White smoke with airflow adjustments

Becma · June 2019

Hello eggheads. First post here. I have frequented this site for the past few years and learned much. So far I have had many amazing cooks with my large BGE. Many thanks!!

Question for you today has to do with the white smoke occurring at the end of my cook which unfortunately caused undesirable taste in final product.

I was smoking spare ribs. As usual, let my egg come to temp and waited for white smoke to clear before adding meat. Near end of cook when ribs were done I sauced them and then thought I would try opening vents up to increase temp to see how higher finishing temp would affect the sauce. Unfortunately, the increased airflow cause a lot of white smoke to develop during the last stage of the cook.

Is this typical? Lump charcoal is Royal Oak for Home Depot. I've used various brand of charcoal over the past few years and have not noticed much difference.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Legume · June 2019

did you have a drip pan of some kind or were the ribs cooking directly over the coals?

if you had a drip pan, was it air gapped, or directly on top of platesetter or something hot?

did you maybe have chunks of smoke wood that hadn’t ignited until you opened up the vents?

It sounds like something started burning that hadn’t been when you had a slower, cooler, smaller fire

Fred19Flintstone · June 2019

I agree with @Legume about the probable cause. I’m curious as to why you wanted to finish the sauced ribs with a higher temp. Most finishing sauces have a good amount of sugars in them that are prone to burn at higher temps.

bikesAndBBQ · June 2019

You opened the lid which adds a lot of oxygen. You then opened the vents a lot which kept the oxygen coming in fast. You had a stable fire that you introduced a lot of fuel to very quickly. You could have ignited chunks quickly that then smoldered. Maybe some lump caught that needed to burn off some bad stuff. I always think of the thick smoke as the sign of an unhealthy or unstable fire. Opening the lid could cause a few minutes of bad smoke but that is not a big deal. Mix that with then really changing the vents and you got an unhealthy fire.

jwc6160 · June 2019

This happens to me all the time and I’ve never been able to figure it out. Clear blue smoke at 350 and under but as soon as I hit about 400, I get the white smoke again. I have done clean burns and several other things and apparently “it just happens”. I have pretty much stopped doing pizzas because if it. The temp starts rising and the white smoke comes back and makes the crust taste terrible.

CornfedMA · June 2019

jwc6160 said:

This happens to me all the time and I’ve never been able to figure it out. Clear blue smoke at 350 and under but as soon as I hit about 400, I get the white smoke again. I have done clean burns and several other things and apparently “it just happens”. I have pretty much stopped doing pizzas because if it. The temp starts rising and the white smoke comes back and makes the crust taste terrible.

@bikesAndBBQ is right. You can’t give a good, clean fire a bunch of air or fuel and expect it not to smoke. Not to get off topic, but your truck does the same thing when you go from a steady throttle to a mashing the pedal. You just don’t see much smoke due to things like catalytic converters and emissions controls.

Now, if you really want to open the vents and crank the heat quickly, take the food off, let the temp climb and the smoke clear. A lot of times it’s not just the increased air/fuel mix making it smoke, you’re burning off fat and drippings that may have accumulated during the cook.

Try it, your reverse seared steaks and killer pizzas will thank you.

BGEChicago · June 2019

If your in the mood to blow $75 take the ribs off and hit it with this:
https://www.amazon.com/Searzall-Torch-Attachment-Small-Stainless/dp/B00L2P0KNO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=searzall&qid=1561421707&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Works well for me...

Becma · June 2019

Thanks for the input guys. I'm pretty sure lump was the source of the smoke. The fire was pretty intense with tendency to flash back if not careful about burping when I pulled the ribs. In the past I have finished ribs on grate over hot coals and liked the very subtle char effect, so that is what I tried to replicate by opening the vents. From now on, I think ill just be patient and let the sauce set at the same temp the ribs cooked at or just eat them dry and have option to sauce a the table.

bgebrent · June 2019

Lesson learned. Welcome.

lousubcap · June 2019

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.

Great inputs above.

jwc6160 · June 2019

CornfedMA said:

jwc6160 said:

This happens to me all the time and I’ve never been able to figure it out. Clear blue smoke at 350 and under but as soon as I hit about 400, I get the white smoke again. I have done clean burns and several other things and apparently “it just happens”. I have pretty much stopped doing pizzas because if it. The temp starts rising and the white smoke comes back and makes the crust taste terrible.

@bikesAndBBQ is right. You can’t give a good, clean fire a bunch of air or fuel and expect it not to smoke. Not to get off topic, but your truck does the same thing when you go from a steady throttle to a mashing the pedal. You just don’t see much smoke due to things like catalytic converters and emissions controls.

Now, if you really want to open the vents and crank the heat quickly, take the food off, let the temp climb and the smoke clear. A lot of times it’s not just the increased air/fuel mix making it smoke, you’re burning off fat and drippings that may have accumulated during the cook.

Try it, your reverse seared steaks and killer pizzas will thank you.

Yeah, I’ve done this and the smoke persists. It isn’t every time but it happens a lot. Honestly I don’t cook much above 350-400 so it isn’t that big a deal to me. My family doesn’t trust the pizzas anymore so I don’t make the effort.

KKoterski · June 2019

That's very odd... When I open up my egg and get the temp going, the smoke all but disappears... Only thing I can see are the heat waves shooting out the top, no smoke typically unless there's food on it. Even with the food, the smoke is from the food cooking, not the white smoke mentioned.

jwc6160 · June 2019

KKoterski said:

That's very odd... When I open up my egg and get the temp going, the smoke all but disappears... Only thing I can see are the heat waves shooting out the top, no smoke typically unless there's food on it. Even with the food, the smoke is from the food cooking, not the white smoke mentioned.

Yep, I have yet to find a solution or a cause for that matter. Everyone assumes a dirty grill which isn’t the case or it being steam which def isn’t the case as my pizza crust tastes like cigarettes. I use Royal Oak almost exclusively so I doubt that is it, but am considering a bag of better charcoal to test. In the end, I don’t cook at high temps that often so I haven’t worried about it too much.

White smoke with airflow adjustments

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