Remedial Fire Starting Question

1/2 hour is probably not long enough to get everything heated up and stabalized to your desired temp.

you want to stabilize temps before putting all that cold stuff in and then dont touch it after the meat is on for several hours. what your doing is chasing a false reading off your gage thats too close to cold objects like the butt and setter

I am curious to see responses on this as I experienced the exact same thing as the OP. Only difference was that I had to take out some applewood chunks before I started cooking as it looked like my neighborhood was burning down with the amount of white smoke 5 chunks were producing.

when it smells like a clean burning fire your good to go, dont try and time it

"If it is bad smoke, unpalatable, chemical tasting, then it is your starter cubes not being fully burnt off. This would also explain the billowing whit smoke."

The starter cube lasts over 2.5 hours?

does anyone have that picture someone drew a few years ago showing the proper way to mix the chunks in with the lump?

I would just use paper towel with olive oil,  or I like the weed burner to start it.   let it come to temp with all the stuff in it you are going to use,   you are probably using too many chucks of wood,  you really don't need to soak them ( that may be your white smoke.)  and don't put any food on until the smoke is clean and is just heat coming out the top. 

I don't get the appeal of starter cubes -- sure, for a fireplace, but not for food! 

I'm an electric starter guy (100% of the time it works every time).  Some seem jazzed about the Looft lighter (although those are rather spendy).  Haven't tried it, but oil and paper towel seem like a popular solution and one that would likely be devoid of too many chemicals. 

"His combination of snuffed starter cubes and a full load of fresh charcoal are likely the reason for the white billowing smoke so soon into the cook, and especially since it occurs the moment he hits 250 and drops the lid shut. If not that, then what?"

I was thinking the full load of fresh charcoal that didn't get a chance to burn off VOCs was probably the culprit.  Your explanation about the snuffed starter cube has some merit as well - depending on how long the fire burns before the lid is shut.

buzd504 said:

This one?

That is so awesome.

On low and slows , I use one Rutland starter cube. Mix my wood with the lump and light. Once cube has no more flame (about 10 minutes) I put in indirect set up and close the lid leaving the daisy wheel off and the bottom vent wide open. As it gets to about 200, I add daisy wheel open  and close vent some. I gradually get wheel closed (petals open) and bottom about 1/2 inch. Then,  petals 1/2 open. get 250 for about 15 minutes and put on meat (at about 45 minute mark from lighting) . Smoke is now clean, wispy and good smelling.

I use a weed burner and have an XL. 250 is about a half hours. I use royal oak. I like using leftover Lump. Tonight I was at 500 dome. In 15 minutes with lump left over from last pizza cook.

I am always confused and I guess feel a little lucky on my results with starting the egg compared to some of the challenges I read about with starting the egg. Full disclosure here as I do have a medium but I wouldn't believe it would be a huge difference. I usually just dump the lump in and light a small paper towel with some oil on it to start the egg. I lay a couple pieces over the towel like a bridge and will be cooking in a half hour or no more than an hour for clear smoke. I have jump the gun before letting the smoke to clear leaving a lingering chemical taste but mostly I have had good luck with BGE lump.

My initial thoughts when I read this post were:

First: It could be a problem with the charcoal being used. I happen to use Wicked Good Weekend Warrior lump and one of the things I like about it is it quite smoke neutral. I have a clean burning fire in 30 minutes or less. If I am baking. I use no smoke wood and the WGWW doesn't really impart a smoke flavor on the baked goods. It also sounds like way too much wood. I have found one or two chunks or a couple palm fulls of woodchips is more than enough. If I am doing low and slow, then I add several wood chunks or several handfuls of woodchips every couple hours. With the tight seal and insulating qualities of the BGE you don't need a lot of wood to get a good smoke flavor.

Second: I discovered the hard way couple months ago you really don't want to measure the temperature of anything at the dome level. I started having trouble where baked items that I'd made a year ago, which came out great, we're suddenly coming out with burned bottoms and undercooked tops. Same set up, same gear, same recipe, same dome temperature… Everything was the same and suddenly I was having a problem. To say I was mystified was an understatement. What I finally discovered is there can be a huge variation between the dome temperature and the grate level temperature. The outside air temperature affects this so it is not a constant variation either. Actually I already knew this because it was a rule of thumb with any other grill or smoker I'd owned. I never understood when I got my Big Green Egg, why people seemed to rely on the dome thermometer, because unless you're cooking at the dome level that temp is totally irrelevant. But I went with the flow-new type grill new way to think. Actually no as it turned out. I finally did a cook where I put the grate probe for my Maverick ET-733 at my cooking level and I soon found out what my issue was. There was a huge variation between the grate level temperature and the dome. The year before I was cooking in air temperatures that were 30 to 40° warmer than this year. With the extreme cold this year I was facing a situation where the ceramics up in the dome area were not warming up as fast as the year before. So while I thought I was cooking at 350° I was cooking at 450 or more. As soon as I started measuring all of my cooking temperatures at the grate level (where I was cooking at), everything started coming out perfect again. So I would suggest for your low and slows that you put a grate level probe or an oven thermometer right on the grill grate where you're putting your food. Go by this and it really doesn't matter what the dome thermometer says.

Third: When I'm shooting for a temperature of 225 for something cooking at the felt line such as you get using the platesetter, you need to be very careful not to overshoot your temperatures. At that level I find my daisywheel is cracked open just a hair and the lower draft door only needs to be open about an eighth of an inch. You simply don't want to overshoot your temperatures, because it is next to impossible to drive them back down to that level. Plus you'll be fighting with them the rest of the cook. Don't ask me how I know this. So what I do, is when I am within about 50° of 225 I put the metal cap on and shut it and the lower draft door down to about double the settings I will end using to hold 225. Then when I am within about 10° or 225 I shut them down to the final settings I use. After that I keep a very close eye on the temps to make sure they're not drifting up. For me I find this takes about 30 minutes. I find it is beneficial to let the Egg and all the ceramics and platesetter etc. stabilize at that temperature. I keep a close eye on things to make sure it's not drifting up. The extra half hour or so I take to make sure my Egg is stable pays off long-term with a more stable cook.

Two other thoughts: First: When I am doing a low and slow, I don't do a thorough cleaning out of my Egg. I clean out the ash drop area and I do swirl the charcoal around, but that is it. If things are a little clogged, that is not the end of the world when you are cooking at about the lowest temperature the Egg can do. When I'm doing a cook over 400° I do a thorough cleaning.

Second: Be very mindful of how long you're keeping the lid open. Minimize the amount of time the lid is open. In cold weather most people just think: "Oh no I'm letting cold air in and I'm driving my temperatures down". While this is true in the short run, in the long run you've just let in a ton of combustion air. Think of the tiny amount of air you're letting him via your dampers, versus the volume of air you just let in opening the lid. When your Egg recovers back to 225 it may just keep right on going to higher temperatures. And since your dampers are almost closed to begin with, you will have a hard time getting high temps back down. One of the things I like about my Adjustable Rig is you are able to remove the whole Rig from the Egg, together with the one, two, or three shelves of food you are cooking. You're able to open the lid quickly, removed the AR and get the lid closed. Then you can focus on basting, turning or whatever it is you need to do to your food. Then you open the lid and get everything back on in one quick operation. But just be real careful when doing low and slow to minimize the time the lid is open.

My 2 cents worth, learned at the school of hard knocks. Good luck!
Jim