What will cause a temperature variation of 150° F from the front of the grid to the back?
Sunday afternoon I was cooking a 2 lb pork tenderloin in my sous vide hot tub. The sous vide cook would be at 139° for 2 hours. At about 1/2 hr into the SV cook, I lit the Keg so it would have a nice hot fire for finishing the tenderloin. FYI, I use a Kick Ash Basket in my Keg
After the initial load of lump was fully lit, I put several more handfuls of fresh lump on top of them. After the add'l lump was lit, I spread it all out evenly and put my grate in the lower position. Then I placed my GrillGrates on in the inverted position so I would be using the flat side to sear the tenderloin.
The dome temperature climbed to a little over 800° and I closed the vents way down to lower the temp. The dome temp settled in at about 500° about 15 minutes before the sous vide cook finished. I pulled out my IR thermometer to check temps on the GrillGrate. I was surprised to find a 150° variation from front to back - I got 575° at the front, 650° in the middle, and 725° at the rear.
What would cause a variation like that? The lit lump was evenly spread out and looked to be burning evenly all around? Is this normal?
My pork tenderloin turned out PERFECT - it was tender and juicy and just a little pink inside. I also mixed up my own rub to put on the tenderloin while it was in the bag in the hot tub. I mixed 1 tsp of hickory smoked sea salt, 1 tsp fresh cracked Tellicherry peppers, and 2 tsp of Mrs Dash Original Blend seasoning. The smoked salt was perfect, not overpowering, but you could definitely detect the hickory smoke flavor and aroma. I love this Anova Precision Cooker! I can just dial-in the temp for my meats and it comes out perfect every time - no guessing!
And a few pics:
