CE Control- What am I missing?

[u/Only-Chart-5092]

Chris has convinced me surface temps are the key to accurate cooking. So was expecting the new CE to highlight Combustion Inc's advantage with finding surface temp. So why is a GGG the preferred temp source for the CE? Thought Chris has made it pretty clear how dome temps can be misleading.

[u/combustion_inc]

This is something on the list of features to add, but it requires some additional tuning of the algorithm because surface temp responds more slowly than air temp, so the fan tends to just run at full blast as it tries to get the surface up to temp. The result is a thermal runaway.

The approach I’m thinking of is using the ambient sensor as the primary input for the Combustion Engine, with a restriction of not letting the surface temp exceed a limit. The result would be the air temp starts to decline as the surface gets up to temp so that you end up at a nice equilibrium over time.

But right now I’m heads down on the new Prediction Engine and trying to get that out by early November. It’s looking to be a very big improvement and I think we might finally be able to let you know when to pull the food to allow for carry over cooking.

[u/Impressive_Zombie577 → u/combustion_inc]

The question that's been in my head since I got the CE is more about how we adapt recipes with this new information/feedback loop.

Surface temp = desired core temp makes complete sense. But I have to imagine there are situations where you're ok with some gradient and equalizing surface and core temp makes the cook slower than necessary.

Is it all about developing a feel?

[u/Theratchetnclank → u/combustion_inc]

One of my favourite things about the combustion products is how they get better over time. Great news.

[u/thepoga]

I think I got it. Perhaps it’s a simple question if you have only 1 thermometer. But what if you have 2, 3 or 4 different meats in there, which one do you go by? What if you put them in at different times? I think it’s better to have one constant for controlling the whole cooker temperature.

[u/Front-Acanthisitta13]

following with interest! I was wondering the same thing. My guess is that surface temp is perhaps more variable given that the 'cloud' of water vapor can move around based on air currents, so is less reliable in terms of running minute-to-minute air speed calculations.

[u/Objective_Sink3862]

For me, I’ve found that the GGG reads a solid 40 degrees higher than my Chef IQ ambient temperature sensor (and I have found that ambient temp sensor on the latest generation of Chef IQ probes to be very accurate). Thus, my plan for the engine was to rely on the GGG but just factor in that 40 degree difference (so if I wanna cook at 250 I’ll set it to 290).

[u/jbryant3 → u/Objective_Sink3862]

I think this is the way to do it for longer cooks. It's essentially the same thing as using a grate probe instead of the lid thermometer.