Hey guys, i recently bought my first BGE at 22 years old and I‘m very happy with it. I made Pulled Pork twice and yesterday i smoked my first ribs and they were the best ribs i‘ve eaten in my life. So overall I could not be more happy, but I‘m wondering if I use the temperature control correctly.
Basically if I want more smoke on the meat I keep the lower lid more open and the top vent only a bit. If I don’t want that much smoke I do it the other way around. But once I got it regulated to a certain temperature, it seems like it never really holds the temperature stable. After 20-30 minutes I always have to make a slight correction (using only the top vent). Same thing when I try to open the lid and the vent to identical positions. As you all can imagine this can be a bit frustrating if you‘re in a 8h+ cook.
Anyways maybe someone has had the same issues and knows how to deal with it or that this is just normal. However it is only a minor issue to how great of a cooking machine this is. Thanks guys!
by floreich926
1 Comment
Try not leaving either vent “more open” and closing them both down together as you reach your target temperature. Using both vents in conjunction generally regulates air flow best and gives you better stability.
That said, the temperatures can shift at various points on a long cook for various reasons. The wind can pick up and blow on your vents a little. Various “heat sink” items like the deflector, drip pan, and the meat itself come up to temperature. The fire itself may just burn a little differently, since we’re using charcoal and not a regulated heat source like a heating element or a propane tank.
For those reasons, I usually set reminders to myself to do a quick temperature check every 30 minutes or so to make sure things are right where I want them to be.