Baking Disaster w/ the EGG

leemcd84 · January 2012

Just got an Egg for Christmas and absolutely love it! Ran into a problem yesterday while preparing my New Year's spread! Found the peach cobbler recipe in the back of the EGG manual and it seemed easy enough so I tried it. I followed the instructions exactly including cooking time and ingredients but the final result was awful. The cobbler looked picture perfect but when I went to eat some it was terrible. So terrible that I couldn't even finish one bite. Before cooking the cobbler I topped off my fire box with new lump and made sure there was no left over wood chips in the firebox in fear of having smokey cobbler. I was setup for indirect cooking as instructed. I did not cover with foil or anything else and am wondering what may have caused the disaster. The cobbler tasted like a bandaid to me and after seeing my face after taking a bite nobody else would try the cobbler. Ha. I am wondering if there is something simple that I missed or what the cause of this might be. There are so many baking recipes out there with the EGG that I must have done something wrong. I also asked a friend about this and he said he had a similar problem when trying a pizza on the EGG. Is there anything that can be done or should I just stick to meat on the EGG? All input is appreciated.

Hillbilly-Hightech · January 2012

I don't really know what a band-aid tastes like, but I'm assuming you're meaning that it had a bad smoky taste?

If that's the case, then how long did you let the Egg "run" before putting the cobbler in? If you don't let the acrid smoke clear out, then your food will taste like that as well. A good rule of thumb is to fan the smoke coming from the top of the Egg to your nose & smell it - if it smells bad (acrid), then that's the taste it will impart onto your food.

Also, you shouldn't really "see" the smoke coming out - it should be mostly clear. If you see heavy puffy smoke billowing out, you have to wait till that clears up.

For something like baking a cobbler, I'd say most ppl want as little smoke taste as possible, which means letting the "bad" smoke clear out...

HTH,
Rob

leemcd84 · January 2012

Thanks for the comment. I did not let the EGG burn for very long. Took 7 or so minutes to start the fire and then prob not long after I got the desired temp and started cooking. It didn't much taste like smoke to me more like chemicals or porcelain or something like that. I will definitely pay more attention to those types of things when baking next time. I smoked some ribs and cooked some steaks right after the cobbler and they were excellent. So covering with foil or something is not the answer? Thanks for your help.

stevesails · January 2012

Yep clear smoke and wait another15 minutes

forty_crk · January 2012

you need clean smoke. that's why ur ribs and steaks were good . don't rush putting ur food on. pizzas are great on the egg.

leemcd84 · January 2012

nysportsfan · January 2012

Probably the smoke...try it again!

Jasper · January 2012

You use lump charcoal right? What do you use to start up the charcoal?

leemcd84 · January 2012

You use lump charcoal right? What do you use to start up the charcoal?

I use an electric starter.

banzaitoyota · January 2012

Tweeve, I bake bread on mine after a cook and its WONDERFUL!

leemcd84 · January 2012

Was just trying to show off the eggs capabilities and there are recipes out there figured it should be edible. I mean technically you could prob still eat without the egg using oven, grill, and smoker just have heard a lot of success stories on deserts and pizza etc so was trying to test the versatility and having fun doing so...

I said you could do it but if you have a decent stove you can get similar or better results using an oven. I was thinking more about cookies, pies & cakes though.

Austin Egghead · January 2012

leemcd84, baking on the egg is no different than baking on a stove. With the place setter in the egg acts very much like a convection oven. I start the coals and then do my prep the ingredients and by the time the pie is ready to go on the egg the lump is burning clear. I don't add any chips or chucks of wood and I have a clean grate that is just for baking (no greasy grill marks to clean).

I primarily baked pies, biscuits and puff pastry items. My buttermilk and pecan pies last about 5 minutes at egg fests.

Try baking again. I am not sure where the off flavor came from. Try baking some biscuits, they easy to prepare (Paula Dean has a very good sweet milk recipe at foood.com). Just make sure the lump is burning clear.

biscuits

tomato pie

stilllaughing · January 2012

You should never cook on new lump that hasn't had the voc's burned off which takes about a half hour to do. The same goes for adding lump during a cook. Take the food off and let the lump burn for 1/2 hr before putting the food back in. That's exactly what that bad taste was if you only let the lump burn 7-10 minutes before you put the food in. It's like not burning all of the lighter fluid out of briquetts before you put the food in.

If you're re-using old lump that's not an issue.

Crimsongator · January 2012

If your platesetter has a residue build up from use and grease hitting it, it will continue to give off some funky stuff when you are trying to bake on the egg. I would do a good burn off of the platesetter, legs side down, next time you cook something. After that, keep it wrapped in fresh foil during cooks and you will not have a problem with bad tasting baked food at all.

Austin Egghead · January 2012

I agree with Crimsongator 100%. The place setter should be grease free if using it when baking.

trevorst · January 2012

Although it can be done baking on the egg isn't really worth it. The oven is superior for some thongs.

I think a Blonde would be superior for those thongs. :-)

leemcd84 · January 2012

Thx everyone for the help! Have my spirits back up to bake again!

Baking Disaster w/ the EGG

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