Smokey Flavour

Tony S.

I love my Egg. Wife and daughter love the burgers, and sausage on it. Anything that takes a longer time to cook, they will not eat it due to the "Too Smokey" flavour.

I did a beautiful stuffed pork tenderloin tonight. They ate the suffing, but said "Too Smokey" with the meat.

I guess I can cook for a little bit on the egg normally and then wrap it in tin foil. Is this something that others do?

Richard Fl

Let the charcoal burn the smoke off and do not add any wood.

mad max beyond eggdome

are you adding wood to your fire? ....if you get a good established fire going with basic lump charcoal (i.e. letting the lump burn for 20 - 30 minutes until there is only thin whispy smoke coming out of the top of the egg), there should be pretty minimal smoke flavor being imparted into your food. ... if the smoke is dark and thick, then wait. ....also, after a particularly greasy cook, let the egg heat up to 6oo degrees or so and really burn off any grease in the egg. ...

Tony S.

Please forgive my ignorance ... what do you mean to let the charcoal burn off the smoke?

Tony S.

That may be part of the problem. As soon as I get it to 350, I throw the food on. There is still smoke coming for a while.

Next time I will heat it up and let it burn for a while and then settle the temp down.

Ugly Eggling

My wife went through the same thing. She got used to the difference between the egg and the gasser soon enough. She doesn't like me to go overboard with smoke on burgers and chicken though.

Be sure to burn new lump for a while. That helps keep the smoke taste down to a minimum.

[Deleted User]

Tony my boy, at least you have an easy problem to fix!

Let it get to temp and then hold it there till the smoke disappears or is a faint wispy blue. From lighting to clear smoke usually takes around 20 minutes,

My Wife and daughters don't like smoke (Wife doesn't actually enjoy any food cooked on the Egg) so I know where you're coming from.

I typically cook with the daisy completely off and control the temp with only the lower vent. I feel this minimizes the smoke retained in the cooking area and therefore less is picked up in the food. Chicken is particularly sensitive to smoke.

Good Primer on BBQ and smoke here:
http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/2004/02/introduction-to-barbecuing.html

mad max beyond eggdome

there you go ....dark smoke bad. .. thin smoke good!! . .. when you get it under control, you can do a lot of baking (think pizza, bread, casseroles, etc), and get a nice "rustic" flavor with just a hint of smoke flavor. ...my wife HATES smokey foods. .. .but i've managed to make a lot of great stuff on the egg for her over the years with just a hint of smoke in it. ..

you'll get the hang of it ...

[Deleted User]

oops

The Naked Whiz

All charcoal pretty much smokes a lot while the fire is igniting and building. It will smoke a lot less once the fire gets to a stable condition.

Obviously, if you want less smoke, don't add any wood. You might also try Cowboy lump. A lot of folks have reported that it produces less smoke flavor.

Good luck!

Tony S.

Thanks guys. Never thought of just cooking without the cap on. Can you control it well enough with just the slider on the bottom?

[Deleted User]

Yes, you can control it using just the bottom, just the top or a combination of the two.

For me it was simpler to leave the top off and just see how open the door needed to be to hit what temp. at 300/350 with the top off it's only like 1/8" open,

make sure you leave the vents wide open until you're within 50 deg. of your target temp, then set the vent to the desired opening.

Canugghead

Tony, same problem here. As for the stuffed pork loin, leave the leftover in the fridge for a few days, then try eating it cold, it'll taste like gourmet cold cut without the smokiness. That's what happened to my 'bacon explosion' stuffed pork loin last week.
-Gary