BGE too smokey??

daddyg

Personally, I am really happy with the large BGE I bought a year ago. However I am finding that 2 out of 3 people that eat food I have prepared on it say it tastes "too smokey". I have been using the genuine BGE charcoal. I have had this complaint for ribs, whole chicken and even a pork butt roast i did.[p]Any tips? Am I doing something wrong? I was actually starting to think about it selling it

WessB

daddy g,
If you are not adding any smoking wood, I would suggest you let the egg and the lump stabilize longer before adding your meat, you should easily be able to maintain temps with little to no smoke coming out of the top....if you cook something that will drop a lot of drippings on the coals, burn it off before shutting down the egg and this will limit the amount of burning grease/smoke on the next cook....HTH[p]
Wess

tmEGGer

daddy g,[p]I agree with WessB. I occasionally have had a similar complaint, and it tended to be with fatty foods that I cooked direct. Could be fat that dripped into the coals and "flavored" the meat with burning fat. I have only had my BGE a few months, but I also noticed that it smokes like heck when you first light her up. I now stabilize the egg before adding food. My test is if I see a massive cloud of smoke when I open the egg (really thick smoke) then it is too early to add the food.[p]NutmEGGer

yaB

daddy g,
I addition to what WessB said, I'll add that you don't want to put really cold foods on the grill, whether for direct or indirect cooking, at any temp. Give whatever it is you're cooking a chance to warm up, at least a bit, toward room temperature. [p]Really cold stuff, right out of the refrigerator, be it meat, vegetables or whatever, will tend to condense smokey vapors on their surfaces, more so if you've added wood chunks or chips to the lump. Although some folks will consider this "smoke heaven", others will be turned off by the strong flavor.[p]Bob

tach18k

daddy g, One big dripper is doing ribs direct while saucing. This can get real gui (pun) on the next cook. I was doing some steaks last Sat. and had major smoke before the food was ready for the grill. I let it burn off since I was going to do the sear first. Took quite a while before it was a non smoker. I did the steaks, rested them and then the dwell. I then but in my plate setter and decided to do a burn off to clean off any more residue. A half hour later at 700 degree's the top was glued to the bottom and still raging at 700. I was able to get the lid up and put in a spatula to keep it from gluing again. So today I order another roll of gasket, 3rd one in 14 months, and a cast iron coooking grate.

AZ Geoff

daddy g,
Try using some "Cowboy" brand lump - it's not rated very high, but we find that it does not give much smoke flavor at all.[p]AZ Geoff

usa doug

daddy g,
Do like the others recomend. Use a drip pan under your meat to catch the drpings. This will cut down on excessive smoke.

Nature Boy

daddy g,
I agree with those below, but wanted to add what I have found to be the most important factor:[p]A well established fire.[p]If the smoke is pouring out heavy, wait. When it thins to a faint blue stream, the food goes on. This goes for straight charcoal, but is specially important after adding any wood.[p]What I've found anyways. Good luck!
Chris

Unknown

daddy g,[p]My wife complains about the same thing. I always give myself an hour to start and stabilize before cooking. MKy rule of thumb is that I don't cook until there is no smoke coming out of the dome. The couple of time I tried to cheat, I got caught!

Unknown

AZ Geoff,[p]If you can find it, try Picnic as well. Very little smoke (a common complaint of my wife's when the egg was new) but it burns great.