Cooking With Charcoal

W. Hilditch

Active member
Charcoal briquettes are great. They are the cheapest charcoal out there. They light easily, give off the highest heat and give off the most consistent heat the longest. Also, you can control the heat in and on a camp oven by counting the number of briquettes used. Can’t beat that. For grilling or using a BBQ they work wonderfully.

Many years ago I bought an large expensive bag of hardwood charcoal. I found it took more, burned faster and required more attention. So my next bag was back to briquettes.

That was when I realized how strong and acidic the fumes were coming from the briquettes. The chemicals used to process them and glue them together hit me and my food. I had thought the food was supposed to taste taste that way. I was wrong. It does not need to have an acidic chemical flavor. The hardwood charcoal didn’t do that.

I no longer will let a hot dog near a briquette, let alone a lobster tail or a steak. Has anyone else out there sworn off briquettes for cooking good food, in a pot or not?

Hilditch
 
I rarely, rarely use them. The bag I have is about 6 years old and have plenty left. I use wood. Oak or maple mostly because that is what falls down around me. You can't beat t he taste of a steak cooked over wood, in my opinion.

I have used pine up north for my DO. I works OK, but burns fast and messy. What ever you do, don't let a cinder drop into your food when checking it. Not a good taste.
 
I have my own sawmill and wood shop so I cut and dry apple, cherry, beach, yellow birch, and maple for all my outdoor cooking needs, when not using my gas grill.

No briquettes needed.
 
I use a combo of wood and briquettes. Never noticed any acidic taste from them. I will try hardwood this year to compare. I have also cooked over wood many times. I noticed I get more of a char flavor over briquettes from the juices hitting the briquettes.
 
I normally cook over a hardwood (oak, hickory, beech, elm, etc.) fire/coals and rarely cook with charcoal, but when I do I can't tell the difference in taste. I guess my palate is not very discriminating or maybe it's the kind of briquettes I use. They aren't all created equally. Some briquettes like Royal Oak and Stubbs are made of hardwood. Others like Kingsford and store brands are made from softwood.
 
I quit using regular charcoal briquettes years ago I generally use "cowboy brand" hardwood lump charcoal. it generally goes on sale around the 4th of July and there's coupons you can get online.
http://www.cowboycharcoal.com/
or if you have the time and two steel barrels you can always make your own charcoal.
 
Interesting unsigned article. Kingsford adds coal, huh. I mentioned acidity in post #1. One may want to check out pics of cast iron skillets used on coal burning stoves to see what this natural material can do to cast iron.

It would be nice to think that the CEOs of Weber and Kingsford don’t play golf together, etc. and that there were no politics in that article. BTW, petroleum products, read oil, come from vegetation too.

Hilditch
 
Interesting unsigned article. Kingsford adds coal, huh. I mentioned acidity in post #1. One may want to check out pics of cast iron skillets used on coal burning stoves to see what this natural material can do to cast iron.

It would be nice to think that the CEOs of Weber and Kingsford don’t play golf together, etc. and that there were no politics in that article. BTW, petroleum products, read oil, come from vegetation too.

Hilditch

It's been covered above but I will repeat. Bricketts are pressed with oil based products. Even burning until white will still leave residue/smell. There is no high end charcoal grill mfg that does not recommend natural charcoal.
Natural charcoal might be a little harder to gauge proper amount etc. but you get use to it. I am also curious about the coal added to kingsford and the effect of sulfur on cast iron camp DOs. Many skillets of older age show sulfur/coal pitting from coal fired stoves.

---------- Post added at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------

Also. When I use my ceramic dome grill/smoker I of course use natural charcoal per their instructions. Pork butts get smoked for about 8 hours. I never have to add charcoal. It lasts a long time.
 
Bricketts are pressed with oil based products.

I can't seem to find the provenance for that statement anywhere unless you are talking about some of the "match light" type products. Can you direct to where that might be stated?
 
If one does their homework on crude oil and coal there are significant chemical similarities between them, and we get our petroleum products from crude oil.

Now, if we add something wet with hydrogen atoms to coal dust, like water or vegetable oil, we have a result that looks like crude oil. Or used motor oil. Surely they wouldn’t use something like this in briquettes. Or would they? This could be considered a petroleum product using chemical formulas.

Hilditch
 
Oh, hell, HD you're really stretching here. I worked in an oil laboratory for 32 years. What do you want to teach me about tribology? Wanna buy some dehydrated H2O? All ya gotta do is add water.
 
Saying I was stretching coming from you was a compliment. I was trying to get it down to the basic ingredients and yes I was stretching to cover the concept of petroleum based products without suggesting they were processed petroleum additions, like the Match Light.

I deserved the call. Hopefully it helps others understand that there are similarities between coal and oil.

Hilditch
 
Interesting unsigned article. Kingsford adds coal, huh. I mentioned acidity in post #1. One may want to check out pics of cast iron skillets used on coal burning stoves to see what this natural material can do to cast iron.

It would be nice to think that the CEOs of Weber and Kingsford don’t play golf together, etc. and that there were no politics in that article. BTW, petroleum products, read oil, come from vegetation too.
The charcoal article author's name is Chris Allingham (bottom of page), and he has no business affiliation with Kingsford or Weber (bottom of page) nor does he benefit from the sale of either unless one purchases them from Amazon (bottom of page) using the links on his site. The recommendation of charcoal briquettes to the novice BBQer is primarily due to their ubiquitous availability and predictably consistent burn. I think if one actually reads the entire article, its WSM-focused as well as open-minded point of view is fairly clear. As a long time WSM and Weber kettle owner myself, I've used Kingsford in direct, indirect, high temp, low temp, and extended charcoal burn scenarios with no undesirable effects. I don't use the match light version nor do I use starter fluid, just a chimney starter and vegetable oil soaked paper towel.

As to sulfur pitting from briquettes, I've never seen complaints of such from the camp oven crowd, who use them for much the same reasons and obviously both in close proximity and in direct contact with the iron.
 
May I remind folks that this thread began discussing the flavor benefits of hardwood charcoal, not sulfur pitting. Some folks like an acidic taste like with hickory smoked meat compared to apple smoked meat and that is OK. I hope if you haven’t done it yet that you give hardwood charcoal a try.

Hilditch
 
The charcoal article author's name is Chris Allingham (bottom of page), and he has no business affiliation with Kingsford or Weber (bottom of page) nor does he benefit from the sale of either unless one purchases them from Amazon (bottom of page) using the links on his site. The recommendation of charcoal briquettes to the novice BBQer is primarily due to their ubiquitous availability and predictably consistent burn. I think if one actually reads the entire article, its WSM-focused as well as open-minded point of view is fairly clear. As a long time WSM and Weber kettle owner myself, I've used Kingsford in direct, indirect, high temp, low temp, and extended charcoal burn scenarios with no undesirable effects. I don't use the match light version nor do I use starter fluid, just a chimney starter and vegetable oil soaked paper towel.

As to sulfur pitting from briquettes, I've never seen complaints of such from the camp oven crowd, who use them for much the same reasons and obviously both in close proximity and in direct contact with the iron.


Thank you Doug. I was not trying to start a debate it was simply a good article. I enjoy that forum as it has a lot of good people and some very nice, basic recipes that you can build off of. Its my go-to when I cant remember salt/water ratio for a brine.
 
I regularly use standard Kingsford Blue Bag (KBB) charcoal and have never encountered the chemically taste or flavor you're describing. I use it in my WSM, kettle grill, and on camping trips with my son's scout pack for open grate cooking and dutch ovens. Never any problems, but every time they change the formula, the burn time seems to decrease a bit (although I have no empirical evidence to support that; it's more an anecdotal statement).

In the past, when I've gotten "deals", I've used Cowboy brand lump charcoal, and it does seem to burn hotter, but much faster. Knowing what I know now, I'd only use that for high-temp, direct grilling (steaks, chops, etc.). The burn rate is too fast/inconsistent to trust it to last long enough to cook a butt or brisket.
 
I'd suggest using Kingsford Competition or Stubbs briquettes if you aren't fan of the "off" smell and taste that the old school briquettes produce.

I like Kingsford Comp for the sole reason that it seems to smoke less than Stubbs in the chimney.
 
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