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moldy egg

njl
njl Posts: 1,123
edited July 2012 in EggHead Forum
After storing our LBGE indoors for a month, I just rolled it out to do some steaks and found it all moldy inside.  How long of a "clean out" burn should it take to make it safe to cook food on?  Last thing I cooked was ribs I think...so it had the plate setter, V-rack, and DMFT stored inside...and they're all nasty.  :(

Comments

  • deon02
    deon02 Posts: 7
    The first time my egg "molded" I was in total shock.  I had used it a lot for the first several months that I owned it.  Then I went about four weeks without using it and it molded very badly on the inside.  I didn't know what to do so I built a hot fire and burned it out.  Then I wiped down the inside with a little dilute chlorine bleach and burned it out again.I remembered my mom once saying that ground coffee can prevent mold in refrigerators during a move, so the next day I put ground coffee in a nylon stocking, placed that in a glass dish and put the dish in the egg.  I have found that leaving ground coffee in the egg works really well (and I'll bet is a lot healthier then wiping down with chlorine).  My egg did mold again recently (coffee worn out???) which is the first time in a year.  Reading through posts tonight, I see that people recommend cleaning out the charcoal, leaving the bottom vent open (w/screen closed) and propping up the cap a bit.  I will add these two suggestions to my coffee routine.As far as how long you should burn it off, I would think 20 to 30 min at high heat (over 500) should work.  Anything washable I would wash and use some dilute chlorine bleach on (rinse really well).  I read in a post awhile back that one person thought using any chemicals inside the egg (like I did the 1st time when I panicked) was a bad idea because the ceramic would absorb.  Chlorine evaporates though so I figured it would burn out of the egg. I hope this helps (sorry long winded).
  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
    Just to be safe, I let it burn for about 45 minutes, nearly using up all the lump I'd put into it.  I've never seen such a fire.  When I added more fresh lump on top of the remaining super hot coals, once it got going, I had flames shooting up out the top vent.  I ended up having to shut things down a little before searing the steaks, and even then, only gave them about 30s per side, for fear of over-charring them.

    Looks like things turned out ok.  After the steaks were done, I put the plat setter in, and then put the DFMT and rain cap on the cooking grid.  I'd already cleaned the rain cap with paper towels and a mild bleach cleaner.  After about 10 minutes I removed the rain cap and put the V-rack back in with the DFMT on top of the V-rack.  I'm going to let it burn now until it burns out.