Read an Excerpt
Smoke It Like A Pro
By Eric C. Mitchell, Ken Goodman Page Street Publishing Co.
Copyright © 2015 Eric C. Mitchell
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62414-107-2
CHAPTER 1
FIRE IN THE HOLE
LIGHTING THE FIRE, SAFETY, TEMPERATURE CONTROL AND SMOKE
LIGHTING THE BIG GREEN EGG
Firstly, never use lighter fluid in the Egg! It can soak into the pores of the ceramic, and the smell and the taste will last. For this reason, beware of buying a used Egg; it may have been ruined by lighter fluid.
Before lighting your Egg, stir around any leftover lump to and through the bottom fire grate in order to let any ash settle. I use an ice fishing ice skimmer; you can use a large, perforated metal spoon or the Egg ash tool. Periodically, clean out the vent holes in the side of the firebox to keep them from clogging. Open the bottom vent all the way and rake out the ash into a metal bucket. Make sure the hole in the bottom of the firebox lines up with the vent opening.
Some people start their Eggs with chimney charcoal starters, then dump in the hot, burning lump. I prefer to light the lump in the firebox because it is less messy. I use a hand-held gas torch using Mapp gas. These are hotter than propane; plumbers use them to solder copper pipes! This kind of torch has a self-lighter and can be set to stay burning without your having to hold down a button.
Dump your lump charcoal into the Egg up to the top of the firebox at the bottom of the fire ring. If you are planning to do an overnight cook, load maybe an inch higher but no more. You need to leave room for air to circulate and draft properly.
Make three divots in the charcoal in a triangular pattern, always with one in the rear. The egg is always hotter at the rear. Hold the flame in each divot for a minute or so before going on to the next. If the torch goes out while you are holding it in place, it means the fire is getting hot and consuming oxygen. If a flame remains in the charcoal for a few seconds after you remove the torch, close the lid, keeping the daisy wheel all the way open. The Egg dome temperature should be up to 300ºF (149ºC) in about 10 to 15 minutes. If you need to, burp the Egg (here) and hit each spot with the torch again.
Alternative ways to start the Egg are with food paraffin fire starters or with an electric fire starter. You'll still light in three spots in a triangle as described above. Old-school pit masters sometimes use a charcoal chimney starter. To use one, load the unlit lump in the firebox and fill up the chimney. Place the grid on the Egg. Stuff the bottom of the chimney with newspaper and light it, setting it on the grid when lit. When the charcoal in the chimney is well lit after about 10 minutes, remove the grid and dump it in the firebox.
Make sure the fire is going in your three divots before continuing. The entire lump doesn't need to be lit, just three spots. If the fire hasn't spread out enough, it might die out, especially during a long cook. Close the screen all the way on the bottom vent, leaving the bottom vent door all the way open. When the Egg reaches your desired dome temperature for a long cook, add the wood chunks to the charcoal. Add the plate setter, feet up, with one leg in the rear where it is always hotter. Add the drip pan, then the grid. Close the dome but keep the daisy wheel wide open until the Egg comes back up to your desired cooking temperature, then close and adjust it. Let the smoke settle down to a bluish-gray color, and then add your meat. With a big piece of meat, the temperature may drop again. You can open the daisy wheel, then re-set it when the Egg comes back up to the desired temperature, providing the smoke does not get too heavy.
If the weather isn't very warm—say, below 75ºF (24ºC)—and you are not adding wood chunks or chips, you can overshoot the desired cooking temperature by 25ºF to 50ºF (13ºC to 28ºC) before adding the plate setter, drip pan and grid. Once the dome is closed, the temperature will drop back near your desired temperature. Adjust the daisy wheel and add your food when the temperature has climbed back up to the desired dome temperature. If it is too hot out (more than 75ºF [24ºC]), sneak up to your desired temperature and do not overshoot before putting in the plate setter, drip pan and grid. Adjust the vent to the desired temperature, and when it's corrected, add the food.
A NOTE ON INDIRECT VS. DIRECT HEAT
The Egg is set up for indirect roasting, meaning that the heat is not directly below and exposed to the food. Indirect roasting allows for more even cooking than direct grilling, where the underside of your roast is very hot and the top not as hot. You can grill many things directly, but it requires much more time and more attention to flipping and turning, not to mention opening the Egg dome more often. There is a saying in barbecue: If you are lookin', you ain't cookin'. By roasting indirectly, you allow the the heat to stay more consistent, which allows the roast to cook more evenly.
An indirect cook is accomplished by placing a heat shield above the charcoal with a grid above it. The most popular shield is a Big Green Egg plate setter. It is placed on top of the fire ring with the three legs pointing upward. For roasting, you can put a foil-lined drip pan on the plate setter, then place a grid on the plate setter legs. This technique raises the grid so it's about level with the dome gasket. If you don't have a plate setter, use a pizza stone or your drip pan as a shield. For this method, you need one grid on top of the fire ring and another above the drip pan. I have sometimes used bricks to support the second grate.
SAFETY
Cooking on the Big Green Egg requires learning how to keep yourself from getting burned, as well as food safety procedures. The Egg is not dangerous, but when it's open, you're dealing with an open flame. Just like you need to be careful around your fireplace or woodstove, you need to be careful around your Egg.
Always keep gloves readily available. I use leather welder's gloves to open the Egg and to handle all the tools, accessories and components. I buy them at a local discount store, and when they get too stiff to use, I buy another pair.
The number one concern in Egg safety is planning for and avoiding flashback. Flashback happens when the Egg dome is opened: fresh oxygen becomes available to the charcoal, which explodes into a ball of fire. The most common time for flashback is when you close the Egg vents down on a hot fire. Closing the vents helps lower the temperature, but it starves the fire for air. At that point, if you open the dome too soon, flashback can occur. To combat flashback, always "burp" your Egg. Burping allows a smaller amount of air to the charcoal so that it doesn't get too much air all at once. To burp your Egg, slowly lift the dome about 3 inches (7.5cm), wait a couple of seconds then slowly open it all the way. Never let anyone who doesn't know about burping open the Egg. Flashback is less likely to occur when the Egg is below 300ºF (149ºC), but it can still happen, especially right after the plate setter is added and the fire has not yet settled down. When you're checking the temperature of oil for deep-frying, burp the Egg and leave the dome open. Wearing a heat proof glove, remove the cover from your Dutch oven or frying pan and check the temperature of the oil. If it is less than you need, replace the cover, close the Egg and check again in a few minutes.
Second, be aware that, when you have a hot fire and you add big meats and close down the vents, the draft can immediately reverse, causing flames to shoot out the bottom vent. Flames can cough out even when the screen is closed. Embers can shoot out, too, so always use the bottom vent screen. I open the screen only when starting the Egg, to allow for more air flow; but when the Egg starts heating up on its own, to a dome temperature of about 250ºF (121ºC), I close the screen.
Third, always use a drip pan when rendering fat, and make sure it's deep enough. If the grease gets too deep in your drip pan while you're cooking, carefully empty it. Do not use a disposable aluminum pan, as it might melt. Flashback can set the drip pan grease on fire. If this happens, close the dome and all of the vents to starve the flames. Then beware of flashback when you re-open the dome.
Fourth, keep a heat-resistant spot in your cooking area to cool down a hot grid or plate setter, or simply to put them down for a minute while rearranging the inside of the Egg.
Now for food safety. Always use a food thermometer to make sure your food is thoroughly cooked before you serve it to family, friends—or judges. I always use an instant-read thermometer, such as Thermapen from ThermoWorks. You can use dial thermometers, but the instant-read keeps my hand from getting too hot, and it makes it necessary to open the dome only briefly. Safe serving temperatures after resting are 165ºF (74ºC) for ground turkey, chicken and other poultry; 160ºF (71ºC) for ground beef or pork; 145ºF (63ºC) for beef steaks, pork chops, fresh pork and ham, and seafood. Check temperature in several areas, especially the thickest part, and especially with poultry. Keep cooked food above 140ºF (60ºC). It must be cooled to 41ºF (5ºC) within four hours to be safe. If re-heating, heat to at least 165ºF (74ºC).
When handling raw meat, wash your hands well and often. I can't always do this, so I use powder-free latex gloves. If you choose to wear gloves, change them often: dirty gloves are as bad as dirty hands.
Also be aware of cross-contamination. Raw chicken should never be stored above other foods, it might drip on them. Do not let raw chicken in your ice cooler sink into the ice water. When cutting chicken, never re-use cutting boards or utensils without washing and sanitizing them. If you wear gloves when handing raw chicken, change them.
Raw meat and fish should smell clean. If they don't, they've gone bad. When in doubt, throw it out! The exception is large cuts like beef brisket, pork butts and especially pork ribs, which can have an "off" smell when removed from the vacuum sealed packaging. This smell can be caused by physical changes that occurred during vacuum sealing, but not necessarily spoilage. Rinse the meat thoroughly under cold water. If the smell goes away, you are all set.
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Temperature control of the Big Green Egg works like that of a wood stove or a fireplace. Air comes into the fire and is controlled by a damper above the fire. If you open it, the fire gets hotter; if you close it, the fire subsides. Air comes in through the bottom vent, through the burning charcoal, then up into the dome and out the top vent. I prefer to control the temperature by opening and closing the daisy wheel on the top vent. I leave it wide open until my desired temperature is reached. I leave the bottom vent wide open, too, with the screen closed. I was instructed a long time ago to adjust both the top vent and the bottom vent, keeping them equally open. After many long cooks, during which I went up and down the stairs all night to adjust each vent, I abandoned that method. I now adjust only the daisy wheel, leaving the bottom all the way open with the screen closed. For longer cooks, once the Egg has settled down at my desired temperature—I wait about an hour—I set the daisy wheel one last time and go to bed without the worry that my competition meats may not cook correctly. I wouldn't do it this way if it weren't reliable.
Eggs of every size function the same. The time they take to heat up, however, varies with the size. For example, the medium Egg comes up to temperature faster than the large, and the large faster than the extra large. The more mass to heat up, the longer they take.
ACHIEVING TEMPERATURE
The daisy wheel on top of the Egg slides all the way open for maximum draft and highest temperatures. The top also spins, creating oval-shaped openings which look like daisy petals. When the top is closed, you adjust the amount of air that gets in by changing these petal openings. You can tighten or loosen the nuts on the daisy wheel to make adjustments easier or more difficult. The following adjustments work for lower temperatures:
Petals wide open 300ºF (149ºC)
Petals ½ open 250ºF to 275ºF (121ºC to 135ºC)
Petals ¼ open 225ºF (107ºC)
Petals slightly open 190ºF to 200ºF (88ºC to 93ºC)
To cook at higher temperatures, slide the daisy wheel top open to permit more airflow. When the top is all the way open, the petal openings don't matter. The following adjustments work for higher temperatures:
Slide ¼ open 325ºF to 400ºF (163ºC to 204ºC)
Slide ½ open 425ºF to 550ºF (218ºC to 289ºC)
Slide ¾ open 575ºF to 700ºF (302ºC to 371ºC)
Slide all the way open 725ºF and above (385ºC and above)
It is easier to hold temperatures below 375ºF (191ºC) than to hold higher temperatures. When you slide the top open, the temperature rises quickly because the charcoal is getting more oxygen. Higher temperature settings should be monitored more closely than when the daisy wheel slide is closed and the petals are open. Do note that petal holes may not be perfectly shaped, or they may not line up perfectly, so just average the amount that they're open.
Increasing the temperature in the Egg is easier than lowering it. Because the ceramic is a great insulator, it cools very slowly. You can reduce the fire by closing down the vents, but the dome temperature might stay hot for a long time. When you are planning to cook multiple foods, try to do your high temperature cooks last, or spread out the cooks of individual foods so the Egg has time to cool down. You can reasonably get the Egg down from 700ºF (371ºC) to 400ºF (204ºC) by closing the top and the bottom vents, and maybe putting the rain cap on, until the temperature drops near your desired setting. If the outside temperature is 70ºF (21ºC) or below, this could take between 20 and 30 minutes. If the temperature is above 80ºF (27ºC), it will take much longer. Be extremely cautious of flashback when you are reducing the temperature. The dome temperature may be coming down, but if you open the Egg, the fire, which is still very hot and starved for oxygen, can easily erupt. Wear heat-resistant gloves and burp the Egg slowly. Cooling the Egg down is discussed at the beginning of Chapter 4 (here).
My recipes always refer to dome temperature because it is what I use and it's where the thermometer is located. For indirect cooking, grid-level temperature will usually be less than dome temperature. I take this differential into account when I am cooking a multilevel cook. Food at the grid level will cook more slowly than food up in the dome. I move food around as necessary.
The dome temperature may drop when you add the plate setter and large meats, especially in a low-and-slow cook. The temperature will come back up in a few minutes. If it doesn't, open the top vent to provide more airflow and draft until you get back to your cooking temperature, then reset the daisy wheel.
Calibrate your dome thermometer regularly. To do this, take the thermometer out of the dome and put a pair of pliers on the nut under the dial. Place at least 1 inch (1.3 cm) of the thermometer tip into boiling water and see whether it reads 212ºF (100ºC). If it doesn't, hold the dial with a cloth and rotate it until it is at 212ºF (100ºC). It may take a couple of tries before you get it calibrated.
Many people use other temperature probes, electronic thermometers and fan temperature controls. I don't anymore. If you want to have more evidence on how your cook is going, or if you want to sit inside and monitor the cook on your laptop, go ahead! But just setting the daisy wheel works well for me. It's up to you. Heck, there are some out there who say that, if you aren't cooking on a stick burner, then you can't cook barbecue!
Some environmental factors can affect temperature control on the Egg. On a very hot day, the Egg will cool down more slowly. If it is windy, with 20mph (32kph) gusts, the draft can be interrupted or reversed. A wind gust may suck air out of the bottom vent or top vent. In these conditions, I keep the bottom vent opened the same amount as the daisy wheel.
If your charcoal is wet or has picked up moisture, it will not get as hot as you need it to, regardless of how much the vents are open. Either discard it or dry it in the sun.
Two environmental factors that do not affect the Egg temperature are rain and cold. If your Egg is up to temperature, its superior insulation qualities will allow your cook to continue unhampered. However, during cold weather, always place a stick the size of a pencil between the dome and the bottom before you cover your Egg after your cook because the gasket can freeze shut. I know this from experience. However, a frozen Egg has never kept me from cooking ribs on Super Bowl Sunday, especially when the Patriots were playing!
I like my food cooked on the Egg to be smoked but not smoky. The right amount of smoke adds a subtle flavor, but too much smoke or bad smoke will ruin a good cut of meat or fish. Have you ever prepared to put a bite of barbecued food in your mouth, and just before it hits your lips your nose twitches, your tongue runs backwards, you get ready to cough and a slight tear comes to your eye? This is an encounter with too much smoke! If you take a bite anyway and the back of your throat cracks and dries out, you've had some bad smoke. These problems stem from using smoke that's too strong, along with smoking too long and not letting the billowing smoke settle down to a bluish-gray wisp.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Smoke It Like A Pro by Eric C. Mitchell, Ken Goodman. Copyright © 2015 Eric C. Mitchell. Excerpted by permission of Page Street Publishing Co..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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