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is Blowin Smoke!
I have seen ash on my food in the kettle but its minute. What you describe seems different. Also I have seen kettle and WSM lids hold a thin layer of soot and drop it during the cook.
You mention being careful not to create an updraft and pull the ash up. What you also need to be careful of, and why they say to open the top vent all the way, is placing the lid back down. Even with the vent fully open you could cause ash to stir and since hot ash if friable it floats upward to your food. I have this issue when cooking burgers and only using the lid to stifle my fire as I run it at the limit of control.
Another issue is starting the fuel in the kettle. Most times this isn't an issue but you mentioned excess black ash from your fuel. I will take a guess that you poured the unlit coals into the cooker not into a chimney outside the cooker. You deposited the black ash on the bottom of the kettle. This both produces excess friable ash and also offers the possibility of being far enough from the heat to burn off quickly. So it smolders like briquettes do in the beginning before they get hot. Since the ash may not get hot enough your whole cook has that white smoke.
Try to make sure you don't have black ends on your coals or half lit coals. The meat will cool the fire and those portions won't burn out as cleanly as they would without food on there.
You mention being careful not to create an updraft and pull the ash up. What you also need to be careful of, and why they say to open the top vent all the way, is placing the lid back down. Even with the vent fully open you could cause ash to stir and since hot ash if friable it floats upward to your food. I have this issue when cooking burgers and only using the lid to stifle my fire as I run it at the limit of control.
Another issue is starting the fuel in the kettle. Most times this isn't an issue but you mentioned excess black ash from your fuel. I will take a guess that you poured the unlit coals into the cooker not into a chimney outside the cooker. You deposited the black ash on the bottom of the kettle. This both produces excess friable ash and also offers the possibility of being far enough from the heat to burn off quickly. So it smolders like briquettes do in the beginning before they get hot. Since the ash may not get hot enough your whole cook has that white smoke.
Try to make sure you don't have black ends on your coals or half lit coals. The meat will cool the fire and those portions won't burn out as cleanly as they would without food on there.
