Clean Burn (Chicken S_it)

Sorry, forgot to add, that clean burn in my XL was at least 3 years ago.  

Just think of it this way.  When you egg needs to be cleaned, you should clean it.  Whether you use aluminum foil like @YEMTrey suggests, or fire, is your call. 

I often cook bacon on my egg on weekend mornings so I usually do a good burn of the bacon grease after I've pulled off the last slice.  That sure beats having a bunch of bacon grease that is sitting on my platesetter catch fire in the middle of my next indirect cook while I have the lid open. 

If I used a drip pan for the bacon cooks like I do for most indirect cooks (I have no good reason why I don't) I probably wouldn't ever need a clean burn.

Remember that the organics that you are burning off to clean the egg will burn off at temps of 500º+    There is no need to go to the super hot temps that some do for their clean burns.  It just takes longer at lower temps.  I aim for 650º and it works just fine.

I get mold in my Eggs, sometimes, and ONLY when that happens do I do a "clean burn," but that is only up to 650° or so.  It doesn't make it all white, again, but I figure the risk of cracking stuff is minimal, and by gosh, ain't nothing alive in there anymore after an hour or more at 600°-650°!

There's NO reason to do one just because it's got some black stuff, ashes, etc., in it.  That's normal.  The way it's suppose to be.  Clean the grid, obviously, but not the rest of it.

If there's crud in the dome that might flake off and fall in the food, OK, like others have said, scour it with some aluminum foil or something.  NO need to waste the lump or take any other risks with a super hot fire.

Pizza cooks keep you good. No clean burn here. 3+ years in. 

I accidently did one about 3 months ago.  Cooked up some ribs low and slow for a family get to gether.  I thought most of the lump had been burned, so I opened it up and told the wife to remind me to check it  .  In any case when I looked out the glass doors it was screaming.  I mean like the the temp was maxed out.  It did do some damage to my gasket and the inside of the egg was not new white like others I've seen.  I WILL NOT do it again.  

I cook pizza often enough that I get the temps high.....close as I get.

I'm on the same page as most here.  5-600 degrees for a pizza cook, followed by AF when it's really bad.

Maybe we should lose the term "clean burn" in favor of "pizza clean".  

@jbstack   Welcome to the forum

The dome of my wood oven turns from black to white at about 650 degrees. You can cook at that temp or hold the egg at that temp for a while and it will be purty agin' for you. I'd say cook some pizzas. 

GATraveller said:

I've gone five years with no clean burn. I do occasionally pull the guts and shop vac out the inside quite well. That's it. 

Same here. 

jtcBoynton said:

Botch said:

...
One point: someone here posted a nighttime shot of a clean burn, and the flames shot straight up in a column for at least several feet.  If you have your Egg in a roofed structure, even a pergola, I'd recommend wheeling it to the end of the driveway.  

That was not a clean burn. It was a really cool video, but turning your egg into a jet furnace is not how to do a clean burn.  We really should start to distinguish between a clean burn and going nuclear.

^^ this.

I do a controlled clean burn at 700F in our MM about twice a year. After a cook I open the vents and let it burn down, making sure the temp stays at 700F or below.

I do this though because of the very specific way in which I cook with the MM ... raised into the dome, which means the chicken/pork/whatever is close to the dome so causes it to become more than mildly coated with deposits, which then go down onto the ceramics to the point where they are glistening with fat. That combined with never cooking close to that temp in the MM (pizzas are done in the LBGE), and over time it gets gunked up.

By contrast, the LBGE never needs a clean because I cook pizza in it at high (but still controlled) temp about once a month.

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