Soot on chicken

[Clistpdx]

Just got a Timberline 1300. Cooked my first chicken. Tasted great, but had to remove the skin because it was coated in black soot. Check out the ugly photo. Is this normal? I cooked a pork shoulder earlier and didn’t notice this but I think it was just a darker meat that hid the soot better. Cooked at 225 for around 3hrs. To 165. Super smoke mode.

 

[RemE]

Just got a Timberline 1300. Cooked my first chicken. Tasted great, but had to remove the skin because it was coated in black soot. Check out the ugly photo. Is this normal? I cooked a pork shoulder earlier and didn’t notice this but I think it was just a darker meat that hid the soot better. Cooked at 225 for around 3hrs. To 165. Super smoke mode.

Which pellets? That's a lot of ash.

 

[Clistpdx]

Which pellets? That's a lot of ash.

I got the soot from Apple, alder, and (today) mesquite. So it seems it doesn’t matter. I vacuumed out all the ash. Maybe I need to do a really thorough cleaning of everything? I bought the grill used.

 

[RemE]

Is both the firepot cover/baffle and large drip pan in place? Most of the ash should stay in the bottom.

Maybe really deep clean the firepot to be sure all of the holes are clear. I'm thinking if some are plugged that the others might tend to blow out more ash. Just guessing here

 

[Jim G]

Might be the pellet brand. Try sifting out the powder.

1) empty hopper
2) refill with “clean pellets”
3) use a loaf of sliced white bread and place slices on the grates
4) check for ash on the bread.

 

[Clistpdx]

Here’s what it looked like before and after a clean/vacuum.

I’ll try the bread trick, and carefully sift the pellets to see if that changes anything. Is there a difference between soot and ash? I’m not sure I’m getting ash on my food, but rather heavy soot, which accounts for the gross looking chicken skin. Is soot normal/expected? Just not ash? Thanks for everyone’s advice!

 

[RemE]

I've seen some ash on my food, but never black soot.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

I'm pretty lax on cleaning my pot and I haven't had that issue. I also burn premium heating pellets and haven't had that problem. Do you have the cover for the pot and the drip tray in place? There should be two parts under your grate.

 

[RemE]

One thought, due to the higher temp, I suspect that drippings may have pooled, then burned along the way, which would produce black soot.

I had carefully examined my Timberline and found my drip channel pooled and burned up drippings. I made several mods to prevent this.

 

[RustyJake]

One thought, due to the higher temp, I suspect that drippings may have pooled, then burned along the way, which would produce black soot.

I had carefully examined my Timberline and found my drip channel pooled and burned up drippings. I made several mods to prevent this.

I agree and it almost looks like he had a grease fire in the bottom (looking at the black pattern at the fire pot picture, almost looks like it was under the firepot on that one side) and that bellowed some smoke that would cling to whatever was around.
I would use a BBQ cleaner and get rid of any residual grease that is there.

 

[Clistpdx]

I'm pretty lax on cleaning my pot and I haven't had that issue. I also burn premium heating pellets and haven't had that problem. Do you have the cover for the pot and the drip tray in place? There should be two parts under your grate.

Yes, I made sure both of those were in place after the cleaning

 

[Clistpdx]

One thought, due to the higher temp, I suspect that drippings may have pooled, then burned along the way, which would produce black soot.

Good thinking. I did find a lot of crud in drip channel along the front. Scraped that all out