Ash on food in a kettle

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cullenbranson

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Any thoughts on probable causes for ash on my brats? Cooking on a OTS, 2/3 chimney of stubbs briqs, 1/3 lump, lit with a parafin starter in the cooker. Dumped the chimney and let the kettle heat for about 30 minutes. Seemingly a good clean burn. Bottom vents open about halfway, top open about the same. Put the brats on about a 4-mississippi fire. Also put some leftovers in with the brats on the cool side of the grill, which were wrapped in foil. Not a breezy night. I'm always very mindful to burp the grill when lifting the lid so as to not create an updraft (probably to an obsessive level). About my third turn of the brats/opening of the grill I notice a thin layer of what has to be ash all over the foiled food. Then a finger-swipe of a couple of the brats leaves me with a black finger. Closer inspection of brats says there is (what looks like) thin gray ash all over. A bunch of it. This has happened before, and I believe it was a big brat cook the previous time as well. Thinking I usually have a lot more dripping fat on hot coals when cooking brats, compared to other foods.

I am assuming it's a result of the fat dripping on the coals and ash just kicking up. The stubbs briqs seem to be extra ashy, but the brats themselves weren't going crazy with fat flying. Didn't think enough to produce the kind of layer of blackness experienced on the food. Does anyone else have this issue? Is something else causing this? I don't think I'm choking the fire down when putting the lid back on.
 
Sounds like it tastes like grilled brats - awesome!
Ever go to a house that caught fire?
Afterward, go in and rub your finger on some moulding, or the walls.
Betcha it's kinda black, but not near as tasty as your brats.
PICS?
 
mchar69 said:
Sounds like it tastes like grilled brats - awesome!
Ever go to a house that caught fire?
Afterward, go in and rub your finger on some moulding, or the walls.
Betcha it's kinda black, but not near as tasty as your brats.
PICS?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no pics. Brats were covered with what had to be ash, as was the foiled food. It was bad black, not the good grilled-food black.
 
Could be dripping, but it's more likely just a little bit of stall in the airflow going thru.......cook just a bit hotter, TOP vent all open & see if it doesn't do better.....

Things like sausage have that thin sticky layer near the start of the cook (like 1st half) & any creosote that's floating will stick more than other things....happens with chicken sometimes too & I think it's me not moving the fire hard & fast enough.....but allowing the fire & smoke to vent freely really helps with things like this....

It's the way they were designed.....1958 brochure:

SCN_0007%201.jpg


Bottom of the left page.....lid vent open.....the physics is still the same & at least somewhat like an offset or any other cooker as far as air throughput.....free flowing exhaust is a good thing.....
 
Is it possible that maybe your charcoal was damp?

When my use the kettle I dont have the round vent with 3 holes, just the one touch cleaner. I keep these fully open.
 
Thanks, I haven't had any problems, but I guess I was doing it wrong.

1buckie said:
Could be dripping, but it's more likely just a little bit of stall in the airflow going thru.......cook just a bit hotter, TOP vent all open & see if it doesn't do better.....

Things like sausage have that thin sticky layer near the start of the cook (like 1st half) & any creosote that's floating will stick more than other things....happens with chicken sometimes too & I think it's me not moving the fire hard & fast enough.....but allowing the fire & smoke to vent freely really helps with things like this....

It's the way they were designed.....1958 brochure:


Bottom of the left page.....lid vent open.....the physics is still the same & at least somewhat like an offset or any other cooker as far as air throughput.....free flowing exhaust is a good thing.....
Click to expand...
 
there is always ash on my food on the wsm. i tought it was just normal. cant fix it
 
IamMadMan said:
Thanks, I haven't had any problems, but I guess I was doing it wrong.
Click to expand...

If you don't get bulidup on the food, it's Alfred E. Neuman time...."What , Me Worry?"

Times I might pinch the upper vent would be to go from say, 425 down to 350......there it makes sense....restrict the flow for a time, level the lower vents to where it's going to be (see the future, in other words) & open the top back up when it gets close to right......

Brady, it may help some to test out using the top vent open.....WSM heads will have to answer that, I don't have one....
 
I always leave the top vent open, never had a problem unless I stir things up or add some cold fuel trying to extend the cook.
Agree that drips would do it, but you'd see round balls of stuff in the ashes.
 
Suggest trying some other brand of charcoal and see what happens. The so called natural stuff tends to do that. Ash is just to powdery.
 
bradymartin said:
there is always ash on my food on the wsm. i tought it was just normal. cant fix it
Click to expand...

The guy who sold me my 18 said that's why he was getting rid of it. all cookers work on draft if functioning well. Some ash is gonna get kicked up with the moving air. Cost of doing business
 
Maybe worth mentioning that the layer of ash, or stuff, all over the foiled food and brats was so uniform, that maybe it's unlikely that is was caused by flying ash from dripping fat. Also might have lied about having a good clean fire. I recall thinking the fire was a bit hot for brats, closer to a 2-mississippi fire, so I closed the bottom and top vents just a bit. Could I have choked it? And if so, could that produce the black all over everything?

Regarding fuel - I assume as MBSHOP notes then, that all natural briquettes produce a ton of ash? I would go all lump, but I seem to have a problem finding bags that I like to put in my kettle. Most of the lump goes straight through the charcoal grate. I've tried the second grate at 90 degrees method. Didn't find it too life-changing. Felt a little foolish continuing to burn that money up . . . without letting it heat my food.

Thanks to all for the input.
 
smoke ninja said:
The guy who sold me my 18 said that's why he was getting rid of it. all cookers work on draft if functioning well. Some ash is gonna get kicked up with the moving air. Cost of doing business
Click to expand...

I agree, and I don't mind a bit of ash. A bit is almost less a cost than it is a feature!
 
IamMadMan said:
Is it possible that maybe your charcoal was damp?.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. Opened a new bag Sunday. My bag of lump has been sitting around a while though.

How do you determine if you have damp fuel? What exactly will using damp fuel do to a fire?
 
cullenbranson said:
Maybe worth mentioning that the layer of ash, or stuff, all over the foiled food and brats was so uniform, that maybe it's unlikely that is was caused by flying ash from dripping fat. Also might have lied about having a good clean fire. I recall thinking the fire was a bit hot for brats, closer to a 2-mississippi fire, so I closed the bottom and top vents just a bit. Could I have choked it? And if so, could that produce the black all over everything?

Regarding fuel - I assume as MBSHOP notes then, that all natural briquettes produce a ton of ash? I would go all lump, but I seem to have a problem finding bags that I like to put in my kettle. Most of the lump goes straight through the charcoal grate. I've tried the second grate at 90 degrees method. Didn't find it too life-changing. Felt a little foolish continuing to burn that money up . . . without letting it heat my food.

Thanks to all for the input.
Click to expand...

are you sure its ash? Sounds like soot from a dirty fire to me
 
ButtBurner said:
are you sure its ash? Sounds like soot from a dirty fire to me
Click to expand...

I'm not sure it's ash. Looked like ash on the foil and food . . . tiny gray flecks. But cleaning it off the brats and food with a finger or paper towel, I just wasn't sure. That's the crux of this, am I just making dirty fires and don't know it? I don't know how I could be. Only thing I can think is that closing the vents a bit to drop heat, caused a stall or something. If that is feasible, I suppose it was quite possibly a dirty fire. I needed pics.

Need to do some follow up with same fuel and take some suggestions here, and record the whole fiasco if something comes up again.
 
Is there any chance someone bumped the grill. The only times I get ash on the food is when the grill has been moved or bumped.
 
cullenbranson said:
I'm not sure it's ash. Looked like ash on the foil and food . . . tiny gray flecks. But cleaning it off the brats and food with a finger or paper towel, I just wasn't sure. That's the crux of this, am I just making dirty fires and don't know it? I don't know how I could be. Only thing I can think is that closing the vents a bit to drop heat, caused a stall or something. If that is feasible, I suppose it was quite possibly a dirty fire. I needed pics.

Need to do some follow up with same fuel and take some suggestions here, and record the whole fiasco if something comes up again.
Click to expand...

one reason it seems to me that it is soot or something like that is from what I am reading it is evenly distributed on the meat which would seem like its soot. I don't think ash would evenly coat all the meat, you would have it in some places not others, depending on where it falls
 
cullenbranson said:
Maybe worth mentioning that the layer of ash, or stuff, all over the foiled food and brats was so uniform, that maybe it's unlikely that is was caused by flying ash from dripping fat. Also might have lied about having a good clean fire. I recall thinking the fire was a bit hot for brats, closer to a 2-mississippi fire, so I closed the bottom and top vents just a bit. Could I have choked it? And if so, could that produce the black all over everything?

Regarding fuel - I assume as MBSHOP notes then, that all natural briquettes produce a ton of ash? I would go all lump, but I seem to have a problem finding bags that I like to put in my kettle. Most of the lump goes straight through the charcoal grate. I've tried the second grate at 90 degrees method. Didn't find it too life-changing. Felt a little foolish continuing to burn that money up . . . without letting it heat my food.

Thanks to all for the input.
Click to expand...

^^^^ This......is sort of at odds with this vvvvvv

"but the brats themselves weren't going crazy with fat flying."

they'll let you know if it's way too hot from that 'fat frying noise' they make......
Really likely it was just a bit of (or just enough of) a stall out in the movement.......just enough to cause a welling up of creosote.....

I get it sometimes when starting off too fast on one kettle while I'm paying attention to four others.....it happens......

Small, clean fire (the smallest needed for whatever you're doing) is still the optimum on this machine......
 
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