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Triple play, flashback and smelly burgers...

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gannoncp
gannoncp Posts: 7
edited January 2012 in EggHead Forum

Hi All,

So I fired up the BGE last night after the AFC championship game and first I threw on some 'use it or lose it' salmon that I had in the fridge (planked it - yep, cedar) at ~350 for twenty minutes or so and it was pretty damn good if I do say so myself.  Then I raised the temp to about 650 and did some burgers - a 2 minute sear on each side, flipped one more time then closed up the grill and let them cook for about another 3 minutes, threw on some american cheese and one minute more with a closed grill.  Finally I unloaded the burgers and used the residual heat in the grill to make some potato chips while the egg cooled.  These also came out pretty good.

The burgers on the other hand were another story.  First, I had a momentary lapse of common sense and found out what flashback is like first hand. My eyebrows are still intact so it could have been worse I suppose.  Then there were the burgers.  I used some 80/20 with a little canadian steak rub and a dash of worcestershire mixed in (same thing I used to do on the Weber) and when they came off the grill they were nice and moist and cooked perfectly to my liking, but they SMELLED!  Like 'check the bottom of your shoe' smell.  I braved it and they tasted fine. So, do any of the gods of grilling have any suggestions as to where the smell may have come from?

Thanks,

Chris

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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited January 2012
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    meat inside smelled, or the burgers smelled from burnt fat?

    FWIW, closing the vents fully with food inside is always a bad idea.  the BGE folks, god love them, have been pushing that steak-cooking method forever, but i don't think they actually use their eggs, or they'd learn real quick it is a bad thing....
    :))

    when you shut the vents entirely, you have a dying fire.  blow out a candle and tell me what the wisps of smoke smell like as the fire dies.  that's incomplte combustion.  bad smoke, bad flavor.  and since it has no place to go, it lands on your food.  couple that with dripping fat from burgers or steaks, and that fat too burns poorly, making for sooty crappy smoke.

    maybe the head chefs at BGE can't taste it, but it is about the worst way to tell someone how to cook a steak (or burger).

    after having shot myself in the foot... maybe it was the meat.  if the meat smelled funky, it may have been older. older=aged in a sense.  aged beef does have an 'earthier' smell, for lack of a better word
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • OLD NORTH STATE BBQ CO.
    OLD NORTH STATE BBQ CO. Posts: 412
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    Amen Strike.  What do you think of the Naked Whiz's open dome steak method?

     "Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great, Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!"

    Med & XL

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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    open dome will restrict cooking to the underside by searing, rather than simultaneously roasting it from above (from the air/ and radiated heat off the dome). 

    it's a good way to restrict cooking to just the sear (as much as possible).

    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • gannoncp
    gannoncp Posts: 7
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    DOH!  It seems pretty obvious now that you mention it. I guess I'll be forced to fire it up and try again. Thanks for the input!

    Chris

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  • khristyjeff
    khristyjeff Posts: 163
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    Does salmon/fish in general leave any residual smell that can attach to the next cook?  We're trying salmon for the first time tonight and the thought did cross my (wife's) mind.

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  • khristyjeff
    khristyjeff Posts: 163
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    Thanks, Tweev.  Will cook salmon without fear.
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  • canoeandcue
    canoeandcue Posts: 41
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    It could be a ll that hair you burnt on your arms from the flashback. I did that once......once, it left a bad impression on my olfactory gland.
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