly and 2-3 chunks are all you need for a long cook. Remember, the first 3 hours of the cook is where you get the smoke flavor, so you do not need to add wood chunks to your Big Green Egg after the 2-3 chunks are gone.
Now that your lump charcoal and wood chunks are in place, it is time to light the Big Green Egg. I am using the new EGGniter to light the charcoals. For long cooks with a low temperature, I light my charcoal in one small spot. This helps me bring the temperature up slowly to the desired range of 200° to 275°.
To help me manage the temprature for a long cook I use the Big Green Egg EGG Genius. This device hooks up a fan to the Draft Door and monitors the pit temp with a probe. If the temp drops from the target, the fan blows. If the temp gets to high, the fan shuts off starving the burning charcoal of oxygen. (NOTE: If you do not have a device like this, you can still set this up by closing the bottom vent 90% of the way after reaching your desired temperature).
Make sure to place your ConvEGGtor
inside as that sets you up for indirect cooking which is how you create the best BBQ.
Once you are close to the desired temperature (within 50°) close the top vent 90% of the way. This way you have enough air coming in and being able to escape to keep a small fire lit to hold your temperature.
That’s it, you now have a desired temperature of 250°. For cooks 8-12 hours, you should not need to refill your lump charcoal. Happy cooking everyone!
Do you trust the dial thermometer or the egggenius thermometer? Most of the time it says to put the egggenius probe on the grill level about 6 inches lower than the dial. I put my egggenius probe on the back of the dial and still get about 10 degrees difference between the two.
Remember the dome probe is higher under than the probe connected to the EGGgenius which is usually at the grate. Heat rises so your dome temp (if measuring accurately) will read higher than the temps measured at the grate.
There is an earlier post about this but when I set up for low and slow I have not had luck getting rid of the white nasty smoke unless all the coals are burning. Watching you light a small area and then being about ready to smoke seems great. Lots of blogs say to wait for blue/clear smoke…….which never seems to happen for me until the grill is too hot and then I have to back it down. Do I need to get over the white smoke thing or what?
It can be done but don’t let it stop you from continuing to cook great BBQ. Key is to get charcoal hot enough to burn the smoking wood clean but control the temp so it stays between 225°-275°. My first book “The Four Fundamentals of Smoking” covers this topic in great detail.