Great balls of fire

mikeb9550 · August 2012

Well I don't have my outdoor kitchen done yet but did a trial fit of the egg and figured I would fire it up why I was at it. First cook was burgers. Used RO lump and the burgers had a funny taste from the charcoal. So today I decide to cook a couple steaks but this time the plan was to get it real hot to burn that crappy smell / taste out. It was like someone put out a camp fire taste/smell. Same smell u get by sniffing the bad. I am new to lump and like wicked a lot better for this reason. Anyhow, I get the BGE really hot (off the scale) - didn't take long. I opened the lid to clean the grate and whooosh. A huge fireball came out and scared the crap out of me. Burned my hair on my arm. Eye brows , eye lashes and hair on one side. It was right out of the movie backdraft. Now I read about. Burping the grill. So at what temp do u have to burp it?? I had no idea. Good thing I didn't get burned. Now I look for a fireball everytime I open the lid.

Skiddymarker · August 2012

Read your last sentence again. Read your last sentence again. Read your last sentence again.

Look for it everytime. Burp every time, all the time, anytime you open it.

creating fireballs is usually the result of closing the vents, starving the fire, then opening the dome, allowing an inrush of oxygen. Best way to avoid a pyrotechnical-facial is to burp it everytime!

RO - does a great job on burgers, but you have to let your egg stabilize....

Hillbilly-Hightech · August 2012

Are you shutting the vents when you cook your burgers? If so, don't do that. That's why it smells like you are putting out a campfire, because, well, that's basically what you're doing when you close the vents & let the meat sit in there while you're snuffing out the fire.

HTH,

HH

mikeb9550 · August 2012

Thanks, Didnt realize you had to burp it and yes, I did close the vents (not all the way) to bring the temp down.

When I did the burgers, I let it heat up and stabilize for a while. The Smell/Taste of the RO is apparent just smelling the bag. When I got it really hot and brought it down for the steaks, not taste or smell. If you smell Wicked, its very neutral.

I would notice a taste (not same flavor) when using Kingsford in my weber if it didnt have a good burn. Maybe its the hydrocarbons that need to burn off. Not sure. I know when I got it good and hot, it would go away.

On the burgers, I googled how folks light their egg and tried to replicate. I lit it 3 or 4 spots. and brought it up to around 400 and played with the vents to stabilize and left if for a while for the smoke to clear. Noticed I had some hot and gold spots. I missed not being able to move my coals to one side. I was going to keep my WSM but now I think I am going to keep my kettle (only have one ). Will do some more quick food (burners and hot dogs) on the BGE again but so far the weber kettle has it beat. I really liked how the Steaks came out on the BGE. Main reason for wanting a BGE was to be able to cook Pizzas and other baked goods. Going to give that a try this week. I dont have a plate setter (place was out of stock) so will have to rig something up.

Thanks again for everyone's feedback. Figuring out a new cooking is both trying and fun..

Mickey · August 2012

Hint: get temp on the way up and hold it there (no need to bring it down). Let it clear at temp (smell good) and cook away.

MrCookingNurse · August 2012

Anything over 500 start burping is kinda my thing. But if your changing cents do it all the time. Fire is looking for oxygen.

Best practice: just do it every time.

Buckdodger · August 2012

MrCookingNurse said:

Anything over 500 start burping is kinda my thing. But if your changing cents do it all the time. Fire is looking for oxygen. Best practice: just do it every time.

Ditto !!!

Ragtop99 · August 2012

mikeb9550 said:

When I did the burgers, I let it heat up and stabilize for a while. The Smell/Taste of the RO is apparent just smelling the bag. When I got it really hot and brought it down for the steaks, not taste or smell. If you smell Wicked, its very neutral.

On the burgers, I googled how folks light their egg and tried to replicate. I lit it 3 or 4 spots. and brought it up to around 400 and played with the vents to stabilize and left if for a while for the smoke to clear. Noticed I had some hot and gold spots. I missed not being able to move my coals to one side. I was going to keep my WSM but now I think I am going to keep my kettle (only have one ).

Two separate points to respond to.

Regarding Royal Oak, I've used a fair amount of it and I recently threw out half of an 18 lb bag. It smelled like some chemically treated wood had made it into the bag. I actually partially sorted the bag after the first cook was nearly ruined. The next cook was fine, but the third cook the odor came back. After the third time of completely cleaning the egg, I pitched the rest. The next bag was fine. I also agree that Wicked Good has a more neutral smell. I don't notice any difference on high temp cooks, but for low and slow, it is detectable. Maybe the smaller volume of lower temp air makes it easier to smell. I trying to use the RO for high heat fast cooks and WG for lower heat, longer cooks.

Regarding burgers, I stir my coals on high heat cooks and frequent move my coals to one side of the egg, normally the front half. I have an XL and if I'm doing 6 burgers it is much easier to cook if I pile up the hot coals in a smaller area. I use the ash tool to do that. I'll also light two full chimneys to ensure I have a big pile of glowing coals to start cooking over if I'm going to need a lot of surface area.

Duganboy · August 2012

Use Royal Oak almost every night and have never had a problem of any kind, like you guys are mentioning.

Skiddymarker · August 2012

mikeb9550 - you said "On the burgers, I googled how folks light their egg and tried to replicate. I lit it 3 or 4 spots. and brought it up to around 400 and played with the vents to stabilize and left if for a while for the smoke to clear."

One of the best things I've learned on this forum is for 400F+ cooks, leave the bottom vent open and control your temp with the daisy wheel. After the egg is running for an hour or so, the bottom vent can be closed a bit, but generally I never close it more than 1/2 way. Never had that tell-tale campfire smell/taste since I stated this.

(Thanks Stike)

Great balls of fire

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