Lump Question

Blassiter · February 2015

I am new to the egg community so forgive this question if it has been answered before. When starting a cook, I have been told to wait until smoke changes and is not a strong charcoal smell. When using large amounts of lump, is there a concern during the cook when the fire spreads to new pieces of lump? I am assuming that all the lump is not burning at the same time. Is this correct?

jcaspary · February 2015

Once the white smoke is gone you are good to go.

Mattman3969 · February 2015

You are correct that not all the lump is burning at the same time but the VOCs of the unlit lump are dissipating because of the surrounding heat, the way I understand it. Someone else can explain better than me. Clean burning and smelling smoke mean food on at my house.

blind99 · February 2015

Different VOCs dissipate at different temperatures. If the egg is stable at a given temperature, all the VOCs that evaporate at or below that temperature go away. So the VOCs in unlit lump can evaporate away too. That's my amateur view, feel free to correct it.

Theres all all sorts of nasty stuff in charcoal. Toluene, formaldehyde, mercury... I don't know what kind of dose we get but if letting the egg stabilize gets rid of some of it, it's probably a good idea.

grege345 · February 2015

Think radiant heat

Tjcoley · February 2015

After every cook, I put a load of new lump in a heavy foil pan, and place it raised direct on the still hot Egg. Burns off the VOC's so for my next cook I'm good to go immediately after lighting.

Blassiter · February 2015

Thanks for the great explanations. Tjcoley, that is a great idea to save some time for the next cook.

RRP · February 2015

Excuse me, but I'm a dump and light kind of guy. Normally after 15 minutes I close my dome and after another say 5 to 7 minutes I check my dome thermometer. If it is close enough and the "bad smoke" is gone, as people here call it I add chunks or several hands full of wooden chips to the fire so as to get billowing smoke! THEN I add my meat and never worry about "where the smoke came from!" Get my point?

mtbguy · February 2015

This hurts my head.

stlcharcoal · February 2015

blind99 said:

Theres all all sorts of nasty stuff in charcoal. Toluene, formaldehyde, mercury... I don't know what kind of dose we get but if letting the egg stabilize gets rid of some of it, it's probably a good idea.

Man, I'm not sure what kind of charcoal you're burning, but it's not coming from us.

I believe you are thinking of coal, not charcoal.

stemc33 · February 2015

@Blassiter, place your hand over the chimney for a few seconds and then smell it prior to putting your food. If it's pleasant your good to go, if it's nasty wait until it's good. If you switch to Ozark Oak, you can start cooking almost immediately. Stuff has very little smoke. I'm sure there's still plenty of VOC's to kill you, but at least your food won't have that acrid taste.

UrbanForestTurnings · February 2015

I light my lump. After 4 beers I'm good to go.

SmyrnaGA · February 2015

@Blassiter - It depends on the quality of your lumps. I have found partially carbonized wood in the more economical brands like Royal Oak, Big Green Egg, and Frontier. These pieces aren't 100% black, with some wood color. If in doubt, try to break it apart. If it's 100% charcoal, it should break apart easily. I usually throw them out when I see them.

One time, I tried putting a piece about the size of a hotdog near the starter cube. After getting the fire to burn nicely, I closed the egg and set the vents. After 15 minutes, nasty white smoke was still coming out the top. After removing the offending piece of wood/charcoal, the smoke was clear and I could add my wood chips & start cooking.

My advice is to either stick with one of the quality brands mentioned by others or carefully examine your coals when loading.

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