adding lump to a hot egg...

WileECoyote

I have been eggin 3-4 times a week for about 6 months now and I only recently needed to add more lump to an already hot egg. In each case I ended up cooking for longer or hotter than planned so the lump was almost gone but there were still some red hot coals and the dome temps ranged from 300-500. I just opened the egg, removed the grate, and set some fresh lump on top of the hot coals. It would quickly catch and keep the egg going but I found that it would spark much more than normal and the sparks generally continued for the first 30-60 minutes of the cook. I use a protective screen cap on top of the egg dome to keep sparks from flying out so this was not a big deal but then I noticed some of the spark ashes were settling on my food giving the meat an undesired sandy / gritty texture when chewed.

Is there a special way to add the fresh lump that will minimize or prevent sparks? I tried using smaller or bigger pieces, spreading them out evenly, stirring the hot coals first, making sure the grate holes were open, etc. but nothing made any difference.

civil eggineer

Are you using Kingsford's lump? The stuff is like the 4th of July. Get some BGE or Royal Oak lump and it should minimize this condition. I cook for 15 to 19 hours without adding any additional lump. Fill it up when you use it. You can always snuff out the fire and reuse it next time.

WileECoyote

I previously used Royal Oak and Cowboy, both of which sparked even more. I am currently using Wicked Good Charcoal Weekend Warrior Blend which is just about the best you can get. It doesn't normally spark any other time, just when fresh lump is added on top of already hot red coals.

civil eggineer

I get a little sparking when I light the lump with a mapp torch. Simplist solution is load up plenty of lump to begin with. I normally don't get any sparking off of the RO lump during cooking.

Unknown

Fer crying out loud!

Use your head and fill it to the fire ring then refill it before you do a cook of any duration! Think.

WileECoyote

The obvious proactive solution is quite clear and has been from the beginning, although thank you both for repeating it anyway. Everyone loves clowns... :P

As I mentioned in my initial post, the problem occurs when I end up cooking longer or hotter than planned. Thus I am not able to respond proactively and I have no choice but to add more lump on the fly. This could also happen if you had an emergency and let the egg runaway for a while or you forgot to check your lump in advance but surely that would never happen to anyone on this forum...

Surely someone has an idea or solution. I assume the sparks are from the fresh lump being ignited rapidly and that they won't diminish until the new lump is fully burning. If so then maybe it would help to pull the original hot coals into the middle and add the fresh lump on the outsides, or vice versa?

Rick's Tropical Delight

use a chimney starter and start the fresh lump in it and then dump it in the egg.

FlaPoolman

I've added before without that problem when placing it in but when I dumped it from the bag the sparks flew. My guess was the dust that caused it.

Mike in Abita

About the only way to do what you are attempting is to light the lump in a chimney starter then dump it in the egg.

One other way to do it, but it wouldn't be very safe, is to remove all the hot lump and then add more then put the hot back on top. This way would cause you to go through the whole task of allowing the smoke to clear.

Rick's Tropical Delight

i've added fresh lump to burning lump and had no problems. if your lump sparks when you add it... just wait a bit for it to settle down and then put on your food

Bacchus

Wiley, your reply to Socially Unnaceptable's rude comment made me chuckle, my first of the day. You win the prize, which along with $4.00 will buy you a gallon of gas........

WileECoyote

Rick wins the prize for being first with a great practical solution. I never thought of starting the new lump outside of the egg and then adding it to the egg already going. I have a cast iron pot or steel bucket that I can place the new lump in, hit it with my weed burner for a bit, then dump into the egg when ready.

Unfortunately I can't just wait for the new lump to settle down because the food is usually mid-cook at that point. Today was a good example: I lit the egg around 1:00 pm with just enough lump to cook for 2-3 hours at 350, which was fine for the chicken legs that I had planned. Got a call at lunch and was distracted so the egg burned out of control for 1 hour wasting precious lump. Was up to 700 when I went outside but still looked like enough lump to finish the chicken so I cooled it down to 350 and tossed the legs on the grid. 30 minutes later the wife decided I needed to add some ribs to the mix and this was a problem. Not enough fuel left to do the ribs and can't take the chicken out mid-cook, but don't want the chicken to be covered in sandy bits of lump-spark residue.

Today I just added the biggest pieces of lump I could find to the center of the egg and the plate setter helped to keep the sparks in the pit. In the future I will use Rick's suggestion and light the new lump outside.

Speaking of weed burners: I have owned one for a while but never fired it up on full blast until the other day. Ye God Almighty! That was some hellacious fire ball, even a bit much for an Acme character like me. In just 2 seconds I managed to kill a 6' strip of waist high grass and set several feet of dead grass on fire. What on earth could you do that would require so much fuel being burned so rapidly? It might be more appropriate to call it a "tree burner", "field burner", or "jet engine starter kit"... :ohmy:

stike

one chunk of advice i always give re lighting the egg is to light it and then set the vents as though it's already at your target temp.

you will never come back after being distracted to find it at 800+ degrees.

it doesn't really take any longer to get to 350 with the vents shut as though it were already AT 350, than it does if you open them wide. strange but true (o.k., true-ish)

Eggtucky

Wile...the sparking is from the rapid expansion of the moisture in the lump..you arent going to like this idea.. but I have actually laid some large chunks of lump on the grid before adding to the pit to let it dry out some before throwing it in that 300+d pit which at the surface is probably 1100+..another option is to sun dry several large chunks before a cook, seal it in saran wrap or ziplock bags..this should reduce although may not totally eliminate the sparking...

PhilsGrill

You should never have to add lump. Always, always fill it to the top fo the firebox.

Celtic Wolf

That is not necessarily true. Too maintain the temp on that 18 butt cook I did I pushed my eggs pretty hard. I had to add lump to one of my eggs in the middle of the night.

However, under normal circumstances you are absolutely correct.

Celtic Wolf

First I think you need to figure out how and why your egg got hotter then you planned.

Once you correct that temp control problem and you have filled the egg up to the fire ring with lump the need to add more during a cook will go away.

One of the biggest errors I see people make is adjusting the vents after they put the meat on because the temp dropped. That is a normal thing. You are putting a cold mass of meat into an egg you just opened. The mere fact you opened the egg will cause the temp to drop.

Once you have that egg stable for at least 30 with all the mass in the egg (plate setter, drip pan, grates) then put the meat in, shut the lid and WALK AWAY. The egg will come back up to temp all by itself. If after 30 minutes or so and you don't see it RISING then mak *A* minute changes to the vent and WAIT.

WileECoyote

I might try what stike suggested. I have always left my vents wide open when lighting the egg but maybe it will warm up almost as fast with the vents at normal setting. And for the record I never use the daisy wheel except for low'n'slow so the top is always wide open.

Eggtucky: it very well could be damp lump, although I store all of my lump in a fully enclosed wooden shed which gets quite hot in the summer so the bags are always bone dry. Once I open a bag then I put the spare lump in a sealed plastic container which is stored inside my egg table under the carport so it doesn't get moisture anywhere near it. But who knows, maybe it absorbs moisture from the air when I am handling it...

As for filling the egg: I usually do top off before each cook but not for short quick cooks when it is obvious that I have enough lump. Please read my posts above and realize that there are times when things change after the egg is already lit, and once in a while this means you need to refill a hot egg. Maybe it never happens to you but it does to me, so I was looking for a solution.

CW: the egg doesn't get hotter than I planned because it is out of control. It gets hotter when I change my mind mid-burn and end up cooking something that requires more time and/or more heat. Thus the lump which was originally addequate can disappear and leave me with a shortage. See previous example.

Well the solution seems to be at hand: pre-light the new lump outside of the egg and add it to the egg hot. Simple and should work. I will try this next time I get stuck and let you know how it works. Thanks for all the tips.

Semolina Pilchard

Mike and Rick hit it on the head. If that is the route you go I would suggest getting one of those oversized chimney starters. If you don't let it go too long you won't light all the lump, but at least it will all have been above the fire and burn off any dust and get the moisture out before being dumped in the egg.

AzScott

Good idea adding new lump after it's lit in a chimney starter. I'm going to have to pick one of those up. Every time I've added some to the cook I get flashbacks and cook the ole' arm hair.

ChefBrian

To me that would be a good excuse to just buy another egg. Light it and tranfer the meat to the fresh egg. It's a no brainer.

WileECoyote

You know I have only been eggin for less than a year and I first thought that I would never need a second egg. Figured people that have 2, 3, 4, or more are just crazy. Then over the past month or so I have thought of several scenarios where a second egg would come in quite handy. This egg thing really isn't a product. It is not a grill / smoker combo. It is an addictive drug, pure and simple. If left unchecked, in 10-20 more years we could all be homeless people living under bridges, pushing our eggs around in shopping carts, and burning scraps of driftwood lump that we dig up from the shore line, roasting pigeons and smoking rats. Raccoon-stuffed ABTs anyone?

Celtic Wolf

"As God is my witness I shall never go hungry again.."

OK OK that was overly dramatic.. Brownie points to the first person who can name that quote..

Just because you now realize you need a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or more eggs doesn't mean we multi-egg owners aren't crazy...

Rascal

Scarlett, Gone With The Wind

QBabe

If you always fill it to the fire ring beforehand, no matter what you are cooking, you'll never run out, even if your plans change or your egg gets hot...so why waste time with a chimney starter and adding lump with an even easier solution is at hand? Just my 2 cents...