New User Experiencing smoky aroma and taste

You really have to wait as long as the smoke smells bad or is thick and white. Once it smells good which typically means the smoke is blue or barely visible you are good to go. I use royal oak for the majority of my cooks. Sometimes it takes longer to get the good smoke. I’ve used other “higher end” lump and it usually doesn’t take as long to get to the good smoke.  I am not a lump snob though.  

bikesAndBBQ said:

You really have to wait as long as the smoke smells bad or is thick and white. Once it smells good which typically means the smoke is blue or barely visible you are good to go. I use royal oak for the majority of my cooks. Sometimes it takes longer to get the good smoke. I’ve used other “higher end” lump and it usually doesn’t take as long to get to the good smoke.  I am not a lump snob though.  

This.  Plan to let it burn a little while before you put anything on it, that’s what I do anyway

The other thing you mention is the "lighter chip". If that is one of those pressed wood shavings/cardboard like material you really need to wait until it is completely burned out. They really put out an acrid smoke and one can smolder for a long time. 

Totally understand your situation. When I started Egging in 1998, I was putting too much smoke on everything. The time it takes to get clean smoke depends on a lot of factors. Moisture in lump. Amount of lump. Amount of air flow. Method of lighting.  But the bottom line is trust your nose. If the smoke smells strong and makes your eyes burn....and you walk away and can still smell it on your upper lip...it is probably still not ready for food. It doesn't take long for the strong smoke to get on your food, and it won't go away. So trust your nose, and wait until your nose says go

Clean smoke to ya!
Chris

Welcome to wallet genocide. The least expensive aspect of owning an egg is your initial purchase. Trust me. You will see.

The smokey rancid flavor can be mitigated by allowing your fire to burn until you see no heavy white smoke escaping from your top vent. Once that morphs over to clear or slightly bluish, you should be about where you want to be. It takes about 30 minutes.

You may also wish to try something else besides BGE Lump. I tried Rockwood, at the kind suggestions from the forum lead me to, and have not looked back. Huge difference, in my perception of flavor. Another I like, but hard to find, is Carbon del Sur. Very nice product, no acrid taste, burns very clean.

Great advice on here from several of the chefs. This is a great forum, have fun and hope this helps.

I used 100% RO when I started about 5 months ago. Slower cooks had a lot of smoke flavor. Not bad but more smoke than I like. When Ace ran their sale,  I bought 8 bags of Rockwood. Used it for the first time this weekend to cook a beef tenderloin. Big difference. Hardly any smoke flavor (or maybe I am just getting used to it :-) 

Anyways, I will save the Rockwood for slow cooks or expensive cuts of meat like Prime Rib, Beef Tenderloin etc. For pizzas and searing/grilling, I will continue to use the RO. At high temps I can't really detect the smoke that much. 

Well, this is my plan anyways. Good luck

Welcome.

I used nothing but BGE charcoal (as someone else said, same as Royal Oak) for YEARS and loved it!  But I loved the mild smokiness that it gave everything, wood added or no wood added.  But after years of seeing people rave about Rockwood, I finally broke down and tried it, and I like it better, and that's what I use, now.  Rockwood has much less "bad" white smoke, often none at all, whereas with BGE charcoal I always had to wait a while for the white smoke to go away.

SSQUAL612 said:

I converted to Rockwood recently after trying a few brands...BGE, Louisiana Grills, Pit Boss, Royal Smoke & I’m sold.  I’ll be using Rockwood exclusively.   Was thinking I’d use Royal Oak for clean burns but don’t know if that’s possible. 

Absolutely possible.  I’ve used primarily Rockwood for a few years, I always keep some RO (or Wegmans brand lump, which is made by RO) on hand.  

I start the egg by putting a chimney starter on the gasser side burner, always use off brand for that.

Also use RO for clean burns, lighting the fire pit, taking camping, among others.