Briquettes, heresy?

jllbms

Does *anyone* here use briquettes? If so, to what effect? Thanks, john

RRP

No, but you could in a pinch - just keep in mind all the ash they create and you have to clean that ash out of that tiny vent hole at the bottom! Not my idea of fun when lump leaves so little ash by comparison.

Ladeback69

I wouldn't, if it has chemicals in it that you don't want in your egg. My dealer told me not to use them. I prefer the taste of the lump.

nolaegghead

They work fine.  There's nothing inherently bad for the egg in briquettes, unless you use Match-light.  They do leave more ash so you're not going to get as many cooks before you need to clean the egg.  I've used them when out of lump.  I try not to run out of lump.

Competitions are won using briquettes all the time.

henapple

No they're not...no competition has ever been won using briquettes.

NPHuskerFL

To many unknown possible toxins for my taste. I'll stick with lump. Even if I was in a pinch I'd burn straight wood before briquettes. I had up until I owned my egg used KF and had no issues in my lil brinkman smoker but, the egg absorbs this into the ceramics. Not to mention the ash production as Ron stated.

jllbms

So, there's a blogger that goes by Meathead that seems to be fairly expert. He uses nothing but briquettes due to consistency. Also, there a "pure" briquettes that have no chemicals. I've not tried any of them. The bag of Fogo that I just used up had football sized lumps that had to be chopped up with a hatchet! Yuck.

nolaegghead

henapple said:

No they're not...no competition has ever been won using briquettes.

Troll!

Eggcelsior

nolaegghead said:

henapple said:

No they're not...no competition has ever been won using briquettes.

Troll!


Don't worry Nola. He's just mad about the arrest. Poh-leece with throwin' shade on his game.

nolaegghead

NPHuskerFL said:

To many unknown possible toxins for my taste. I'll stick with lump. Even if I was in a pinch I'd burn straight wood before briquettes. I had up until I owned my egg used KF and had no issues in my lil brinkman smoker but, the egg absorbs this into the ceramics. Not to mention the ash production as Ron stated.

@NPHuskerFL Hahaha....  That's like saying "I don't buy E85 from Chevon because I don't want any toxins or tigers in my 100% natural gasoline"!!!  (while it's ethanol mostly that's added). ***

First of all, burning wood/charcoal (wood more than charcoal) generates thousands of poisonous, toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and every other type of xxx-genic chemical category that are named.  If you're really concerned about that, I'd stick with a gasser. 

Second, the additives, while not something you'd want to pour milk over and eat for beakfast, aren't any worse than the charcoal dust that they hold together.  Typically they're binders - starch and clay.  Both of which are less toxic than the charcoal itself.

***Note - ethanol fuels SUCK, not because they're toxic, the ethanol at least isn't, but because they F-U the fuel system by absorbing water and causing corrosion, and they are polar and attack polar gaskets and fuel components.  And it's bad for the environment to grow corn just to ferment and burn.

NPHuskerFL

@nolaegghead‌...I was speaking of matchlite guess I should've been specific. And to be clear I get edgy when I'm down to 40#-60# of lump. E85 is about as common as was the Beta player was when VHS was released (I know of one filling station that has it here and we have probably a thousand or more filling stations). I was simply saying I wouldn't use it in my egg. Come on bro don't bust my chops. :-D

nolaegghead

@NPHuskerFL - hey man, you know I love ya.  I'm an equal opportunity chop buster. 

Matchlight is especially bad in an egg because you don't light all the charcoal before you start cooking, so it constantly boils out of the lump not lit, but hot, and ruins the food.  When used in a regular charcoal grill as instructed (everything ashed over and burning), it's a factor of 1000 less noticeable.

Ladeback69

If I can by Royal Oak at $12 to $15 a bag I will stay with it. I like the flavor better. Briquettes are like the McDonald's nugget of lump, to many unknown things in it. Any kind of fire used to cook food is going to create carcinogens, ethen propane, but that char flavor is what we all love.

nolaegghead

I would rather eat a briquette than a McDonald's chicken nugget.

SenecaTheYounger

+1 Nola re: the baseless "toxins" warnings that are constantly repeated about briquettes.

The issue with briquettes isn't that they are made from unknown glowing substances which fell to earth, like a 'Happy Fun Ball' (volume alert),it's that they were designed to burn only at a fixed rate in open air, so that back yard barbecuing dads, pre and post WWII, could have an easy manageable fire over which to cook for their idyllic families.

One guy on the lake uses them almost exclusively.  They seem to work fine.  I prefer lump for the lower ash volume, and because I believe (empirical evidence only) that my steak cooks (high heat cooks) are faster and hotter than can be achieved with briquettes.  Since the egg is airtight, I do believe he also shuts down and reuses the remaining briquettes.  Not really possible in a drafty metal cooker, so most believe you cannot reuse them.  You can.

But the amount of binder involved means very high ash volume. 

Ladeback69

Me too. Its my 5 year olds favorite food. I'm sorry I started him with them. There is not much I will eat at McDonald's at all.

caliking

Briqs have their place in the world. Good 'cue can, and is, produced using them as fuel. The egg is not the cooker to use them in though, the copious ash being the primary problem, IMO. 

Durangler

Boy, you guys are fired up tonight!!
=D>

henapple

nolaegghead said:

henapple said:

No they're not...no competition has ever been won using briquettes.

Troll!


Your mom's a troll

nolaegghead

Hey, my momma reads this forum man!

Eggcelsior

So says the guy with no pants.

KenfromMI

Actually the Minion method was invented by Jim Minion a guy who threw an axle on his pull behind otw to a competition , bought a WSM and Blue Bag Briquettes neither of which he ever used and won one category and placed high in another first time out. Plenty of guys using briquettes especially the Kingsford Competition with great results. No chemicals in those. I've used them since they were invented until I got two free bags of lump when I bought my BGE. If I can find a grate the same size as my grate on my BGE but designed like the one in my WSM I'm going to use my six back up bags of briquettes sitting in my garage in my BGE. When you use the competition they smell way better than the lump I have and actually smell like wood and no strong VOC's like the BGE brand lump they gave me with the unit and no thick black smoke at light up either. They also produce a lot less ash than any other briquette I've tried in the past.

nolaegghead

You're thinking of Sans Y Pants

Biggreenpharmacist

Ive used briqs in a pinch in my small egg at the deer camp. Lots of ash is still better than no egg fuel at all.

Cloom

KenfromMI said:

Actually the Minion method was invented by Jim Minion a guy who threw an axle on his pull behind otw to a competition , bought a WSM and Blue Bag Briquettes neither of which he ever used and won one category and placed high in another first time out. Plenty of guys using briquettes especially the Kingsford Competition with great results. No chemicals in those. I've used them since they were invented until I got two free bags of lump when I bought my BGE. If I can find a grate the same size as my grate on my BGE but designed like the one in my WSM I'm going to use my six back up bags of briquettes sitting in my garage in my BGE. When you use the competition they smell way better than the lump I have and actually smell like wood and no strong VOC's like the BGE brand lump they gave me with the unit and no thick black smoke at light up either. They also produce a lot less ash than any other briquette I've tried in the past.

+1 to KenfromMI, Harry Soo from the Slap Yo Daddy BBQ team uses Kingsford Blue Bag and I know he does well in comps . I also used to use Kinsford Competition when I had a WSM and while it did produce less ash then the blue bag I think it will produce too much ash for an egg. I guess in a pinch it would work but that would be a real pain to clean and on a long cook would probably clog up the firebox.

Firemanyz

I have often thought about this because I can get a #40 bag of royal oak chef select briquettes for $15. We use them in our stick smoker and chicken grill at the fire house for fundraisers. I really like the taste of them. They are listed on the bag as 100% hardwood. I have looked on royal oak's site but was unable to find and info as to if anything is added to them. I have 250 lbs of lump in the garage but I may try some soon. If i do I'll report back.

Biggreenpharmacist

My opinion, briqs would do better for a low and slow than a hot fire. If im in a pinch, Im not attempting a cook where I need nuclear temps. Im goin indirect or direct moderate temp. I have no proof, but that was my experience. Maybe NOLA can give us an equation explaining it?

Zmokin

I use briquettes with my DO (I don't put my DO in the EGG).

I also use briquettes in my little "Smokey Joe" when camping and in my Vertical water smoker when not going electric.  The EGG gets nothing but lump charcoal and wood chunks for smoke.

nolaegghead

Biggreenpharmacist said:

My opinion, briqs would do better for a low and slow than a hot fire. If im in a pinch, Im not attempting a cook where I need nuclear temps. Im goin indirect or direct moderate temp. I have no proof, but that was my experience. Maybe NOLA can give us an equation explaining it?

Whatever gives you good taste (results).  I wouldn't worry about ash on a low-n-slow if you light on the top, it'll burn down, the ash is downstream the air flow.  Lump will burn hotter, but if you look at the naked wizard's comparison between the competition briqs, regular briqs and lump, they all get over 1000F.   So that really doesn't make a difference unless you're smelting aluminum ingots.

Biggreenpharmacist

I just was having hard time getting it up to temp with briqs. Temp just isnt as easy to control ( or so it seems).

nolaegghead

Most briquettes have a uniform size and have channels molded in them to make air flow well.  They're not nearly as porous as lump, and so they don't burn as hot.