Technical cooking question

[sfdrew28]

How does one cook in a Komodo style cooker and get less white smoke from the lump?

Sometimes when I cook items such as veggies, fish, etc...I would like less of a smoke flavor on my food.

With other cookers I’ve just added the charcoal needed for a cook once it was up to temp. More charcoal for higher temp.

With my Kamado I usually always have a full basket(as recommended) and just start a small hot spot in one or two areas. This results in new lump constantly smoking a lot while getting up to temp during a cook.

I’ve been wondering how people on here can bake a loaf of bread and not have it be overwhelmed with smoke flavor. Thanks.

 

 

 

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[ckreef]

Mrs skreef has done a fair amount of baking in the KK's including cakes. The trick is to get it up to temp. Run the top vent as tight as possible to still maintain temp. This will run a smaller fire. Then you just need to give it time. Eventually when the KK is fairly well heat soaked it should be running a clean fire. 

 

I'm also fairly careful about not letting grease get down in the KK. Grease down in the leftover lump can ruin future cooks. 

[Pequod]

Maybe try other brands of lump? What you describe isn’t typical for me, but have seen considerable white smoke when I use cheaper lump at low temps. At high temps you shouldn’t see much smoke with any charcoal, although cheaper lump tends to be less dense and will burn quicker. 

[sfdrew28]

I will try a different lump. The problem was nonexistent with the extruded coco charcoal but I can’t get that from Dennis.

I think the problem is some lump is always catching fire during a longer cook in a whole basket so there’s the smoke from that.


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[Tyrus]

Red coals give off the least amount, I usually throw some potatoes on first and by the time their half way the coals are fired up. If you wrap the fish in foil with all your spices added inside you would'nt have to worry about the smoke penetration.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Tyrus

[Syzygies]

Extruded coconut lump burns so clean that one can bake a sour cherry pie. Hard to obtain in recent times.

I routinely bake bread in my 23" KK. I get the entire batch of coals lit at once, and try to time the fire so one is coasting at 450 F for the 30 minutes or so I'm actually baking. The KK retains heat amazingly well, but opening it to add cold bread dough, then adding water for steam, draws away a lot of heat. Ideally, my fire is ready for its last hurrah to get back up to cruising altitude one last time. I've got my bread's final rise down like clockwork, making this easier.

Cooking dinner, I never control the timing of everything at once quite as well, so the fire needs to be flexible.

In general, for higher temperature roasting, I like the results best if the fire is nearly spent, in its "red star" waning phase, with lots of stored heat in the KK walls. This is of course tricky to time, depending on what else is going on.

[sfdrew28]

Extruded coconut lump burns so clean that one can bake a sour cherry pie. Hard to obtain in recent times.
I routinely bake bread in my 23" KK. I get the entire batch of coals lit at once, and try to time the fire so one is coasting at 450 F for the 30 minutes or so I'm actually baking. The KK retains heat amazingly well, but opening it to add cold bread dough, then adding water for steam, draws away a lot of heat. Ideally, my fire is ready for its last hurrah to get back up to cruising altitude one last time. I've got my bread's final rise down like clockwork, making this easier.
Cooking dinner, I never control the timing of everything at once quite as well, so the fire needs to be flexible.
In general, for higher temperature roasting, I like the results best if the fire is nearly spent, in its "red star" waning phase, with lots of stored heat in the KK walls. This is of course tricky to time, depending on what else is going on.

If you light all the coals at once wouldn’t the temp go much higher than 450?


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[sfdrew28]

Ckreef I just had my first big grease dump by accident from a pork shoulder. That was some rancid smoke I had going for a while.


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[Syzygies]

20 minutes ago, sfdrew28 said:

If you light all the coals at once wouldn’t the temp go much higher than 450?

 

No, control the oxygen, control the fire. One gets a feel for how much fuel to use, but one can light the fuel everywhere and still hold at 450 F.

I can even use a BBQ Guru to hold a fire at 450 F, with their Pit Bull (Large) Fan. The key is to run the pit probe through the dome hole where the Tel-Tru thermometer usually goes, to avoid exposing the wire to excess heat. This is convenient if I'm too busy to watch the fire. Holding 450 F is also pretty easy manually.

[sfdrew28]

No, control the oxygen, control the fire. One gets a feel for how much fuel to use, but one can light the fuel everywhere and still hold at 450 F.
I can even use a BBQ Guru to hold a fire at 450 F, with their Pit Bull (Large) Fan. The key is to run the pit probe through the dome hole where the Tel-Tru thermometer usually goes, to avoid exposing the wire to excess heat. This is convenient if I'm too busy to watch the fire. Holding 450 F is also pretty easy manually.

Syzygies-do you start every cook with a full basket of lump or do you just put in what you think you’ll need for each cook?

Last question...I promise


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[Syzygies]

Yes, I put in what I need, guessing high not low.

[sfdrew28]

Yes, I put in what I need, guessing high not low.

Ok...so that would explain how you avoid the problem of lump around the main flame getting hot and smoking as time goes by.
Think I may try your method. Thanks for the info


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[myself888]

I've only ever made dry yeast bread and have wanted to learn the whole sourdough style, so I just purchased the Tartine Bread book and made my first sourdough starter and bread. I followed the recommendation to use a dutch oven (more steam) in my regular oven. This worked well and produced beautiful boules (see photo). I'd like to try baking inside my KK and wondered if anyone has pictures of successful KK loaves. Does the KK hold enough steam inside (similar to the dutch oven technique) to produce the crackly crust?

[MacKenzie]

Love that crumb.  Check out Syzygies posts for his chain method of getting steam into a KK cook for bread.

[DennisLinkletter]

On 12/30/2018 at 9:43 PM, sfdrew28 said:

 

How does one cook in a Komodo style cooker and get less white smoke from the lump?

 

This is from poorly carbonized charcoal.. it is from the largest pieces that are under-carbonized.
Pull those out and use for high temp cooks and use only the medium sized pieces.

The largest are often under-cooked and the smallest ones over-cooked and brittle..

[sfdrew28]

I switched from lazarri lump to FOGO super premium. The difference is incredible. Very clean burning and hardly any ash after a cook. The only negative is it has a shorter burn time.

I just ordered Tartine myself. Excited to bake bread for the first time.


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