Kroger charcoal?

Coastalcooker · April 2012

I am relatively new to egging, but have successfully used Cowboy, Publix and Royal Oak. I picked up a bag of Kroger, thinking I had heard it was RO.I put on a butt at 0430. I lit the fire with a chimney, like I always do, let the smoke clean up, stabilized at 250 and then threw in apple chunks, added the plate setter and about seven pounds of butt. The temp started climbing. I went back to bed with temp at 150 and rising. It seemed the vent was open more than normal.
When I woke at 830, temp had not reached 200. I tried a wiggle rod, and finally opened vents a lot more than normal for low and slow to reach 300. Of course I could not find Turbo Butt instructions, but the meat was fine.
last night i tried a low and slow for chicken breast only to find I had the lower vent open 3/4 of max to hold 300.
After the first cook, I took the charcoal remaining out of the firebox and the holes were not blocked.
Is it the loose nut with the lighter or is it the charcoal?
Experience is a great teacher, please share yours.
Thanks Bob

Griffin · April 2012

Weird. I've never had any problems with Kroger brand and i use it all the time. Gets plety hot (if that's what I want) or stays low. Its supposed to be same as RO and BGE.

lousubcap · April 2012

+1 with Griffin on Kroger lump. 8.8# bag for around $6 and no issues. Been using it for over a year. No idea why you saw what you did...dome thermo calibrated?

The Cen-Tex Smoker · April 2012

I am relatively new to egging, but have successfully used Cowboy, Publix and Royal Oak. I picked up a bag of Kroger, thinking I had heard it was RO.I put on a butt at 0430. I lit the fire with a chimney, like I always do, let the smoke clean up, stabilized at 250 and then threw in apple chunks, added the plate setter and about seven pounds of butt. The temp started climbing. I went back to bed with temp at 150 and rising. It seemed the vent was open more than normal.
When I woke at 830, temp had not reached 200. I tried a wiggle rod, and finally opened vents a lot more than normal for low and slow to reach 300. Of course I could not find Turbo Butt instructions, but the meat was fine.
last night i tried a low and slow for chicken breast only to find I had the lower vent open 3/4 of max to hold 300.
After the first cook, I took the charcoal remaining out of the firebox and the holes were not blocked.
Is it the loose nut with the lighter or is it the charcoal?
Experience is a great teacher, please share yours.
Thanks Bob

Hi Bob- Probably user error on the charcoal but no biggie. Check out the novel I wrote on Brisket (under the Turbo Brisket thread) today and just scroll down to the fire section. You'll never have fire troubles again. I've screwed them up every way possible so maybe I can save you some grief.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · April 2012

I am relatively new to egging, but have successfully used Cowboy, Publix and Royal Oak. I picked up a bag of Kroger, thinking I had heard it was RO.I put on a butt at 0430. I lit the fire with a chimney, like I always do, let the smoke clean up, stabilized at 250 and then threw in apple chunks, added the plate setter and about seven pounds of butt. The temp started climbing. I went back to bed with temp at 150 and rising. It seemed the vent was open more than normal.
When I woke at 830, temp had not reached 200. I tried a wiggle rod, and finally opened vents a lot more than normal for low and slow to reach 300. Of course I could not find Turbo Butt instructions, but the meat was fine.
last night i tried a low and slow for chicken breast only to find I had the lower vent open 3/4 of max to hold 300.
After the first cook, I took the charcoal remaining out of the firebox and the holes were not blocked.
Is it the loose nut with the lighter or is it the charcoal?
Experience is a great teacher, please share yours.
Thanks Bob
Hi Bob- Probably user error on the charcoal but no biggie. Check out the novel I wrote on Brisket (under the Turbo Brisket thread) today and just scroll down to the fire section. You'll never have fire troubles again. I've screwed them up every way possible so maybe I can save you some grief.

Let's just do it this way:

The fire: After totally cleaning out the egg (for low and slow), I add
the lump. I use only the largest chunks of lump in the bag and I place them in
by hand to ensure max airflow. If it's smaller than a deck of cards,
I don't put it in my low and slow fires. I do not dump the lump in
from the bag so I don't get any small pieces or dust
clogging up the airflow. I put the lump to the top of the fire box (to the line
between the fire box and ring) and light it. I let it burn for 30 minutes or so
until all the lump is glowing and starting to
turn white (it's really hot by this time). I then add 3-4 fist size pieces of
of whatever wood you like to use (I'm partial to Pecan, Oak, Mesquite, or
Hickory but this is all personal preference and it's OK to use whatever you
like). I then put the plate setter on and then choke the fire down to 225-250
dome temp. I prep the meat while the fire is coming back down to temp. it does
not take too long and I find this process makes fires that never go out or lose
temp in the night.

Mighty_Quinn · April 2012

I like it....seems consistent with RO for me.

stike · April 2012

there's a school of thought that says small pieces are helpful to make sure the fire has a lot of bridging points to travel around. a 250 fire is pretty small, and some have felt their fire went out because they used nothing but large chunks. some of the R/O and cowboy stuff has been huge lately.

anyway, not sure what difference it makes. i know that elder ward mentions using larger chunks at the bottom to prevent ash buildup later on, but not necessarily because large chunks burn better.

most stable fire i ever had was during a snowstorm, and i used chips and small chunks (end of the bag) across the top of the lump. i had no more lump and used it up, and didn';t wanna go out and buy any. thatfire never wavered, and it was a noreaster.

i've long ago been converted to a dump-the-lump-straight-from-the-bag type. dump new lump, stir the whole mess with the ash tool to drop the ash, and then light. can';t see any major difference in my experience among different brands or chunk sizes. it all burns.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · April 2012

there's a school of thought that says small pieces are helpful to make sure the fire has a lot of bridging points to travel around. a 250 fire is pretty small, and some have felt their fire went out because they used nothing but large chunks. some of the R/O and cowboy stuff has been huge lately.

anyway, not sure what difference it makes. i know that elder ward mentions using larger chunks at the bottom to prevent ash buildup later on, but not necessarily because large chunks burn better.

most stable fire i ever had was during a snowstorm, and i used chips and small chunks (end of the bag) across the top of the lump. i had no more lump and used it up, and didn';t wanna go out and buy any. thatfire never wavered, and it was a noreaster.

i've long ago been converted to a dump-the-lump-straight-from-the-bag type. dump new lump, stir the whole mess with the ash tool to drop the ash, and then light. can';t see any major difference in my experience among different brands or chunk sizes. it all burns.

Lot of ways to do it for sure. I was a dump the lump guy for years but converted to the large chunks only 2 years ago and have not had a fire issue since. I think the size of the lump is not as important to the process as letting the entire load get going before shutting down to temp. I honestly think that has made the biggest difference for me. I tried the Elder way but had fires go out all the time (user error to be sure).

Kroger charcoal?

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