Coal Taste

Tom

I have had my BGE for a couple of months. I've cooked chicken, pork chops and tenderloins, and steaks, and everything I cook has an underlying flavor of coal, not charcoal, but coal. Not good. I'm using BGE lump charcoal and various smoking woods. Am I not getting the fire hot enough? I usually have the grill at 300 to 350 degrees. Any help would be appreciated.

Banker John

Tom,
Being as I have never tasted 'coal' I may not exactly answer your question, but I will try to help.[p]How much wood chunks are you adding to your lump when you cook? I have found that too much will overpower my food and make it taste bad. For poultry, I may only use 1 chunk, if that as the plain lump will procuce just a small amount of smoke, if fresh. For steak or pork, I may use 2 or 3 chunks. To get a nice smoked flavor in your food, you do not need a thick cloud of smoke; instead shoot for a light 'bluesmoke'.[p]Another thing I do is light my egg well enough in advance of my cook to allow all the ceramics to stabilize at my desired cooking temp. While the marketing literature states you can achieve temps and be ready to cook in 10 minutes (which is true), I personally have better results when I allow about 1 hour or so to let the egg stabilize before starting my cook. In doing this, most of the VOC's (volitale organic compounds) from lump and fresh wood have burnt off.[p]Another point, do you use seasoned wood or fresh. If fresh, that is more than likely your problem.[p]Hope this helps (HTH),
Banker John

tmEGGer

Tom,[p]I am not sure what coal taste is, but I experienced a heavy smoke flavor when I first got my egg. I don't have that any more for 2 reasons.
1. I let any new charcoal burn for a while, maybe 20-30 minutes before cooking. I noticed heavy, thick, billowing smoke for while, then when the smoke became light and wispy, I added the food. This is similar to Banker John's post.
2. I changed brands of charcoal. I had used BGE brand and Royal Oak. I believe BGE is actually Royal Oak. I now use Qik Joe by Milazzo, which has a much more mild flavor.[p]I hope that helps.[p]NutmEGGer

Unknown

Tom,[p]I'm in agreement with the other "cult" members. You really need to wait about 45 min - 1 hour before cooking. I wait until I see almost no smoke before I start cooking.

katman

Tom,[p]I agree with the others--sounds like you are starting to cook while your lump is still burning off the nasty stuff.

fishlessman

Tom,
i have lit the egg with coal and have not noticed a coal taste, the advice already given is good, with the poultry try no smoking wood and see how that works out.

Yazoo

Tom,[p]I occasionally find pieces of lump that have residue on them, creosote, tar, all the stuff that's supposed to be driven off when making charcoal, but sometimes it ends up back on the lump. I usually toss those pieces. Some bags are worse than others.