After investing heavily in buying your Big Green Egg, the last thing you would want to do with it is guess its cooking temperature controls. Who wants a poorly smoked meal?
That said, are you planning on having a bbq party or want to treat your family with nicely smoked beef or other smoked foods? If so, learning temperature control is essential for your kamado-style smoker.
In this guide, I will be taking you through several big green egg temperature control requirements. And, when you put into practice what we shall talk about hereunder, nothing should hinder you from being a master smoker.
Table of Contents
Amount of Charcoal to Use
After having your food ready for a cook, the next thing to think about is the amount of charcoal you will need.
Now, the Big Green Egg has three cooking options: grill/cook, bake, and smoke. You will need different amounts of charcoal for each of these three options.
Amount of charcoal for grilling and baking
For most grilling and baking tasks, you can fill ¾ of the charcoal chamber with lump charcoal. However, if you will sear and grill several steaks, you will need to add more charcoal for a higher grill temperature level.
On the other hand, you will need less than ¾ charcoal chamber filled with charcoal for your pizza.
Amount of charcoal for smoking
The amount of charcoal you will need here will depend on the length of the cook. For example, you will need a full charcoal chamber when smoking the pork shoulder for more than ten hours.
How to Position and Light Lump Charcoal
One important thing to note here is that the location of your lit coals in the charcoal chamber matters a lot.
You can place your charcoal in the middle for such foods as steaks and burgers, which require high cooking temperatures.
On the other hand, if you will be smoking in the Big Egg, you can place the charcoal in the back half of the charcoal chamber.
To light charcoal in the Big Green Egg easily, you can shop for an electric charcoal starter. Also, have some BBQ gloves on when starting the fire to protect your hands from heat.
One more thing, remember to allow your cooking chamber to heat up before cooking.
Big Green Egg Temperature Control Tips
Smoking food is no longer hectic compared to how it used to be several years ago. The tips below show that handling the cooking temperature and maintaining the proper airflow in your smoker is now simplified.
Using an automatic temperature controller
How would you feel when your smoker is doing all the cooking in your backyard, and you are controlling and monitoring its temperature remotely? Simplified smoking indeed!
Now, with an automatic temperature controller, you just set the cooking temperatures for a smart cook and go!
Something to note here is that not every automated temperature controller in the market today can be compatible with your smoker. Specifically, the Flame Boss temp controller is perfect for the Big Green Egg.
Some of the features that you will love about the Flame Boss 500 are its Wi-Fi and remote monitoring capabilities.
Other impressive features of the Flame Boss 500 include alarm notifications, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, an online dashboard, and a variable-speed blower.
Setting the temperature a bit lower
A common challenge with the Big Egg is that sometimes the temperature readout on its display isn't the actual temperature in the cooking chamber.
Several people have found that the internal temperature is usually 70F to 100F higher than the target temperature.
For example, if you have set the temperature to 250F, you will notice that the temperature will rise to 270F to 300F, thus affecting your food.
So, what now? The best option will be to lower the target temp.
Let's say you want a smoking temp of 250F. All you will do is set it between 170F to 180F. This way, you will get your precise temperature.
Increasing, decreasing, and maintaining the target temperature
You can control the amount of oxygen getting into your kamado-style smoker by adjusting the charcoal grill top vent and the cast iron dual function door at the bottom.
The more the oxygen, the more the charcoal will burn, resulting in higher pit temperatures. On the other hand, the lower the oxygen, the lower the temperatures.
So, to increase the temperatures, you will need to widen the vents in the dual-function metal top or the cast iron dual function door.
On the contrary, you can close the dual-function metal top vents or close the smoker door to decrease the temperature.
Additionally, to maintain the target temp, you will need to close the dual-function metal top while keeping its vents partially or fully open, depending on the temperature.
Basic Steps of Controlling BGE Temperature
So far, we have seen how to fire up charcoal for the BGE and some tips on temperature control. In a nutshell, here are the simple steps to follow in controlling your BGE temperature for a low-and-slow cook:
1. Light your charcoal or wood chips
2. Keep the vents in the dual-function metal top open until you achieve the target temperature for cooking.
3. Use a grill thermometer to ascertain the cooking temperature.
4. Place your food in the cook chamber.
5. If you are using Flame Boss 500 Wi-Fi controller, here is how to use it:
● Download Amazon Alexa and Google Home
● Insert the stainless steel adapter plate and the blower unit
● Close the vents on the dual-function metal top partially.
● Hook the pit's digital thermometer onto the cooking grate and then connect it to the Wi-Fi controller
● Insert meat probes into the deepest parts of your meat
● Connect each food probe that is already inserted into the meat into the 500-WiFi smoker controller
1. Close the lid
2. If you are using the Wi-Fi smoke controller, you will get audible alarms whenever a cooking problem arises or when the cooking time is over.
3. Finally, when the food is almost done, cover the vents in the dual function metal top, which will cause the core temperatures to start decreasing.
4. Open the lid in two intervals after cooking to prevent a backdraft. Also, remember to have your silicone grilling mitt on to protect your hands from high heat.
How to Cool a Grill Down
By now, you already have your smoked meal, and you are in a hurry to surprise your digestive system with it. But before that, it is advisable to cool down your smoker first.
Proper cooling of your kamado grill contributes positively to its lifespan.
So, to cool down your smoker, close the vents in the dual-function metal top completely. Also, close the draft door. These two tasks will completely starve the charcoal of oxygen, which will cause the temperatures to drop.
Another way to cool down your smoker is by using Flame Boss 500 Wi-Fi smoke controller. This automatic temperature controller reduces the speed of its blower fan when the food approaches doneness, thus lowering the temperatures.
FAQs
1. What is comparable to the BGE?
If you are looking for a grill that compares to the Big Green Egg, then the first question you will need to ask yourself is, "are vision grills as good as kamado joe?"
The BGE, vision grill, and Kamado Joe are all made of ceramic materials, making them fuel-efficient. In this comparison list, other kamado-style grills can include Dracarys grill, cypress grills, DragonFire Grill, and Char-Griller Akorn Kamado.
2. Is Kamado Joe as good as Green Egg?
Both Kamado Joe and BGE ceramic grills feature amazing quality. However, Kamado Joe is famous for its Divide and Conquer cooking system, which allows one to cook at different heights at a go.
3. What is the difference between flame Boss 400 and 500?
Flame Boss 400 kamado temp control comes in one unit, whereby the blower, digital thermometer, and Wi-Fi controls are in one unit.
On the other hand, Flame Boss 500 features two units, i.e., a blower unit and an adjustable brightness led display. The display unit holds the food temperature probe, pit probe, and power supply cable.
Also, the flame boss 400 Wi-Fi smoke controller is a more affordable temperature control device than Flame Boss 500.
4. What are the best accessories for Big Green Egg?
Conclusion
We have seen detailed steps and tips on big green egg temperature control. So, you can now drop that panic you had about using your barbeque charcoal grill.
If you are still not confident about achieving precise temperature control using the traditional ways, you can use the Flame Boss Wi-Fi controls we have spoken about above.