Failure after 13 years of owning an Egg/Acrid food taste

fishing66

Folks,

I bow my head in shame with this as repeated cooking failures have resulted in inedible food. I have owned an Egg since 2009....the first one was an XL, now I have a Large. It seems that no matter what I do in terms of lump, preheating time, air adjustment etc., my routine cooks come out covered with ash and acrid smoke taste. Example, the other day I was doing some routine chicken breasts. I opened a fresh bag of Royal Oak, lit it off in a chimney starter, waited until the fire was going good in the starter and then dumped it into the Egg. I waited until the smoke was clear. Despite this, the chicken breasts came out covered with ash bits and had an unacceptably acrid smoke taste.  The gaskets probably need to be replaced and I have new ones on hand, however....in years past it was a breeze to get perfect chicken breasts, burgers etc. on the Egg. Now everything tastes like it was cooked in creosote. What am I doing wrong? Signed,

Embarrassed Egghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Run your egg at 600 and see if white smoke comes out. If it does, let it run until it clears up again. Sounds like you have creosote buildup in there. Could be on your grids/stones as well. Outside of that, I’m lost. 

shtgunal3

Time for a clean burn

YukonRon

It happened to me, and I believe it was moisture build up when I did a cook. After that cook, it seemed to correct itself, and there was not another instance where that became an issue.

Don’t stop, a clean burn should fix it.. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

loco_engr

smell the smoke before adding your meat

stlcharcoal

Clean burn.  If you see white smoke on 400-500+ charcoal, it's not the charcoal, it's grease inside the egg.  Let it rip through at least 10# of charcoal in an XL.

jdMyers

What's the inside of your dome look like.  How much can you easily scrape off after a cook?  

northGAcock

Do you (by chance) live near a volcano? JKOC

Ozzie_Isaac

Might have COVID.  It messed with all my senses.  Made me super sensitive to salt.

Teefus

I'll add to the chorus suggesting a clean burn. I was having the same issue a couple years ago and did a high temp burn followed by a total cleanout. It made a big difference. I switched from Royal Oak to Rockwood too, and that made a big difference. I had used Rockwood successfully a number of times and the quality seemed to go South. After two bad bags I made the switch.

lkapigian

Is it ash or creosote on the food ? If ash I would assume the firebox has not been removed and a thorough cleaning of as buildup which could asl restrict airflow … another vote for a clean burn , the acrid taste can be just regurgitated funk that some call a “ seasoned pit” ( that will make bad Q in a hurry)

fishlessman

its either fat drippings built up or excessive moisture. during the mud months of maine i routinely light the egg at camp every friday to dry it out for the weekend. lots of low and slows, especially chicken thighs will put a flakey black tar paper residue in the dome that will flake off on your food as well. burn it all out

theyolksonyou

Also can scrub done with foil to get that flaky stuff off and not onto your food.  

Do as I say, not as I do.  

fishlessman

look at the bag of royal oak, if it does not say made in usa, that would also be a problem.  dont know if they still make the mexican stuff or maybe youre supplier has some older stuff but the mexican stuff stank, popped, covered things with ash.  home depot had it a few years back

OhioEgger

Nothing to add, but thanks to the OP for this thread. It made me realize that I can't remember when I did my last clean burn, so that means it's time. 

Thatgrimguy

Make sure your clean burn is just like 500-600. No need for anything higher.

Ozzie_Isaac

Thatgrimguy said:

Make sure your clean burn is just like 500-600. No need for anything higher.

And remove your thermometer.  Clean burns are a bit hard on them.

Langner91

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Thatgrimguy said:

Make sure your clean burn is just like 500-600. No need for anything higher.

And remove your thermometer.  Clean burns are a bit hard on them.

And *BURP* it!  Welding gloves if you want the hair on your knuckles to remain!

Mark_B_Good

Langner91 said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Thatgrimguy said:

Make sure your clean burn is just like 500-600. No need for anything higher.

And remove your thermometer.  Clean burns are a bit hard on them.

And *BURP* it!  Welding gloves if you want the hair on your knuckles to remain!

Eyelashes take a longer time to grow back than knuckle hairs.

fishing66

Howdy folks:

Thanks so much for your advice. I did a cleanout burn and the took the Egg apart to do some maintenance....holy slap, the gaskets were in tragic shape. The top and bottom domes were covered in creosote. The lower firebox was cracked in half, almost like slicing an orange in half. I did a through cleaning with a wire brush and removed all of the interior creosote. The old gaskets were removed and I actually had to use a belt sander to get the old adhesive and fibers off. OK, clean surface on both the top and bottom domes and on went a new set of High-Que Gold Standard Kevlar/Nomex gaskets. I picked up Hercules furnace cement, dampened both sides of the firebox, applied the Hercules cement and put a heavy weight on top as to get a good bond. It is a minimum cure of one hour so tomorrow I will do a low burn to cure the cement. Eggs may be made to last a lifetime but they do need periodic maintenance which I had not done. Shame on me. I'll see what lump is available and give a different brand a try this weekend. Thanks again. 

Ozzie_Isaac

Cracked fire bowl will work fine even without a repair.  Just piece them together.  I applaud your repair though.  I recommend you get a warranty replacement and store it till you need it.