briantompo
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2012
- Location
- New...
Hi Folks,
Is it my technique on an unfamiliar grill or just stinky lump?
I ran out of Royal Oak lump when I picked up my Char-Griller kamado so I switched to Publix Greenwise lump. I was impressed by the consistent size of the chunks but this stuff smells nasty for the first 90 minutes. I mean nasty like there's some asphalt paving going on inside my cooker. I never noticed this odor in dozens of smokes on my old ECB, even when adding lump mid-cook but I was using RO then.
I ruined some veggies on the Akorn last night (tasted like railroad ties smell) so I did a test burn today without food. I lit 8-10 pcs of lump in the chimney using 2 pcs of newspaper. It stunk for 15 minutes until it got good and hot. I dumped it on top of some leftover lump in the Akorn, closed the lid and opened both vents. After 5 mins I started closing the vents down and by 15 mins I'd closed the vents to my normal 245F position. The grill maintained 250F but exhaust stunk like tar the whole time. Bottom vent was open 1/8" and top damper halfway to "position 1".
I left the bottom at 1/8" open and using only the top vent ran the temp up to 415F then back down to 250F over the course of 5 hours. Burned nice and clean. After an hour at 250 I added two pcs of fresh lump to the fire and within 60 seconds it stunk again and lasted for an hour.
It burns cleanly once it's going but stinks when it's first lit. Some pieces of lump are noticeably heavier than the same size pcs of RO that I'm used to and I've wondered if maybe the lump wasn't cooked all the way before it was bagged. My experience with lump was limited to one brand on one smoker so I'm not sure what's going on here. Should I chalk this up to the charcoal itself or change my technique? As soon as it's in stock again, I'll go back to RO lump to eliminate that variable on this new cooker.
For the record, I was going to give up on RO lump because the last several bags had so many small pcs, rocks and most recently, two handfuls of fiberglas insulation in it.
Advice from the Brethren? I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Brian
Is it my technique on an unfamiliar grill or just stinky lump?
I ran out of Royal Oak lump when I picked up my Char-Griller kamado so I switched to Publix Greenwise lump. I was impressed by the consistent size of the chunks but this stuff smells nasty for the first 90 minutes. I mean nasty like there's some asphalt paving going on inside my cooker. I never noticed this odor in dozens of smokes on my old ECB, even when adding lump mid-cook but I was using RO then.
I ruined some veggies on the Akorn last night (tasted like railroad ties smell) so I did a test burn today without food. I lit 8-10 pcs of lump in the chimney using 2 pcs of newspaper. It stunk for 15 minutes until it got good and hot. I dumped it on top of some leftover lump in the Akorn, closed the lid and opened both vents. After 5 mins I started closing the vents down and by 15 mins I'd closed the vents to my normal 245F position. The grill maintained 250F but exhaust stunk like tar the whole time. Bottom vent was open 1/8" and top damper halfway to "position 1".
I left the bottom at 1/8" open and using only the top vent ran the temp up to 415F then back down to 250F over the course of 5 hours. Burned nice and clean. After an hour at 250 I added two pcs of fresh lump to the fire and within 60 seconds it stunk again and lasted for an hour.
It burns cleanly once it's going but stinks when it's first lit. Some pieces of lump are noticeably heavier than the same size pcs of RO that I'm used to and I've wondered if maybe the lump wasn't cooked all the way before it was bagged. My experience with lump was limited to one brand on one smoker so I'm not sure what's going on here. Should I chalk this up to the charcoal itself or change my technique? As soon as it's in stock again, I'll go back to RO lump to eliminate that variable on this new cooker.
For the record, I was going to give up on RO lump because the last several bags had so many small pcs, rocks and most recently, two handfuls of fiberglas insulation in it.
Advice from the Brethren? I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Brian