The Thin Blue Smoke Thread III- BBQ 2011

[RF1963]

Gents

I have a Weber barbecue which I bought for last summer (BTW I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, it's summer now).

I had an unfortunate experience with charcoal early on in my bbqing career and I stuck with briquettes until this weekend when SWMBO bought home a bag of hardwood charcoal as she couldn't find briquettes in the supermarket.

This charcoal was great. It looked like wood, one could see the grain and rings - it was nothing like the lumps of charcoal I'd tried before. A mix of 50/50 briquettes and charcoal gave great heat for an hour and, using indirect heat, cooked the nicest smoked chicken I've ever had (I add soaked chips). Today, with a 75/25 charcoal/briquette mix I cooked two of the best steaks I've managed.

I'm thinking that maybe charcoal could be the way to go. I know briquettes give off a uniform heat and are conveniently shaped, have some sort of accelerant to encourage burning etc but there was something much more satisfying watching the charcoal glow red, building the coals to give the best heat for the steaks (direct heat method) and just cooking over charcoal.

So I'm open for any comments or advice on using charcoal, what to look for, what to avoid.

Thanks

 

[simon1]

You might want to poke around this site.

I use regular wood quite a bit, but have been using lump charcoal quite a bit now. I tried the True 'Cue brand from Home Depot and it was okay (the review of it on the site is pretty much spot on), but I got some Royal Oak (the Made in U.S.A. version) at Wally World and it's great.

SWMBO wanted to add some wood chips to it when we cooked some steaks over 100% lump, but I said no. The steaks turned out Great! I also used some as a starter base for the hickory/pecan mix fire in the offset smoker. Turned out some great slabs of ribs and chicken breasts.

Kind of pay attention to what's in the bag when you pour it out to light it. I found about a 6 inch piece of kind of thick gray colored twine in the bag of True 'Cue. No telling what it was that made the twine gray; guess it was the heating process when they made the lump. Just make sure there's not anything "extra" that you're putting in the fire.

 

[Jim]

Great to hear that you had such good results, Simon's link to TNW is a good one. On paper charcoal is charcoal, but in reality we know that what wood is used and the level of carbonization does affect the final product.

From my perspective, lump charcoal is a superior product for cooking all around, the briquet's are often filled with binders and coal (the coal that is dug from the ground) so its an easy choice for me. Lots less ash also which is a bonus in my smoker.

You may want to add wood chunks rather than chips for your off heat cooking. it burns cleaner and longer than wet wood chips.

Lets see some photos of your grub!

 

[RF1963]

Thank you for your replies Gents, your help is greatly appreciated

Roy

 

[simon1]

What kind of lump charcoal is available to you?

From what little googling I've done, Red Gum and Lazzari are the only ones I've seen so far in the Oz area. Different brands have different burn characteristics.

It burns hotter and faster than briquettes, so your mix of lump and briquettes is good depending on how you want to cook...long and slow or short and fast...or in between. Just depends on how you are cooking and how often you want to add charcoal. I like using the all lump charcoal as opposed to briquettes or lump/briquette mix, but that's just me because I like the better wood flavor from the lump (I don't add any wood chips at all when cooking steaks when I use lump). I use the lump in the smoker as a starter for the bigger pieces of wood as it's a bit quicker that starting a fire from scratch...I know, I know...my bad, but that's the easy way to do it.

And...what brand/kind of lump did you have a bad experience with and what kind have you got now...the good stuff that you like?

but there was something much more satisfying watching the charcoal glow red, building the coals to give the best heat for the steaks (direct heat method) and just cooking over charcoal.

That's why I like to start a fire from scratch...whether it's mesquite going down to coals for cooking steaks, or a hickory/pecan or fruit wood mix for slow smoking.

 

[RF1963]

What kind of lump charcoal is available to you?

There's not a great range here in NZ. I've just made contact with a local company that produces charcoal so I've got high hopes. Otherwise it's generally own label from hardware stores or, the final resort, petrol station forecourts!

I'll report back, hopefully with photos.

 

[eightysixCJ]

My first smoked turkey on the WSM, worked great. Have done close to 10 smokes on this thing and it works fantastic.

Very nice!

 

[jasondon]

Very nice!

Thanks!

I have found lump charcoal hotter than briquettes, less ash, but more inconsistent temps. In my limited experience, a "good" briquette has worked quite well for the longer smokes, 6 hours +

For the pulled pork I did last weekend I acually tried the coconut charcoal and it worked extremely well, I will be buying more. Consistent temp, low ash, and long burn times. Was a little pricey but worth it imo.

My wireless thermometer has been the second best purchase after the WSM I got a full 8 hours sleep on my first overnight smoke, and the temp stayed within my limit all night and I could check from bed

 

[eightysixCJ]

Can't wait for the melt. 3 slabs of spares, mix of cherry, hickory, and apple wood.

Tom

 

[Jim]

can't wait for the melt. 3 slabs of spares, mix of cherry, hickory, and apple wood.

Tom

Hardcore TJ !

 

[eightysixCJ]

Hardcore TJ !

At least my beer stayed cold!

Tom

 

[Jim]

At least my beer stayed cold!

Tom

You get bragging rights when you have to move 2 feet of snow to get to the woodpile!

 

[RF1963]

Gents,

As posted previously I now have a decent supply of charcoal (this firm also supplies pizza shops, Indian restaurants etc, anyone who uses charcoal commercially in cooking). I'm really pleased with this stuff and am now cooking on charcoal.

As an aside I'm stunned at the longevity of briquettes. I progressively added charcoal to what was a 25/75 briquette/charcoal mix. Some of those briquettes just hung on in there till I threw them away.

I now have a question around cooking for long periods using the indirect method with charcoal. I use a weber chimney. Using only the charcoals from that I cooked some lamb; left well alone despite the temptation to open the lid, after 40 minutes checked the meat which was ready however SWMBO queried the lack of heat. Today I cooked a butterflied chicken using indirect. However this time in addition to the chimney I had two mounds of charcoal either side of the grill which I fired up. By the time the chimney was ready these charcoals were well on their way. So I poured the coals from the chimney onto a bed of hot coals, the temperature was good and hot and the chicken cooked nicely, very nicely in fact!

To compare with indoor cooking: if I'm cooking pork I'll give it 30 mins at a high temp and then reduce the temperature for the rest of the cooking. It seems to me that what I did today was comparable; I created a very hot zone which by it's very nature started to cool.

So, my present experience doesn't fill me with the confidence for a long slow bake. Do you do as I did today; create a large mound of burning coals so the temperature slowly drops from a very high start or do you have a bed of unlit coals which you empty the hot coals on to so these gradually take light aiming for a more consistent steady temperature or, plan C, do you rely on some other method for a long roast (i.e. over an hour) - indeed do you expect to remove a hot piece of meat from a hot cooking utensil or is your expectation different?

My final question concerns the air vents. The Weber instructions seem to indicate both vents to be fully open. My thoughts are that the flow of oxygen from bottom to top would tend to accelerate the burning and thus be counter productive in a long cook. How wide open should the vents be?

Sorry for all these questions but I'm just starting to fully appreciate this method of cooking.

Cheers

Roy

 

[BobS]

Monday night I fixed some nice pork chops and added a baked sweet potato and some sauteed green beens.

Tonight I dusted off one of the good ones from last year and made some more stuffed chicken legs. I deboned the legs and stuffed them with a mix of ground lamb, onions and spinach.

That is some baked acorn squash and I added a baked potato and some Brussels sprouts after this picture was taken.

 

[Jim]

Gents,

As posted previously I now have a decent supply of charcoal (this firm also supplies pizza shops, Indian restaurants etc, anyone who uses charcoal commercially in cooking). I'm really pleased with this stuff and am now cooking on charcoal.

As an aside I'm stunned at the longevity of briquettes. I progressively added charcoal to what was a 25/75 briquette/charcoal mix. Some of those briquettes just hung on in there till I threw them away.

I now have a question around cooking for long periods using the indirect method with charcoal. I use a weber chimney. Using only the charcoals from that I cooked some lamb; left well alone despite the temptation to open the lid, after 40 minutes checked the meat which was ready however SWMBO queried the lack of heat. Today I cooked a butterflied chicken using indirect. However this time in addition to the chimney I had two mounds of charcoal either side of the grill which I fired up. By the time the chimney was ready these charcoals were well on their way. So I poured the coals from the chimney onto a bed of hot coals, the temperature was good and hot and the chicken cooked nicely, very nicely in fact!

To compare with indoor cooking: if I'm cooking pork I'll give it 30 mins at a high temp and then reduce the temperature for the rest of the cooking. It seems to me that what I did today was comparable; I created a very hot zone which by it's very nature started to cool.

So, my present experience doesn't fill me with the confidence for a long slow bake. Do you do as I did today; create a large mound of burning coals so the temperature slowly drops from a very high start or do you have a bed of unlit coals which you empty the hot coals on to so these gradually take light aiming for a more consistent steady temperature or, plan C, do you rely on some other method for a long roast (i.e. over an hour) - indeed do you expect to remove a hot piece of meat from a hot cooking utensil or is your expectation different?

My final question concerns the air vents. The Weber instructions seem to indicate both vents to be fully open. My thoughts are that the flow of oxygen from bottom to top would tend to accelerate the burning and thus be counter productive in a long cook. How wide open should the vents be?

Sorry for all these questions but I'm just starting to fully appreciate this method of cooking.

Cheers

Roy

Roy,
My first question is how long are your cooks lasting? are you attempting to do a true BBQ on your kettle? or is this a case of grilling proteins?

If you are attempting to do long, low and slow type cooks you can attack the fire management in several ways. Go to youtube and search for "Minion Method' which is a way to start a fire that burns a little longer than starting all the coals at once. On a really long cook you will have to add new lit charcoal pretty frequently at least every hour or less.

The top vents should be open 100% the bottom vent is how you regulate temps, to much charcoal and to little air will make a nasty rank taste, so approach this slowly and watch the color of your smoke, thin and blue is good white/gray is bad.

 

[The Nid Hog]

Roy--

If you're planning to do a really long cook, the limitations will be the fact that your meat and your charcoal are in the same space. When you use a BBQ that has a firebox, you can avoid this. Even so, I don't think that's an insurmountable problem, but one that you'll want to give some thought to. If you continue to add charcoal on top of the stuff that's already burned out, I think you'll eventually choke your fire with accumulated ash. Even using the Minion method is just going to delay this. On the other hand, if you take the time to remove the ash, you'll dissipate all of the heat that you've built up. I know that some of the Webers have shelves for charcoal on either side of the main grill. If yours has that, you're set. You're still going to have to lift the lid off to get more coals in there, but with practice you can minimize that.

If you don't have those shelves, it might be worth your time to fabricate something. I could envision a rectangular grill in the middle for your meat, then two crescent shaped ones on the sides. Or some kind of baskets for the charcoal. That should help you buy enough time to run more coals than you would otherwise be able to do. Again, the limiting factor is going to be ash buildup.

Here's a link to ones that are available in the US--not sure if they have them in Oz or not. I don't think they'd be too hard to make. You could make an extra pair and have them ready to drop in when the others run out.

http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-143992/Detail

Hope this makes sense!

 

[Jim]

Just to add to what The Nid Hog has said, on the Webers you have the ability to drop ash into an attached can below the grill. One option to hold your coal to one or both sides is with a foil pan placed under the protien.

This pan will hold the coals to one side and can also be filled with liquid to add moisture to the cook, a fire brick is another way.

You can see this below in the photo.

 

[The Nid Hog]

Nice instructional photo Jim! Yum!

 

[Jim]

Nice instructional photo Jim! Yum!

Thanks, now I want a nice ribeye steak

 

[diverdoug]

Any Cookshack owners on the board?