New to the Green Egg and need Tips

[Heidi]

Did a big favor for my nephew and he dropped

off an Egg for me. Nice Boy!

I've done a couple of shoulders, but I am not

getting a nice bark on it. I can use some

pointers please. I try and keep the heat down

to 200 to 225 and wrap in foil the last few

hours.

[ozzie]

go to page 3 halfway down there is a post "big green egg" with a link to a previous discussion on the BGE and you might find answers there or other places to find answers in these posts....ENJOY!!

[thirdeye]

Did a big favor for my nephew and he dropped

off an Egg for me. Nice Boy!

I've done a couple of shoulders, but I am not

getting a nice bark on it. I can use some

pointers please. I try and keep the heat down

to 200 to 225 and wrap in foil the last few

hours.

Wow, that is a nice payback.

I'm assuming you are using a plate setter or some other method for going indirect, so I'll jump right in on your question. Doing a foil finish will soften the bark. Are you using the foil for any particular reason?

In a large Egg, 200° to 225° dome temperature is 185° to 210° actual (at the grate). Where I'm headed with this, is that your actual cooking temp is close to a 1:1 ratio to the finish internal temp for pulling pork (which is around 195°). Cooking that low will require a lot of time, an 8 pound butt may take 20+ hours. You are better off using a dome temp of 250° to 275°, which will put your actual temp at 230° to 255° or so. It will be easier to maintain the fire and the cook times for the same 8 pound butt will now be around 16 hours. The higher temp may be the answer to a "better bark", what don't you like about the bark you are getting now?

Pork butt is very forgiving, compared to something like a brisket. It can take higher temps and also temp swings.

[Heidi]

I didn't realize the top part of the egg was warmer than the

grate area temp. I understand heat rises....but, fire is hot.

I like some chared pieces of bark mixed into the tender pulled

pieces. Ying and Yang sort of thing.

I wrapped it so it cooks in some of it's moisture to tenderize it. I didn't think that the bark would soften while in a wrap,

but I never achieved a hard crust to begin with. I will have

to crank the heat up a bit I guess. Tough to cook low and slow

and have a 9 to 5 job at the same time. Job has to go I guess.

The green egg gift was way too much of a thank you present from

my nephew.

[ozzie]

I think if you get the temp right you can walk away from the grill for good periods of time.....my buddy threw a pork roast on the egg and came to softball for 5 hrs or maybe longer and we went back to his place and it was still cooking....