patwill66
Knows what a fatty is.
So tonight was the first time I have done a long smoke in my new Bubba Keg and I am hoping someone knows how to deal with it next time it happens to me (if it does).
I was smoking the spares at about 225 over lump and 3 hours into it I put on some MOINK balls. I was going to take them out before the ribs as an appetizer. At the 5th hour of the cook, I opened the lid and started basting the MOINKs.
After two minutes of having the lid open and basting them, I noticed the charcoal actually lit on fire. I am assuming grease drippings or something ignited because it was a pretty big flame. This is where I froze up. I have have smoked a ton of stuff in the past but I am new to charcoal so I didnt know how to handle it.
I figured if I let it keep flaming, the until lump will catch, spiking the temps making it impossible to keep the temps low. So I tried shutting the air dampers to suffocate the flames, which worked and I was able to get the temp back to the 250 range. But now the lump was smoldering. It wasnt smoking, but it was a thick blue smoke that smelled fowl compared to the sweet smell of hickory. So the ribs ended up taking a little bit of this flavor on, but not noticeable to my guests, just to me. Also, due to the flame up, I lost a few bones on the small end of the rack.
But does my theory sound right about possibly grease catching fire? What does a person do in this situation? I didnt have any more hickory left, that had all burned down since it was the 5th hour of the cook. I was planning to grill a salmon fillet after taking the ribs off but the smoke was so foul I didnt want to ruin the fish, so I had to "smoke" it on the gas grill.
Thanks for any ideas you may have.
I was smoking the spares at about 225 over lump and 3 hours into it I put on some MOINK balls. I was going to take them out before the ribs as an appetizer. At the 5th hour of the cook, I opened the lid and started basting the MOINKs.
After two minutes of having the lid open and basting them, I noticed the charcoal actually lit on fire. I am assuming grease drippings or something ignited because it was a pretty big flame. This is where I froze up. I have have smoked a ton of stuff in the past but I am new to charcoal so I didnt know how to handle it.
I figured if I let it keep flaming, the until lump will catch, spiking the temps making it impossible to keep the temps low. So I tried shutting the air dampers to suffocate the flames, which worked and I was able to get the temp back to the 250 range. But now the lump was smoldering. It wasnt smoking, but it was a thick blue smoke that smelled fowl compared to the sweet smell of hickory. So the ribs ended up taking a little bit of this flavor on, but not noticeable to my guests, just to me. Also, due to the flame up, I lost a few bones on the small end of the rack.
But does my theory sound right about possibly grease catching fire? What does a person do in this situation? I didnt have any more hickory left, that had all burned down since it was the 5th hour of the cook. I was planning to grill a salmon fillet after taking the ribs off but the smoke was so foul I didnt want to ruin the fish, so I had to "smoke" it on the gas grill.
Thanks for any ideas you may have.
