Turkey Prep for Thanksgiving

[Root]

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

[Allentown]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

[Hanley]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

[omaniphil]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

I think Root is partly right. During the initial phase, the temperature is lower, and so the combustion is incomplete, leaving soot and other particulate matter. Once the temperature gets hot enough to facilitate complete combustion, the new wood, charcoal etc will burn more clean, converting the charcoal/wood to gases and water vapor. But I'm not a chemist, so who knows.

[Root]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

I think Root is partly right. During the initial phase, the temperature is lower, and so the combustion is incomplete, leaving soot and other particulate matter. Once the temperature gets hot enough to facilitate complete combustion, the new wood, charcoal etc will burn more clean, converting the charcoal/wood to gases and water vapor. But I'm not a chemist, so who knows.

Not-hot fire also produces a dirty burn, but I think we're thinking of two different things.

If you have a bunch of not-burning charcoal in your grill, and you dump, say, 10 fully burning coals on top of it (minion method), you'll get "bad" smoke for a while, even though the coals that are actually on fire are very hot. That bad smoke is due to the VOCs burning off of the not-lit charcoal. Once those VOCs are gone, you get clean smoke from your small-yet-hot fire, even as new coals ignite and old ones go out.

[Hanley]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

I think Root is partly right. During the initial phase, the temperature is lower, and so the combustion is incomplete, leaving soot and other particulate matter. Once the temperature gets hot enough to facilitate complete combustion, the new wood, charcoal etc will burn more clean, converting the charcoal/wood to gases and water vapor. But I'm not a chemist, so who knows.

That makes sense. Similar to adding wood to a hot-burning established fire versus starting a new fire.

[Root]

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

That's my understanding, though I'd guess the temperature at which they burn is something more like 400.

[omaniphil]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

I think Root is partly right. During the initial phase, the temperature is lower, and so the combustion is incomplete, leaving soot and other particulate matter. Once the temperature gets hot enough to facilitate complete combustion, the new wood, charcoal etc will burn more clean, converting the charcoal/wood to gases and water vapor. But I'm not a chemist, so who knows.

Not-hot fire also produces a dirty burn, but I think we're thinking of two different things.

If you have a bunch of not-burning charcoal in your grill, and you dump, say, 10 fully burning coals on top of it (minion method), you'll get "bad" smoke for a while, even though the coals that are actually on fire are very hot. That bad smoke is due to the VOCs burning off of the not-lit charcoal. Once those VOCs are gone, you get clean smoke from your small-yet-hot fire, even as new coals ignite and old ones go out.

That does make sense, but if you think they burn off at 400 degrees, don't you think that the reserve unlit charcoal wouldn't necessarily start to offgas until the heatsource came closer? So, if you're using the snake method, you'd basically have a neverending offgassing of briquettes?

[Root]

Comically, when my dad opened the container of fartbird for round 2, the three other people standing nearby all fled the area while accusing each other of releasing a particularly noxious aroma. No one had seen my dad opening the container.
Fartbird.

The rib-roast was delicious, and tasted distinctly not-fart-y. Rotisserie is quickly becoming my favorite way to use the grill.

Was crunched for time and didn't burn off all the "bad" smoke before I put it on

The combustion process in non-offset smokers still confuses me. The smoke during the initial light is all sooty and shitty...but the unburned wood that ignites several hours into a smoke actually burns pretty clean. What the hell is going on?

The VOCs on the charcoal and wood burn at a lower temperature, and therefore all burn off during that initial phase. Once they're all gone, everything burns cleanly.

So, the reserve, unlit charcoal and wood chunks are actually burning-off the VOCs at something like 225 degrees?

I think Root is partly right. During the initial phase, the temperature is lower, and so the combustion is incomplete, leaving soot and other particulate matter. Once the temperature gets hot enough to facilitate complete combustion, the new wood, charcoal etc will burn more clean, converting the charcoal/wood to gases and water vapor. But I'm not a chemist, so who knows.

Not-hot fire also produces a dirty burn, but I think we're thinking of two different things.

If you have a bunch of not-burning charcoal in your grill, and you dump, say, 10 fully burning coals on top of it (minion method), you'll get "bad" smoke for a while, even though the coals that are actually on fire are very hot. That bad smoke is due to the VOCs burning off of the not-lit charcoal. Once those VOCs are gone, you get clean smoke from your small-yet-hot fire, even as new coals ignite and old ones go out.

That does make sense, but if you think they burn off at 400 degrees, don't you think that the reserve unlit charcoal wouldn't necessarily start to offgas until the heatsource came closer? So, if you're using the snake method, you'd basically have a neverending offgassing of briquettes?

I guess it would depend on the grill and the charcoal configuration. I think 10 briquettes burning at 1000 degrees will usually raise the temperature of surrounding unlit briquettes to whatever temp is necessary to burn off those VOCs. The snake method is probably an exception, and I suspect there is probably a certain amount of VOC off-gassing through the whole burn. This is a downside of snake method.

[Root]

Couple discussions about this:

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/116 ... c-burn-off
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/113 ... w-and-slow

[Allentown]

I'll admit to not watching my kettle during... well, any of a snake cook, but could it be because the coals are never hot enough to actually create a flame? Or it's the rate of the burn that creates the soot- in the middle between a hot established fire and a slow conversion is where you get the bad smoke?

[Root]

I'll admit to not watching my kettle during... well, any of a snake cook, but could it be because the coals are never hot enough to actually create a flame? Or it's the rate of the burn that creates the soot- in the middle between a hot established fire and a slow conversion is where you get the bad smoke?

Or because the burn-off of the VOCs happens gradually over many many hours, instead of all happening in the first 30 minutes.

[Hanley]

I'll admit to not watching my kettle during... well, any of a snake cook, but could it be because the coals are never hot enough to actually create a flame? Or it's the rate of the burn that creates the soot- in the middle between a hot established fire and a slow conversion is where you get the bad smoke?

Wait. You don't pre-off-gas your fuel?

Peasant.

You need my compact, outdoor electric fuel prep oven, The OffGasser™

[Chebass88]

This is an interesting problem. Coupled heat & mass transfers, with varying degrees of combustion. Sounds like a modeling nightmare!