What to do with "huge" charcoal pieces?

Gadfly

So I opened this 40# bag Lazarri mesquite charcoal and most of it consists of huge piece. We are talking about branches 8-10" long and 3-4" in diameter!

So should I break them down to smaller pieces before I put them in the egg or use them as they are?

Mike in Abita

Hit em with a hammer.

Gator Bait

 
I have a medium egg so I have to break them up. I have a hatchet for splitting large pieces of smoke wood and I use it to break up over sized pieces of lump.

Blair

 

Groundhog66

Yup, works perfectly.

Gadfly

But if they fit in your egg, would you keep them as they are? is there any downside to using oversized pieces?

yes, I know, this is a "good problem" to have!

Gator Bait

 
The only downside to the large pieces are that I don't think you would be able to fit as much lump in the egg. Some large pieces are great to put in the bottom of the fire box. They might help maintain a good air flow. I don't know how all large pieces are going to burn in relation to the heat out put, you might have fewer coals or less surface area to the coals(?), or to the longevity of your fire, will less lump density burn faster(?). The Naked Whiz is probably the person to ask, he is the expert. I use a Turbo Grate in the bottom of my egg. I have never used the regular charcoal grate and I think it does the same as stacking large chunks in the bottom, it may help air flow.

I did get a large piece of lump in a bag of Mesquite the other day that was not carbonized, it was still wood. I held it out not knowing if it was going to be like smoke wood or not.

Blair

 

Peter Creasey

Gadfly wrote:

So should I break them down to smaller pieces before I put them in the egg or use them as they are?

G, I decided to leave a big piece in a recent cook but I probably won't do it again.

It seemed to block the desired spreading of the fire around the whole fire box.