grey smoke early in fire

captbunch18 · February 2012

When doing a low and slow...it seems forever before the grey smoke goes away from and turns clear. I think you are not supposed to cook when the lump is producing grey smoke. Is there any way to speed it up. It seems to take more than an hour once the temp reaches 225. Is that normal?

Flamethrower · February 2012

Leave every thing open-The lid and bottom damper open for about 15 min. after getting the lump started. On my XL the smoke starts turning to clear at about 250-300. I did a Spatchcock chicken the other day and today was sausages. It took a little while longer to burn off the chicken fat. Smell the smoke as you go

captbunch18 · February 2012

ok....but if i dont want to get above 235.....how do i get the smoke clear?

Mickey · February 2012

You might switch lump. Are you doing wood?

captbunch18 · February 2012

i am using big green egg lump and lighting it with one square of the big green egg fire starter. I put the bigger pieces of lump around the fire starter, light it. leaving everything open. after 10 minutes or so, the fire starter is gone and i have 5 or 6 pieces of glowing red lump. I shut the dome, turn on my bbg guru digi q and close the top. i hit my target temp (235) fairly quickly, but it take forever for the grey smoke to go away.

Flamethrower · February 2012

Go to 250-300 get clear and then rmp down the heat,Might take awhil,But not to long

captbunch18 · February 2012

Go to 250-300 get clear and then rmp down the heat,Might take awhil,But not to long

ok....so, would it be wise to set the digi q on 275....waiting for clear smoke, then turning it down? any advice to cool it off. i have always heard it is easier to ramp up your temp, and hard to cool it off. tips for cooling it off?

Mickey · February 2012

I use BGE lump and the only dif in us is I use a torch to light (mapp on mini) and I close the lid ASAP opon lighting. Oh, and I just dump the lump in. Are you sure you don't have left over wood in your egg? An hour is a long time.

tjp1060 · February 2012

I agree that it takes a while to cool down a hot egg, but that is usually when the egg has had time to "soak" at that high temp. I believe that if you run the temp up to 300 or 350 for 10 minutes or so, it will cool-off relatively quickly since the structure of the egg hasn't had a chance to come to that higher temp.

captbunch18 · February 2012

I agree that it takes a while to cool down a hot egg, but that is usually when the egg has had time to "soak" at that high temp. I believe that if you run the temp up to 300 or 350 for 10 minutes or so, it will cool-off relatively quickly since the structure of the egg hasn't had a chance to come to that higher temp.

thanks. will try that. between the grey smoke and all of my liquid in my drip pan evaporating after 8 hours, i am very frustrated.

Mickey · February 2012

Why do you have liquid in a drip pan?

captbunch18 · February 2012

the guy where i got it told me to....seems about 50/50 split.

gerhardk · February 2012

I think you should smell the smoke and not worry so much about the colour, it may well be just steam as the moisture accumulated between cooks evaporates. In my experience the off smells are gone once your fire is burning nicely, usually only takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Gerhard

captbunch18 · February 2012

thanks

stike · February 2012

smoke: if it smells good, it'll taste good

grey smoke early in fire

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