Primo Help

[Saltydog235]

I finally got the Primo set up and a chance to cook on it some. I was going for a quick grill of some bone in pork chops, Brussel sprouts and zucchini. The sprouts were awful, tasted like bitter smoke, the zucchini wasn't much better. The meat wasn't awful but still not up to standard. I had the wife pick up some Master's Choice lump charcoal when she went to Sam's, knowing it wasn't the best. What did I do wrong besides getting bad charcoal? How long do I let it burn before putting the food on? I read a bit ago that the smoke should have been almost clear, it wasn't. The charcoal wasn't very consistent in size and had some firewood sized pieces in it.

It wasn't a great first experience, need to shorten the learning curve on this thing. Food looked great though.

[GreenHeadRocker]

Let your coal burn out longer.

[Duckkiller]

I don't love a smoke flavor. I let all smoke burn off before putting meat on my primo. 30 minutes of burn typically.

[Duckkiller]

I normally stir my coals at 200 degrees when warming up in order to get all the wood burning.

[Moonlight Hunter]

White smoke will leave an acrid flavor on food, especially vegetables, if exposed to it for long. What should be coming out of the cooker will be a clear/blue-ish smoke when you put the food on.

[wiz18]

what everyone else has said. I leave my lid open and bottom intake wide open until the fire has died down and the coals start looking right (aprox 20- 30 min from lighting).

[Saltydog235]

What charcoal are y'all using?

[Duckkiller]

i've tried them all, don't buy cowboy, too much smoke. I just bought a bag of Kommado Joe that I haven't tried yet, costco had it at a good bargain.

[Sheep]

I am using the shit from Sams too, but it sucks. I wont buy it again.
As stated, get a good fire going before you actually cook.
And, you may want to cook veggies a different way if you don't want them 'smoked'..

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[wiz18]

What charcoal are y'all using?

KJ big block is about the best I have found that is also easily available. Go to your local hardware, or wherever you can stop that is convenient for you and try the different brands they carry. The ace near me carries a few lesser known brands that I like. BGE brand sucks, the pieces are about the size of mulch, so I wouldn't waste money there. FOGO gets a lot of hype, and ive heard good things, but I have never cooked with it.

[FEETDOWN]

Y’all orta sell those raggedy ass things and buy a Weber so you won’t have to worry about which lump to buy.

I got to where I wanted to bust my BGE to bits with a sledge hammer before I sold it. Grills grill, smokers smoke. One that does both does neither well IMO......


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[Chuck the Duck Slayer]

FOGO has been the best I’ve ever used. Lasts forever it seems.

[banded_mallard]

Go to nakedwhiz.com and look at the reviews and decide. They review and rate most badges of lump charcoal. I have been using the rock wood lump charcoal and like it better than the fogo.

[ecu1984]

Pork chops can be finicky too as a pretty small piece of meat.
Also learn to smoke for a while and then wrap. The wrap keeps the additional smoke off
but lets cooking continue.

[HARV]

If you get your temperature stabilized when the rig is warmed up it should be burning about right.

[Kioti]

Ain't nothing wrong with regular old Royal Oak lump but last time I went to Walmart, all they had was the B&B Hickory. I'd already used it before so got another bag. Pretty large lump, at least the two bags I've used were. Just make sure you don't get B&B Competition logs which I purchased at Academy. That is some kind of processed crap that ain't nothing but powdery ash.

[scmoose]

Royal Oak at Walmart or HD. I pick up several bags when the get down in the 9.00 range. Like others have said let the smoke clear. Some technical explanations here http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1...smoke-question, regarding the white smoke caused by volatiles in the lump created through the charcoal making process. If I get lazy and dump a new load of lump in my egg and throw chicken on before the smoke clears I can taste the bitterness in the wings. When I do load the grill up with lump I fill it up as much as I can, then just shut the vents when Im done. I may go threeor four cooks before adding lump back to it again. It seems like every time I relight the grill between lump refills, the smoke clears much faster.

[Palmetto Bug]

If you throttle the outlet vent it can cause bitterness. Leave the outlet wide open and use the intake vent to adjust the temp.

[DRDUCK]

Yall overthink this process. I will be cooking in the pit Sat with nothing but white oak and 30/yr old pecan. The white oak is leftover from the tornado last may so gonna get her fired up with it. Bout 10 racks of ribs will be cooked,smoked or whatever you want to call it along with other cuts of pork and veggie's. Will post pics next week. My motto is "If the smoke is white. the fire is right".

[Johnny Reb]

I agree with others...didn't let lump burn down long enough.

And like BandedMallard said...take a look here. Lots of good info.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm