Clean burn

mick7607

 Its time for a clean burn. I've never done one and,quite frankly, it scares me to death. I don't want to damage my table or burn it to the ground. I have a sufficient gap that high heat cooks have not scorched the table yet. Has anyone had any experience with table damage during clean burns?

RRP

no - but if you are scared to do it then don't! Personally I exceed 1,000º  when I do mine and have never as much as scorched my table. 

td66snrf

Why do you think you need to do it? All of mine are totally black inside. 

slovelad

Yep! I don't recommend going above about 800.

i didna clean burn a few weeks ago and let the temp slip up to about 1000 and it burnt my table. I didn't have a Pugh air gap to begin with though 

mick7607

td66snrf said:

Why do you think you need to do it? All of mine are totally black inside. 

My wife says that I am OCD. I might agree with her just this once.

Seriously, the lid, inner housing, and plate setter are pretty gunked up and I don't like it. See OCD above.

Theophan

mick7607 said:

td66snrf said:

Why do you think you need to do it? All of mine are totally black inside. 

My wife says that I am OCD. I might agree with her just this once.

Seriously, the lid, inner housing, and plate setter are pretty gunked up and I don't like it. See OCD above.

The ONLY reason I've done a few pretty high heat burns is that I get really ugly mold in my Eggs once in a while, when I've had to go for a while without grilling, and I think that is not only ugly but could be a health risk!  So I fill it up, and burn it 700° or so till it runs out, and that's not hot enough to make it all white again, but by gosh ain't nothing left in there that's alive!

The problem is that I've seen too many times people saying that they suddenly got major cracks in the ceramic after a really, really hot burn.  Even if the warranty gets you replacement parts, what a pain in the neck!

So I think it comes down to this:  Which one matters the most to you:

• Increasing your risk of cracking the ceramics and a major pain in the neck, or
• There's some black stuff in my Egg and I don't like it.

Maybe just do sort of a "ritual cleaning" with a ball of aluminum foil or one of those metal mesh things they sell to scrape pots and pans (and grills) with, and officially pronounce it "clean," because it is!  That black stuff is mostly carbon, and guess what lump charcoal is -- mostly carbon!  It's fine.  It won't hurt you!  If there's stuff hanging from the dome that might fall in your food, by all means, scrape it off, maybe go around the whole inside with a scrubbing thing of some sort and just officially declare it clean.

gerhardk

Personally black isn't bad, if you have a greasy film that would be a reason for clean burn but I don't think nuclear temps are necessary.

jtcBoynton

If you feel you need to do a clean burn, limit the temp to 750ºF.  Why 750º?  It is hot enough to burn off any organics and still within the temp range of your temp gauge. 

SmokingPiney

I often wonder about the thinking behind trying to get that pristine ceramic look back with nuclear clean burns. I'm not into risking cracks, warranty or not, and it will be black again in no time after a few cooks. 

I cook on my Egg too often for mold to form, but I do get some gunk accumulation around the top neck of the dome. Balled up aluminum foil makes short work of that.

If you truly feel the need to do a nuclear clean burn, it's your Egg.

SmokingPiney

mick7607 said:

td66snrf said:

Why do you think you need to do it? All of mine are totally black inside. 

My wife says that I am OCD. I might agree with her just this once.

Seriously, the lid, inner housing, and plate setter are pretty gunked up and I don't like it. See OCD above.

Balled up aluminum foil will cure that quickly. It won't look pristine, but the gunk will be gone. You're running charcoal and smoke - the inside will be black regardless of what you do. As for the plate setter, I cover mine with aluminum foil (see a theme building here? ), and replace it when the foil gets nasty looking.

Lit

As long as you can get it burning clean with clear smoke you don't need to clean it. Many people have cracked their eggs doing high temp clean burns.

Lit

slovelad said:

Yep! I don't recommend going above about 800.

i didna clean burn a few weeks ago and let the temp slip up to about 1000 and it burnt my table. I didn't have a Pugh air gap to begin with though 

Man that's scary you need a bigger air gap around your table. Mine was like that years ago and the table caught fire after cooking several high temp pizzas. Mine was fine for years till it finally dried out enough and I woke up to my table in flames.

Mattman3969

I'm an advocate of 600 for an hr or so then scrub with balled up HDAF. Your oven self cleans at 500° approximately, why would you need to go much higher than that?