Lighting the Fire
You control the heat in a Big Green Egg by how much air you give the fuel.
Fill the firebox with good quality charcoal to just over the level of the upper air holes in the fire box and
mound it up towards the centre. Always have a good fuel load of charcoal, in a standard Big Green Egg,
this is roughly a 9 litre (2 Gallon) household plastic bucket full. It will seem like too much charcoal, but that
is what you want, only part of the charcoal is lit during most cooking; it is only on the most extreme high
temperature cook that the whole charcoal load will be lit.
You will be surprised by how little charcoal a Big Green Egg actually uses when cooking. If you use a full
sized pile of charcoal, and close the vents after the cook, the fire will go out, leaving a considerable
percentage of the charcoal for next time.
For a hot fire, use a FLAT pile of charcoal and light four or five small sections spread through the charcoal,
the more lit sections, the hotter and quicker the start up temperature will be.
For lower temperature slow cooking, use a CONICAL pile of charcoal and light only one or two spots at
the very top of the charcoal pile. Use this also for "Oven" roasting, just give it more air to increase the
temperature.
I prefer to not use firelighters as I do not like the smell they produce. I u
se a gas “Weed Burner” to light my
charcoal, but there are plenty of other options on the market including electric blowers. The gas torch lights
the charcoal within two minutes and I can light as much charcoal (or as little) as I need to give the kind of
fire I want. You can use firelighters if you like.
It is surprising how little lit charcoal it takes to successfully establish a fire. The charcoal will quickly show
evidence of the fire taking hold, the charcoal will glow red and show a little white ash on the outside within
a minute or two, at this point you can close the lid and open the top and bottom vents to allow the Big
Green Egg to pre heat.
As the temperature inside the Big Green Egg approaches 25°C (50°F) before your target temperature,
start to close the top and bottom vents to roughly where they should be for your chosen target temperature,
this will allow the Big Green Egg to slowly acquire the target temperature. Watch the thermometer and
determine if you need to make minor adjustments to the vents while the temperature settles, if you do not
pay attention at this point, your Big Green Egg will quickly overshoot the target temperature; the stored
heat makes it difficult to bring the temperature back down to where you want.
Summary of Contents for Big Green Egg
Page 1: ...Big Green Egg User Guide Big Green Egg User Guide...
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