Does Anybody Let Their Lump "Ash Over?"

wdan

The thread posted by Nardi about smoking wood practices and occasional "ashtray chicken" prollems, got me to thinking about some general lump practices. Most of the time it seems folks take the approach of allowing the lump to creep up to desired temp and start cooking from that point forward. [p]For low-and-slows, or otherwise, real smokey flavor cooking, this is clearly a good way to go. But what about when grilling, but wanting a milder (i.e. less smokey) flavor? As pointed out by many folks here, that initial burn of new lump unleashes a bunch of VOC's and stuff that actually make some foods taste good, but other times, make things like your chicken taste like you licked an ashtray before you ate it.[p]I got to thinking about my days of cooking with briquettes under a dome, and clearly recalled the Cardinal rule of letting Mr. Ford's spoke shavings completely "ash-over" before putting the food on. I think I'm going to try this approach next time I do milder food. Put into practice, I think I'll let my lump get close to Trex steak appearance and then damper everything down to get back to temp where I want to cook. Might take a while, but maybe the volatiles will all burn off to the point where my wife will let me cook on the egg more often. Whoops. Did I forget to mention why I need to reduce the smoke flavor in some of the stuff I cook?

Mac in NC

WDAN,[p]Start with a load of fresh lump up to the top of the fire ring. Get it good and glowing for your initial cook. This will burn off a lot of the voc's you speak of. When you relight the remaining lump on your next cook, there will be very little smoke compared to the first burn.[p]Natural lump doesn't ash over like briquettes. Probably because there is no binders. Just a guess. When you see ash on natural lump, it's burned up for good.

wdan

Mac in NC ,
Ding, ding, ding! There's another one for me. I always add new lump on top of my old everytime I do a new cook. Have never tried just lighting up the old stuff even if I'm going to grill a few minutes each side. I might be one of those "A-types" Elder Ward tried to warn us about.

The Naked Whiz

WDAN,
The reason why you should let Mr. Ford's pellets ash over is that they use borax as press release agent. The pellets are pressed into shape in a mold, and the release agent helps them pop out when they are done shaping the pellets. Therefore, the outside of the pellets are covered with borax. Letting the pellets ash over allows the borax to burn off before you start your cooking thus eliminating the possibility that burning borax will flavor the food. Mr. Ford's pellets using a starch binder. Every brand of briquette I've played around with, and admittedly it's only a few, use some sort of starch for binder. So, I don't think the fact the Mr. Ford's pellets have a "binder" is a concern, as they all have a binder.[p]Now extrusions are another story.....[p]TNW

Mac in NC

WDAN,[p]Just trial and error for me over the years. I'm glad I could help.