Hi All
I own a KK 32.
During low and slow cooks i can't seem to stop thick white smoke billowing out after the first hour of cooking. I suspect that it is the clean burning, ashed over charcoal lighting neighboring pieces and the restricted airflow causing poor combustion of those unlit pieces, but i don't know how to stop it, or if i should care.
Generally i use Kingsford Blue or Fogo Lump charcoal during cooking, and havent tried CocoChar yet, although i do have some in the shed ready to use when my current supply runs out.
Timeline as follows
I light charcoal either using a looflighter at the front right of the basket (one grapefruit size area), or 12 fully ashed Kingsford briquets in a chimney which i dump into the front right so it can be accessed later.
I'll set the top damper 1.5 turns open and the bottom damper fully open on the left wheel.
I'll add the bottom grate with a digital thermometer over the unlit side while i put rub on the meat
Once temp hits about 185-195 i'll close the top down to 1/8th of a turn and close the bottom left damper leaving the small pencil hole open on the bottom right.
At this time i'll add aluminium foil on the bottom grate as a direct heat shield, move the thermometer up to the top grate and wait for 200-225 before i add the meat. All throughout this process the KK is giving lovely thin blue smoke. This whole process takes about 45 minutes.
Food goes on, beers open and i sit back and marvel over my domain.
After about an hour, thick white smoke starts bellowing out the top causing mild panic. It generally settles down again after 20 minutes or so. I'm not trying to win a BBQ competition, and all my friends still tell me they like the food, but in the continuing march for greatness; is there a way to prevent this? Or should i not care?
