Has anybody used a briquette "snake" around the inside of the fire ring on a large Big Green egg, I'm curious about the burn duration and the temperature rise?
I'm currently COLD smoking bacon over an A-maze-n pellet tray, But I'm not getting enough heat rise to stabilize the draft through the BGE.
I've resorted to sticking a length of stainless chimney pipe on top of the BGE to try and draw more (which helped a lot), but with overnight lows in the twenties- teens, there's just not enough heat coming off the pellets to draft the smoke cleanly, so I'm considering a thin briquette snake to help keep the draft going.
Edit: I'm cold smoking, but it's effectively TOO cold.
by fistfulofsanddollars
17 Comments
Maybe I have a fundamental misunderstanding here, but I don’t see the need to do a snake method on a ceramic smoker.
Also you shouldn’t use briquettes in a ceramic smoker.
You gonna upset this sub….. we don’t do that here.
I use a charcoal divider in my kick ash basket for a smaller fire when I smoke jerky. Just regular lump charcoal and wood chunks and I’m able to keep it ~160°f no problem.
This sounds like an X Y problem. Unless you’re cold smoking. Are you cold smoking? Are you deliberately trying to avoid cooking and heat and just use the egg as a cold smoker?
Brother, we can control heat from 200 – 700+ , please tell me this is some sort of cold smoke.
*Do you have a daily wheel or other regulator for the top?
Did you decorate your egg for Xmas?
Excuse me, did you say briquettes? Haha, not sure the best use of the BGE is with “snake” method..with chimney you could get f’ing hot with that up draft and bottom open…..that could one be scary hellfire
Boo this man
Somebody create /r/biggreeneggcirclejerk and post this.
R u hotrodding your egg? Not sure that’s allowed here
I use a similar chimney when I’m reverse sear steaks. When meat has smoked long enough, remove meat, add chimney, temp jumps to 600 in a few minutes. Have to use gloves, it’s hot.
I’ve never used briquett in my BGE only lump, wood chunks.
Did you skip reading a chapter in the manual?
No helpful comments. You’ll have to try it and let us know.
incandescent light bulb inside to generate constant heat. Play with the wattage to get the desired result. There are other ways of generating heat like that as well. I might just drop the bulb into the chimney stack so the excess heat doesn’t warm up the bacon.
edit: Just read the rest of the comments. You want the heat to be up a little. So stuff the bulb into the draft door, Protect as necessary from excessive heat etc. That feels like it should work. gentle even heat that needs no tending.
I have a pellet tray for cold smoking also. I’ll run for 5-6 hours. Please clarify the need for a draft. Does the smoke just stratify below the grid and food? Does it come out the bottom? I’ve cold smoked in some pretty cold weather in NW IL and have had more issues with over smoking than anything. Guess I don’t understand what’s happening in your egg. The briquette snake should work to add heat and draft but why do you need either for a cold smoke?
If you use briquettes, I would suggest the Kingsford Professional. It is a low ash briquette, without any lighter fluid flammable. That’s the trick with briquettes, because a) if you use a lighter fluid products it will void the warranty. And b) most briquettes will create too much ash and plug up the airflow.
I’ve done the snake method like you’ve set out, but normally if I am cold smoking bacon in cold temps, I use a billows on the bottom vent to puff a little air from time to time onto the pellets. I use the same pellet tray and Janet had issues is super cold temps.
But you shouldn’t care about the cold smoke temp as long as the pellets are still burning. You’re not cooking anything as the bacon should already be cured. I’ve done an 8 hour cold smoke on one pellet tray at -10F.
I use this thing for cold smoking. No briquettes needed.
https://amzn.eu/d/cfvFSWd