charcoal and it's uses and types of charcoal

[reinhard1]

i thought it would be interesting on everyones thought's on charcoal. i have grilled for years but just with charcoal the regular kind. we have mesquite and i have just discovered Lump charcoal. kept walking by the 40 pound bag time after time. kind of felt the bag and those pieces seemed big. so one day i picked up a bag. i dont think i'm using it right. did a chicken on it and the exterior sure smelled of mesquite big time. that was over a week ago and now i'm hesitant to use it. the directions said light it and when the edges are white your ready to grill. that seemed wrong to me but i followed directions [something unusual for me]. the chicken was great but i think i should of waited for the coals to go gray like the regular charcoal. anyone out there use lump charcoal and how do you like it. good luck.

[thirdeye]

reinhard1,

My charcoal use is kind of the other way around, I have used way more lump than briquettes. You don't need for the lump to ash over, but you do need to let the spot you light burn long enough to stabilize and burn off the initial VOC's. This takes from 20 to 40 minutes depending on your cooker vent settings. Once any white smoke is gone, the fire is ready to cook on. The fire grows so slowly into the remaining lump, the VOC's or white smoke is not an issue. The mesquite lump does impart flavor into your food, and chicken takes smoke easier than most foods. The flavor of mesquite lump is way milder than using mesquite flavor chips, but bear in mind that mesquite wood is the strongest flavor wood there is. By the way, all lump is porus so using lighter fluid is a no-no, the lighter fluid flavor will linger way too long, and you can taste it.

That said.... I guess the main differences I notice between briquettes and lump are:

Briquettes: Readily available, they have fillers* to help control the burn, produce more ash than lump, have a more standard odor while cooking, and some brands will burn longer than others (Kingsford Copmpetition Blend and Royal Oak briquettes come to mind, briquettes are cheaper than lump.

*the fillers are: wood char (heat source), mineral char (heat source), mineral carbon (heat source), limestone (uniform visual ashing), starch (binder), borax (press release), sodium nitrate (ignition aid), sawdust (ignition aid).

Lump: A wide variety of quality among different brands with respect to burn times and flavor that it produces. Lump is natural charcoal, just pieces of wood that are heated in a big closed furnace type of device with very little oxygen used. The wood can be splits, limbs, or hardwoods in the form of lumber mill scraps. Generally speaking, lump burns hotter and produces less ash than briquettes. It does not require a complete "ashing over" before using, and it will impart some wood flavor to you food even without the use of flavor chips or chunks. It is recommended that lump be started with a torch, or odorless fire starter cubes or gels. Charcoal lighter fluid is not recommended for use with lump. You can have a low and slow fire with lump, or a hot grilling fire too. Lump looks just like a campfire when it's burning.

There are plenty of brands of lump out there, but usually stores carry one or two brands at most. A common brand in my area is Royal Oak lump (it comes in both orange and green bags and can be found at WalMart and Menards) Other brands I can purchase are Cowboy, and two kinds of mesquite lump (one from Sam's, and one from a hardware store) I guess you could divide lump into two main categories... hardwood lump and mesquite lump.

Hardwood lump is just that, it comes from hardwoods like maple, oak, etc. It has a mild flavor. Mesquite lump is all mesquite, is usually lower in price than hardwood lump, usually has some big pieces in the bags, burns hotter than hardwood lump and has a stronger flavor. I use the Royal Oak for my normal cooks, both grilling and barbecuing for short times (like ribs, a pork loin or a prime rib). I use mesquite lump (or a mix of mesquite/Royal Oak) for my long cooks of briskets or pork shoulders. This is some mesquite lump

This is some hardwood lump, just after lighting.

[reinhard1]

your post is very helpfull. i did use charcoal lighter fluid on the lump. i do have a propane small torch. that will be my go to lighter from this point. i was thinking the mesquite lump would be good for smoking my summer sausage comming up or would you recomment just the hardwood for that [also smoked polish and brats]. thanks. good luck.

[thirdeye]

your post is very helpfull. i did use charcoal lighter fluid on the lump. i do have a propane small torch. that will be my go to lighter from this point. i was thinking the mesquite lump would be good for smoking my summer sausage comming up or would you recomment just the hardwood for that [also smoked polish and brats]. thanks. good luck.

I use a plumbers torch and it works fine. Make sure you wear glasses though... mesquite lump can be very sparky when lighting. It sort of explodes when you least espect it.

It's hard to judge someones taste for smoke flavors. You might want to experiment with a few more cooks (chicken, burgers and maybe some brats) before trying the mesquite on your summer sausage.

Thoughts on the summer sausage... An advantage to using mesquite especially if your chubs are the large diameter ones is that it's a stronger smoke. A disadvantage would be the fact that mesquite burns the hottest of all the lumps. An advantage to using briquettes or a more neutral brand of lump is that you can add the particular flavor wood you already know you like (maybe apple, cherry or maple).

[McGurk]

^^^ Give all of your lighter fluid away and use this instead. Weber Chimney starter, around $15 at most hardware stores. Get one!

I hear you on letting it burn until the heavy white smoke goes away, but what about long term coal-fueled smokes? I employ the "Minion Method" where you have your stack of unlit lump/charcoal for your low temp smoke ready to go. I then light about 8 briquettes or about that same amount of lump in a chimney starter and let it get hot. I then dump that on top of my unlit stack and lower it into my smoker. This allows for a small amount of heat and a long cook by only allowing enough oxygen intake to get temps to around 250 deg.

Bottom line: I have only a small amount of hot coal and a lot of unlit coal that fires from the top down on my extended smokes. I have the usual half hour of white smoke at first, and then it really settles down to the "thin blue" hue that is desired. That is when I put the meat on and cook away. So how is there not more white smoke when the unlit coal heats up to ignition during a long cook? Or is it so little that it isn't an issue?

[thirdeye]

McGurk,

On my long cooks I only light a spot about the size of a softball in the lump. My drums can burn upwards of 15 hours on one load of charcoal, and my Egg can burn 24+ hours. So, I'm really using the minion method too. I think the reason we don't notice any white smoke later on in the cook is first, the fire is moving slowly.... and second, you have fine tuned your vent settings (usually they are closed down more than when you first start a fire) and your smoker or grill has a more gentle draw.

[reinhard1]

i know McGurk has that nice verticle barrel type smoker he built himself and i dont know which type you have third eye except i do see the kettle type i guess often. i have the Char-Griller with the fire box i just put on. so for sausage i would like to keep the temp around 170 or so i understand. i have bought hardwood lump charcoal today. also McGurk i just bought a charcoal starter and i plan on adding charcoal as i need it to maintain the temp in this unit. does this sound like a good plan? good luck.

[McGurk]

I don't have any input for a side burner like you use, RH. I do know that if I start too much I have trouble getting temps down to where I want them. I'd guess you'd need more burning right off the bat (a whole chimney's worth) and just add unlit as you need to. Let someone with a sideburner steer you in the right direction, though. Lump will typically burn hotter, cleaner, and faster than briquettes.

[Jim Almquist]

I went to L & M to pick up some apple chips for smoking and now they carry the Cowboy brand lump charcoal. I don't know if the price is good or not. It was 16.99 for 20 pounds. I will give it a try in my smoker tomorrow. Couple hours with some apple smoke and finish the salmon with some cherry.

[reinhard1]

i'm slowly getting used to it. last saturday i kept it at 225 fairly steady with added charcoal at times with the charcoal starter. 8 racks of baby backs. turned out great. i'm going to start off with 25 pounds of kielbasa in links with a remote digital temp gauge stuck into one of the links. good luck.

[reinhard1]

at sam's it was around 16 bucks for 40 pounds of mesqite lump. today along with some regular charcoal i bought a 8 1/2 pound bag of royal oak brand of regular lump charcoal for 5 bucks on sale at fleet farm just to try our. didn't see any larger bags. bet you will have some tasty smoked lake superior salmon. good luck.

[thirdeye]

i know McGurk has that nice verticle barrel type smoker he built himself and i dont know which type you have third eye except i do see the kettle type i guess often. i have the Char-Griller with the fire box i just put on. so for sausage i would like to keep the temp around 170 or so i understand. i have bought hardwood lump charcoal today. also McGurk i just bought a charcoal starter and i plan on adding charcoal as i need it to maintain the temp in this unit. does this sound like a good plan? good luck.

I have a couple of different smokers. I use Big Green Eggs (large and small) as my everyday cooker. They can go from low temps around 200° for barbecuing, clear up to high temps of 500°+ for grilling or baking pizzas or bread. These are made from ceramic, so are really well suited for cooking in the winter. Several other companies make these (Primo & Grill Dome are two other popular brands)

I have 2 Big Drum Smokers (similar to the one McGurk has) and I use these for large cookouts or for doing a lot of food. The generic name for custom ones is UDS which stands for Ugly Drum Smoker, but many of them are so tricked out with fancy paint jobs and modifications they are anything but ugly. I guess you can grill on them, but they are really a barbecue/smoker even though you can get the temp into the 400° range.

Then I have 2 Big Chiefs. These are electric, but produce pretty low heat. I mostly use these for cheese, nuts, fish and also for a couple of hours of "flavor smoke" on things I will finish on another grill... like chicken or ribs and such.

[reinhard1]

great settup. i think your all set for almost anything. thanks for posting those pictures. good luck.

[mainbutter]

Interesting alternative uses for charcoal:

I use cowboy brand lump hardwood charcoal (hammered into small pieces) in terrarium soil mixes, and as a medium for culturing little bugs known as springtails, often used as janitors in vivariums (terrariums with animals living in 'em) and as food for poison dart frogs.

Also, if you use one of those cast iron "smoking boxes" that you fill with soaked wood chips, if you let the wood chips do their thing in a grill, then after they burn through and cool off, you're left with essentially natural wood chip-sized charcoal, which can be used essentially as lump charcoal.

[reinhard1]

that is my understanding of lump charcoal. basicly wood that is burned with no oxygen or very little. so if you have a nice fire in your pit at home and the next day there are some black chunks left it possibly could be re-used again? interesting what you use it for as far as the frog and insects.

i did use regular lump charcoal today for some steaks and it worked just fine. i used the propane torch to light it also. good luck.

[thirdeye]

that is my understanding of lump charcoal. basicly wood that is burned with no oxygen or very little. so if you have a nice fire in your pit at home and the next day there are some black chunks left it possibly could be re-used again? interesting what you use it for as far as the frog and insects.

i did use regular lump charcoal today for some steaks and it worked just fine. i used the propane torch to light it also. good luck.

Right! I guess I forgot to mention another advantage of lump. When you close your pit vents down, it just goes out. The next time you cook, you stir the coals to knock off any ash and the lump can be used again. (or can stay in the cooker if you need to add more new lump)

[reinhard1]

thanks, that is good to know. good luck.