cullenbranson
Full Fledged Farker
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.
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.