Charcoal - What Side Are You On?

Had a late night, spirited debate after several Manhattans… over charcoal.

I’ll fill in detail over the course of the thread here, but have to ask - are you a lump wood or briquette fan? What brand and why?

Lump along with real wood of various species depending on what I am cooking. e.g. Cherry with chicken, Apple with Pork, Oak and Pecan with Beef.
Briquets are made of charcoal dust, sand and paraffin. Which creates the problem of ash disposal. I only have to vacuum out my egg once every couple of months (and I grill or BBQ 4 times minimum per week. With Briquets that would go to once a week cleanings of the grill.
Also lump and wood are more sensitive to oxygen so therefor the temp is easier to control.
Finally lump burns hotter.

Brand wise I usually end up with Cowboy, but I prefer B and B. It has been pretty hit and miss at academy lately. Whole Foods has had good prices on their brand as well as the Cowboy brand lately.

Lump all the way. Not sure where the debate goes from there; maybe to coconut shells? I usually buy Lazzari, however with regular firing of my WFO with seasoned oak, it’s producing hardwood charcoal faster than I use it.

Kiln dried lump. Organic pieces, not furniture scraps.

I was, of course, on the side of lump, hardwood charcoal. I use Wicked Good blend or Weekend Warrior when I can find it, else I’ll use Royal Oak (Home Depot), which tends to have less plywood and scraps than Cowboy. I always supplement with seasoned wood, ranging from Oak/Pecan that I break down myself (local butcher) to the chunk apple and cherry from Home Depot. WW burns incredibly long and ashes out 100% of the time.

Opposing view was briquettes, specifically Kingston competition. Logic was that lump wood is incredibly inconsistent, with pieces ranging in size and density, introducing more variables into longer cooks (I.e. Pork shoulder). Briquettes are also more economical, in addition to burning at the same heat/consistency every time.

Opposing POV has cooked 100x more than the four of us combined :smiley:

Opposing view is wrong.

And I doubt very few people have cooked 100X more than I have in the past 20 years.

That is why I said we had a “spirited debate,” as I dug in quite a bit on the lump wood side. Opposing view is a spokesman for Kingsford, at which point I pointed out a clear bias.

Fast forward to this past weekend, as I was reading through Meathead’s “The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling” (and getting mocked by friends of Facebook that were also sharing Manhattans). I came across this after pages of arguing re: gas vs. charcoal and then on this topic in particular:

“This is a debate that can end in gunplay. Let’s see if we can settle the argument without the author being shot.” (followed by several pages talking about how the two types are made, etc.). . .
“So which is best? As a cook, you need control and consistency. You get that from briquettes, not from lump. There are about 16 Kingsford briquettes in a quart, and 64 in a gallon. A Weber chimney holds about 5 quarts, or about 80 briquettes. That’s a constant quantity of energy. There are many variables in outdoor cooking, and having a stead, reliable heat sources is a big plus.
Harry Soo of Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ, one of the top ten competition teams, once told me, 'I buy whatever briquettes are on sale.” Mike Wozniak, of QUAU, winner of scores of barbeque championships, says, ‘I cook on whatever brand the competition sponsor is giving away for free. Charcoal is for heat, not for flavor.’
Pick on brand of briquette, learn it, and stick with it for at least a year until you have all the other variables under control."

Hell, I love your posts. This guy has you beat, hands down. This was at dinner at Mrs Betty Jane France’s place before all met up for drinks back at the hotel later.
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Controlling lump just isn’t that hard, even on long cooks.

Competition is not real world, just like RMP 100 point wines are not real world.

We can go round and round. Compressed carbon scraps will never equal hardwood. Consistency is a bad argument. If you have any real skills, you can adapt and overcome.

Pretty much agree 100%, which is why I didn’t post after the initial discussion. But, reading through the Meathead book (which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit) and then getting razzed from friends about it (we flew Chris out to do a Sonoma NASCAR event a few weeks back), I had to revisit.

I am always open to discussion and various opinions on techniques. Absolutes are a bad thing for those that like and appreciate food of any sort. I am guilty, of course.

Grilling, BBQ and smoking have so many variables that nobody can claim to have all the answers regardless of celebrity status. I know what I do is appreciated, and I am sure any number of others have their fans. Meat vs. wine and even politics should bring us together instead of divide us. Two of those we can live without. The other, not so much.

Lump plus hand chopped raw oak from trees falling in the neighborhood. Mostly oak with occasional cherry or maple. Can’t find a good source of hickory.

I have been using Kingsford competition briquettes(gasp!) which I got a good deal on at Costco, 50/50 with Royal Oak lump.

The combo works well but the bricks do smoke a lot when starting and throw more ash. The flavor and heat are good though.

As opposed to cooked oak?

Pecan is in the hickory family. Any of those around?

Pecan is far superior to hickory for long smokes in my opinion. Burns cleaner with less chance of a harshness that I find can creep into hickory, I find hickory smoke to be acrid particularly early on in the smoke. For a quick grill hickory is okay.

For me Pecan is much easier to find. I can find it bagged in store or in lots of yards around here. I grew up on the remnants of a Pecan orchard so I’m pretty partial to it.

Pecan would be my choice as well. My parents house has four massive trees that I might harvest one day.

I am beginning to introduce post oak into the rotation now price is creeping back down.

Lump and coconut in the BGE. The coconut is only used when I’m doing long cooks.

Am a big fan of pecan, as well, especially with salmon when I’m using a brown sugar based rub. Only challenge I have with pecan is that the bags I get are shipped in from Texas, and I’ve gone 50/50 over 6 bags, getting wood that has long horned beetle larvae in it.