Attempting my first Boston butt today after inheriting this gorgeous LG BGE this week. Trying to get this thing light with lump charcoal and it is BILLOWING white smoke. What am I doing wrong? Can I put the butt on? Temp is 250, exactly where I want it. Thanks for any advice 🙏🏼
by Neily_Bob
16 Comments
We have a pope!
Billowing white smoke is how everything starts with a fire. Set your vents to where they need to be and let it go for a bit. Don’t open them up thinking that will make blue smoke. It just means your fire isn’t burning clean yet, but it will.
all smoke good smoke 🙂
Habemus Brisketum.
It will clear up, the VOC’s are burning off the lump, if you cook with the white smoke the meat will have a bitter taste.
The good smoke is a thin translucent blue. It will also not make your eyes burn and make you want to cough, the white smoke will do both.
Light it with the lid open and vents wide open. Don’t close it until you have a fire kind of ripping. Close lid. Once it’s 350-450 throw the deflector and grill grate in there.
Once it’s creeping back up to 250 close vents almost all the way (or desired openness for desired temp). Wait 10 minutes for any last bad smoke to leave
Still will be white smoke but not that much.
I used to have a little more trouble with white smoke in the past but then I got a weed torch and I get it lit really fast and that white smoke is gone quick.
Don’t put it on until that clears up. That is nasty and your meat will taste like creosote if you cook with this type of smoke. Some Lump takes Longer than others to clear if it’s fully carbonized, it will clear. If it’s not, it won’t until those pieces are carbonized if the egg.
Update. It stopped. Thanks guys
I think your grill just elected a new pope.
Patience young jedi. Your fire isn’t ready. Give it time.
That is a terrible brand of lump coal. Spend a little more and get some good stuff like Jealous Devil, or FOGO Gold.
I usually let mine sit for 45 minutes to ensure the white snoke burns off. You’ll be good. Give it tine
We have a new pope!
The white smoke is lower grade charcoal giving up water vapor, particulates, and impurities from the charcoal. The higher grade charcoals have less. If you are a burning briquettes, there will be a lot of this smoke due to the binders used to form them. Lump charcoal has no binders and fewer impurities and burns cleaner. I make my own charcoal and I get heat shimmer unless I use smoking wood or until I put protein on the fire and the drippings smoke. The higher quality oof the charcoal used, the less smoke and ash.
Start with the lid open when starting your fire. Make sure bottom vent open. Let that start up for 15min or so to get all the charcoal rolling and mostly white. Make sure your charcoal is in a nice mound so it all sets on fire nicely and evenly. Once that process is done you’ll notice that with the lid open that the smoke goes clean around 5-10min in. Let it go for another 5 or so minutes to get all the coals on fire and white hot. Spread the coals out with whatever tool. Sometimes depending on the cook, I’ll put more on one side and less on the other to create different temp zones. Put the grate and/or conveggtor or whatever things you plan on for your cook on then close the lid. Let that heat up for another 10min or so. Get the temp where you need it. Let it all get more and even. Then… start your cook. The coal you use will really impact your taste. I think fogo doesn’t give a good flavor despite all the popularity on here. I used it for like 4 years and gave up. I’ve moved on to Chunk XL. What’s good is the large chunks. They get hotter and are easier to light so whatever brand you get just make sure it’s large chunks.