Lighting Technique - For the Newbies

thegooddocta

I've seen a few posts recently about noxious smells, VOCs etc., and I ran into this a bunch during my first few months of egging. You always read about "letting the white smoke burn off" before putting food on to cook, but I thought this was a myth since the white smoke never seemed to go away for me. This is going to seem incredibly obvious to most on the forums, but don't add your smoking woods until the VOCs are burnt off! They produce smoke as they're intended to, and you won't know when your coals are ready until you've become able to discern the difference between good and bad smoke.

My simple lighting procedure:

1. Stir up any old lump and remove the ash
2. For short cooks, add lump to the top of the fire box; For long cooks - lump to the middle of the fire ring with the largest chunks at the bottom
3. On my large egg, I light one starter block (BGE) or one paper towel soaked in vegetable oil right in the center of the lump making sure that it's tucked a bit under some of the chunks
4. Leave the vents and lid wide open until the flames from the block or paper towel die down
5. Close the lid, leave the vents open until the thermometer starts to move to about 185
6. Lock in the vents to where I want my temperature (yeah, you'll need to practice a bit to make sure you know where you want to lock it in)
7. Watch the smoke - you're ready to cook when it's no longer blowing white
8. If you want to smoke your food, add wood chunks along the edges of your firebox / fire ring before rigging up your cooking set up, but after the smoke stops blowing white
9. If you're looking, you're not cooking! Once that temp is locked in, leave the lid closed, and taste the deliciousness when it's done!

I would love to hear variations on the approach!

MeTed

@thegooddocta, I light my large exactly the same as you except once the paper towel flames die down and the lump is lit I add the chunks of smoke wood, close the top, let the temp get within 50 degrees of desired temp, adjust vents to desired setting, wait till the smoke turns blue, usually about 30 mins.

     Then I cook. Good luck!

thegooddocta

Thanks @MeTed - I'll have to see if I can discern the difference between white and blue smoke! That's taking out half a step :]

fishlessman

i never watch the smoke anymore, smelling it tells you more. when it starts to smell like a clean burning camp fire its ready. some lumps like cowboy sometimes never pass the white smoke test

thegooddocta

Good to know @fishlessman - thanks! I primarily use Fogo now, but it's pricey so have been exploring some others as well. I haven't tried Cowboy (haven't seen it up here).

fishlessman

its not good lump, seems they change something every summer though so maybe they get it right this year

Fireman_Joe

Nice write up @thegooddocta

swordsmn

When I do low & slows, if I add wood at perimeter  the stuff never lights, yet I worry when I add it closer  the wood will burn too quickly  before I can get a stable low & slow temp.   Seems like I'm between a lump & a dead space (song title?)

DieselkW

I like to push all the old lump to one side, set a fire starter on the fire grate, light the firestarter and make a little "fort" with old lump over the flame. Open bottom vent all the way.

Once the flame is protected by the lump fort, add new lump to the usual level.

I think it's better to light from the bottom up, I know there's other opinions, but I'm a nuts and bolts thinker and dammit heat rises. I can be convinced I'm wrong, and I'll readily admit it, but as of now I think I'm right.

I put the cast iron grill on, and close the lid, open the daisy all the way. IF I'm smoking, of course the plate setter goes in first. I like all the internals to heat up at the same time as the dome, all starting at ambient temp.

Go prepare the meat du jour. When the stack stops smoking, and the temp is climbing towards 300f or so, I set the vents appropriate to the cook.

If I'm smoking, I have to lift the grate and plate setter to add some wood, but that's a minor inconvenience compared to having my smoking wood in there with the vents wide open and coming back late to a 700f inferno and my expensive smoking wood is all burned up.

So, I need to wait for temps to stabilize, up or down - down takes longer but I've found that almost closing the vent at 200f to smoke at 225f on the heat up will sometimes put the fire out altogether and really piss me off.

So, I have a stable fire at around 300f, then I adjust the vents to suit the cook.

Probably more than two cents, but there you go.

thegooddocta

Good writeup @DieselkW ; I've struggled controlling the temp with a bottom-up light. I had the same thought process as you at first - "heat rises" - but I end up going a bit too hot and struggling to bring it down when I've gone bottom up. I DID find that the VOCs seemed to clear faster going that route though. I might try that approach again.

milesvdustin

I have started using the "dump a bunch in and light with a heat gun" method. For smoke, i just toss the chunks in as i see fit once the fire is going, and push them to the lit part with the ash tool. 

DieselkW

@thegooddoctaThe fact that it gets hot faster reinforces my belief that it's the better way to light a cooking fire.  Maybe top down is better for some - but I find a top down fire with that bottom vent a dime width open to keep 225f will extinguish more often as the reduced air flow tries to find a path through all that cooler lump.

I'd rather wait for a too hot dome to cool, than to have to remove (and find a place to set) everything and light it again. The patio floor is the only place I can put a hot plate setter and cast iron grill. If you have a dog, if you have a kid, if you care about your ankles.... I don't want hot Egg internals where they can find skin.

I'm sure my well used plate setter smells like a bbq treat to dogs... imagine that yowl of pain!