Ran out of lump, used briquettes. Am I going to hell?

nolaegghead · July 2012

In a span of 3 days I cooked Canadian bacon, NY strips, 6 pizzas and a pork butt (in that order). Almost ran out of lump during the pork butt and added briquettes. 20 pound bag of Mesquite lump from Sam's Club ended up being 25% dust, so I was caught off guard in the middle of the night.

The butt came out delicious. What was the reason briquettes shouldn't be used again? And am I going to hell for this?

ikolsteren · July 2012

You will have lots of ash to clean up is one.

ribnrun · July 2012

Yes. J/k. They are just made with lots of crap, they burn just fine though.

Mickey · July 2012

Only if they were the self-starting ones :-t

AleBrewer · July 2012

Just more ash

nolaegghead · July 2012

I've never bought the self-starting briquettes (gasoline incense). I still have some briquettes left over from my long-gone-gave-it-away-on-craigs-list crappy stamped steel grill.

But there are no fillers in briquettes that corrode or contaminate or some other nastiness the ceramic?

stike · July 2012

ribnrun, despite many assertions that the things are filled with crap, i haven't ever found any evidence to support it. people talk about 'chemicals', but that's just a bugaboo word. what chemicals? what 'crap' are we talking about?

if they are impregnated with the lighter fluid, then yeah. not good. but about the worst thing other than that might be that they add binders, otherwise the briquettes would fall apart. cornstarch is a binder. and since binders add mass but not fuel value, you get way more ash than you would with an equal weight of lump. i can't see that any brand name briquettes are going to be made with ( seemingly always unnamed) 'crap'.

joe@bge · July 2012

Used briquettes once...no harm no foul - as long as no chemical lighter fluids are used. No comparison to lump - IMO, but its not going to harm the Egg.

nolaegghead · July 2012

I...I just felt so dirty after using that lump. The shame was overwhelming.

nolaegghead · July 2012

I mean briquettes

bbqlearner · July 2012

You're going straight to eternal judgment for even considering it!!!!

Just kidding

)

nolaegghead · July 2012

I'm probably going for a lot worse!

Rubmyrock · July 2012

There is simply no justification for this Blasphemy and there's a corner of Satan's workshop filling up quite nicely with unholy Kingsford traitors like yourself. lol

chuff · July 2012

ribnrun, despite many assertions that the things are filled with crap, i haven't ever found any evidence to support it. people talk about 'chemicals', but that's just a bugaboo word. what chemicals? what 'crap' are we talking about?

if they are impregnated with the lighter fluid, then yeah. not good. but about the worst thing other than that might be that they add binders, otherwise the briquettes would fall apart. cornstarch is a binder. and since binders add mass but not fuel value, you get way more ash than you would with an equal weight of lump. i can't see that any brand name briquettes are going to be made with ( seemingly always unnamed) 'crap'.

Borax is one of the big ones that always seems to come up in the discussions. I'm not 100% sure why I'm supposed to be so upset about that, but that's the big one I always here.

"BORAX! BUT IT HAS BORAX! IT'S FULL OF BORAX!"

"Uh, okay."

nolaegghead · July 2012

Satan's running the biggest BBQ pit in the universe...of course he ain't just cookin' pig butts....

SmoothSmoke · July 2012

I've got a few bags of stubbs and K that I need to go through. I'm thinking of adding a few briquettes mixed int with the lump. 70/30 lump to briqs.

Any reason not to?

nolaegghead · July 2012

My pork but tasted great. I needed to clean out the ash anyway after the low n slow. So I don't see why not.

stike · July 2012

It's that the ash could/might/may cause a problem DURING the cook.

That's the party line anyway

nolaegghead · July 2012

yeah, the bottom of the egg is like a funnel/bottleneck for air and ash. I wouldn't stoke it during a cook lest the ashen briquettes collapse and choke off the air.

AleBrewer · July 2012

Have used briquettes for years in other pits.....absolutely no problems other than ash production. Briquettes don't burn as hot as lump either, but they do get plenty hot enough to sear over. They provide a nice, even burning fire. Light pretty easily with a chimney starter too. I can easily maintain a 250 degree fire in a UDS for over 16hrs on one load of briquettes.

Wicked Good has some new briquettes on the market now.

Plenty of people cooking and winning comps with briquettes.

nolaegghead · July 2012

So the consensus is: if the final product is good, briquettes are fine to use. I don't clean out my ashes but on average of once every three cooks (depending on what I'm doing). But I'd have to clean them more frequently with briquettes?

dlk7 · July 2012

You may be askig the wrong question. The question probably should be "How many bags of lump should I have on hand at all times?" I keep telling my wife that maintaining 300 pounds in the garage is one of the rules you have to follow to be a member of the forum.

nolaegghead · July 2012

I'd love to keep 300 pounds of lump stocked, but I've have to jettison some of my shop tools to gain the space and that ain't happenin'.

dlk7 · July 2012

I'd love to keep 300 pounds of lump stocked, but I've have to jettison some of my shop tools to gain the space and that ain't happenin'.

Time to add on to the garage.

nolaegghead · July 2012

I already broke about 20 zoning regulations last time I added on to it.

bigphil · July 2012

only 300 oh well told my wife it was 500

You may be askig the wrong question. The question probably should be "How many bags of lump should I have on hand at all times?" I keep telling my wife that maintaining 300 pounds in the garage is one of the rules you have to follow to be a member of the forum.

Baysidebob · July 2012

I've done a lotta things in my life that I'm not proud of. Lawd have mercy, briquettes in the egg ain't one of them.

nolaegghead · July 2012

Ya can't sing the blues until you've lived the blues....

GAegghead · July 2012

Actually the Sams choice briquet you mentioned contains two ingredients that account for high ash. Starch as a binder and lime as a cheap filler. Also if I am not mistaken contains petroleum coke

nolaegghead · July 2012

Actually the Sams choice briquet you mentioned contains two ingredients that account for high ash. Starch as a binder and lime as a cheap filler. Also if I am not mistaken contains petroleum coke

I had Royal Oak briquettes. I was using the Sam's lump, which I thought I had enough of, but turns out was 25% dust and tiny particles in the bottom - so I thought I had enough lump fuel.

GAegghead · July 2012

Royal Oak make the sam choice briquet

Ran out of lump, used briquettes. Am I going to hell?

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