What's wrong with briquettes?

magyar · August 2015

I have found lump to be inconsistent. Big pieces, little pieces, tiny pieces, dust. What's wrong with briquettes? They are consistent, have an even heat, and you don't have to worry as much about VOC's, etc. I've used them in a pinch and they seem to be as good or better than lump.

lkapigian · August 2015

Nothing artificial....briquettes to lump is a good cigar to a cigarette...inconsistent lump size does not bother me, I'll use briquettes on my Ca Ja China

johnnyp · August 2015

Briquettes typically are less flavor neutral than lump and have filler that leads to ash and airflow problems.

nothing is wrong with them, most prefer lump for flavor, higher heat capabilities and limited ash

nolaegghead · August 2015

Nothing.

Dondgc · August 2015

Many use them regularly depending on need. Certainly no harm in it. But there is more ash.

Ladeback69 · August 2015

Agree to the above and you don't want to use the ones that have lighter fluid in them. Briquettes are pieces that have been put back together and who knows what they have added to keep them together. I would use them in a Weber kettle or smokey joe, but not in my egg. I haven't bought a bag in years. I always use lump in my Egg and WSM.

ChokeOnSmoke · August 2015

In my WSM days, I used nothing but briquettes and they worked just fine.
Now I use nothing but lump, higher temps (if I need it), a lot less ash and I just like it better now. I'd have no problems using briquettes in a pinch though.

Fred19Flintstone · August 2015

nolaegghead said:

Nothing.

Hey we agree! Who wudda thunk dat?

Darby_Crenshaw · August 2015

the only real issue is ash. a decent bit more than lump. and that could choke airflow.

the extra ash (in addition to the charcoal itself) comes from the binder, which is inert stuff like clay or cornstarch. there's a decent amount of binder added.

there are no evil "chemicals" in these these beyond the same lump you use, pulverized, and held together with binder. some briquettes DO have lighter fluid in them, which is not good (for the BGE). but as for chemicals (and we all know how bad 'chemicals!' are), there aren't any to worry about. i mean, other than the far more dangerous stuff produced by burning charcoal.

you may find it hard to get rip roaring hot, because their very reason for being invented was to make a unit that burnt consistently and evenly in an open air situation. since we can control temps with regular lump (BGEs are airtight), we don't really need that even heat.

but i bet for somethng where the dome is up, and burning for a long time (like paella, burgers, etc., briquettes might have an edge. shut the lower vents and let the stuff burn from the open dome

Theophan · August 2015

I feel a little hesitant admitting this, given how many here rave about "neutral" lump, but all I've ever used in my Eggs is BGE-brand lump (which I gather is the same as Royal Oak), and I really like the mild smoky flavor it gives food. I usually don't add wood chips or chunks when cooking chicken, but with BGE lump there's still a very mild but still noticeable smoky fragrance and flavor that smells like a wood fire to me, and I really like it.

Many years ago, when I used a Weber kettle, I realized that the more scrupulous I was about using a chimney instead of lighter fluid, using good quality briquettes (some of them have petroleum products in them), and trying to eliminate fat that dripped down on the fire to burn back up again, the more and more my food looked grilled but tasted broiled. There really wasn't much "charcoal-grilled flavor."

I eventually switched to a Weber gas grill, figuring that if charcoal wasn't going to taste that charcoal-ey, I might as well take advantage of how easy gas is, and I have to say, it was nice just turning it on, and a short while later, it's ready to go! But several years of that and I just wasn't happy with the food, and it was just clearer and clearer that just plain everyone who is really devoted to grilling or smoking, all of the experts and hot shots, every one of them cooks on wood or charcoal, not gas. That's when I started thinking about the BGE, and waffling about how expensive they are until my wife finally just bought me one. I LOVE the food I cook, now! And I don't want to do anything that feels like going backward.

I'll take the word for it of the few of you who've used briquettes in your Eggs, but ain't no briquettes goin' in mine!

YukonRon · August 2015

Competition Charcoal by Kingsford, is ok. I use it in the Webber. Thus far, I have only used lump in the BGEs.

Hungry Joe · August 2015

Ash.

nolaegghead · August 2015

How is ash that bad if you can maintain your temps? "Holy sheet! I threw out my back toting 16 oz of ash....if I would've just used lump...it would have been 4 oz. OH THE HUMANITY!!"

Answer. It's not that big a deal. Unless you pull the southern crypt method and never clean it all out.

g37 · August 2015

The one thing that drew me to the egg was cooking with wood. I always loved food cooked over a wood fire. To me briquettes always tasted like fuel.

Mikee · August 2015

I can still remember using briquettes. Wait an hour for them to get semi-hot. Spend forever cooking on them. Pull the food off the grill to only find out they were finally hot. I'll take the inconsistency of lump and have a hot fire ready to cook on in 15 minutes. During that 15 minutes I'm inside doing prep work.

shadowrider · August 2015

I also use BGE/RO pretty exclusively so far but I'm new to the BGE too. It's the only one available in my area except for Cowboy and maybe a couple others that everyone says to avoid like the plague.

I'd really like to try Rockwood but it's not available here and I'd never even heard of it until I found this forum. Kind of irritating since I share a state line with where it's made. I think it would be better for controlling the wood flavor in low and slows but BGE/RO is tasting pretty good on everything I've done so far so I'm happy.

As far as briquettes I don't see the need. Less heat, lower burn time, can't re-use the leftover well and more ash. If that's all you can get I don't see anything wrong with it, but I'm sticking with lump.

Hungry Joe · August 2015

Ash from briquettes will clog the big green egg on anything but a short cook. I still like low and slow, 16 hour cook ain't going to happen with briquettes because of ash build up.

Maybe I should have added cooking temperatures also.

Try and hit 600 degrees for any length of time with briquettes.

Also I am certain you can get higher temps with lump then briquettes if that is needed for a cook.

All of the above is a result of to much ash build up.

I will agree in a pinch use what you got, otherwise use lump.

tarheelmatt · August 2015

Someone about 20 years ago posted that briquettes were for sissy's... I just didn't want to be part of that.

air1keh · August 2015

This is what Kingsford is made from: KINGSFORD charcoal is manufactured from wood charcoal, anthracite coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, sawdust, and borax.

Personally I have no interest in cooking with or exposing my food to anthracite coal or sodium nitrate. I get that it may be in small quantities and is "not harmful" but why go that route if there is good quality lump out there that can provide some decent flavor.

Wowens · August 2015

I had some briquettes left from weber kettle I used as a portable. I've been using them mixed in with my lump to us them up. They do fine mixed with the lump. I'm guessing I'm getting some heat out of them, but at the least I'm getting them out of my way

Darby_Crenshaw · August 2015

pizza ovens in NYC have been coal fired for a hundred years, and coal has been a source of fuel for cooking in america for probably longer than it hasn't.

non issue.

the nitrate is already in the lump anyway. smoke ring anyone?

it's the sawdust (non-issue), borax (harmless), starch (harmless) which contribute so much ash that make long cooks a potential issue but, yes, Nola, if you can control the temps, fine)

the rest of it is just people bein scared a' what they dunno

HeavyG · August 2015

tarheelmatt said:

Someone about 20 years ago posted that briquettes were for sissy's... I just didn't want to be part of that.

Well...real men make their own lump charcoal.

odie91 · August 2015

Funny how some of you eat pounds of red meat and drink gallons of beer a day, then say you're concerned with the chemicals found in briquettes lol.

Ladeback69 · August 2015

shadowrider said:

I also use BGE/RO pretty exclusively so far but I'm new to the BGE too. It's the only one available in my area except for Cowboy and maybe a couple others that everyone says to avoid like the plague.

I'd really like to try Rockwood but it's not available here and I'd never even heard of it until I found this forum. Kind of irritating since I share a state line with where it's made. I think it would be better for controlling the wood flavor in low and slows but BGE/RO is tasting pretty good on everything I've done so far so I'm happy.

As far as briquettes I don't see the need. Less heat, lower burn time, can't re-use the leftover well and more ash. If that's all you can get I don't see anything wrong with it, but I'm sticking with lump.

@shadowrider, you do know that BGE is basically RO? So if you like like RO just buy it, it is cheaper. Rockwood is made in St Louis, what state do you live in, because I believe they sell in all the states around Missouri? @stlcharcoal that is correct, right? It's good stuff IMHO.

tarheelmatt · August 2015

HeavyG said:

tarheelmatt said:

Someone about 20 years ago posted that briquettes were for sissy's... I just didn't want to be part of that.

Well...real men make their own lump charcoal.

Does rolling coal count?

LincolnPark_Egghead · August 2015

I've mostly used briquettes. I've been doing a lot of pizza cooks (650+) and found that for the price, briquettes performed very well. I've used Kingsford blue bag as well as Kingsford Lump briquettes.

All of the comments about ash are spot on. But at 2/3rd the price of lump, its a trade off I'm willing to make.

HeavyG · August 2015

air1keh said:

This is what Kingsford is made from: KINGSFORD charcoal is manufactured from wood charcoal, anthracite coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, sawdust, and borax.

Personally I have no interest in cooking with or exposing my food to anthracite coal or sodium nitrate. I get that it may be in small quantities and is "not harmful" but why go that route if there is good quality lump out there that can provide some decent flavor.

Those are all natural ingredients. If you eat any cured meats you are consuming far more nitrates than you might get from cooking over Kingsford.

Kingsford gives a much better smoke ring than most lump (perhaps that is what the sodium nitrate is in their to help with??).

Most people talk about the "best" lump being neutral in flavor so I'm not sure how a neutral fuel source then imparts "decent flavor".

Especially, since so many folks use rubs, sauces, glazes, add flavor woods to the fire, etc., etc.

I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of people in blind taste testing could not reliably determine what the source of fuel was - lump, Kingsford, propane/NG - or even the type of grill/cooker used for something cooked by an otherwise competent chef.

Focker · August 2015

You can tell Kingsford vs lump.
There are cooks like traditional BBQ and burgers, that I prefer the flavor, and longer, steadier, heat from briquettes.

Stacks of both are in the charcoal warehouse. (shed)

The health risk argument is ugh, so weak.

It baffles me, with the amount of people here, who look at learning in a one way, linear, fashion. And then, bash something that they never quite grasped, or even had experience with. When those peeps would flounder, without their Thermapen, Guru, Rockwood, commercial rubs, BGE, etc etc.

Darby_Crenshaw · August 2015

@HeavyG re: " If you eat any cured meats you are consuming far more nitrates than you might get from cooking over Kingsford"

i'll go one better. if you opt to have a nice spinach salad, you've just had more nitrate than if you had a package of bacon. celery, beets, spinach, all very high in nitrates.

in fact, people think they are being healthy by buying "no artificial nitrates added" bacon at whole foods. it's cured with celery powder instead. why? because it is high in nitrate.

and focker's point is excellent: "It baffles me, with the amount of people here, who look at learning in a one way, linear, fashion. And then, bash something that they never quite grasped, or even had experience with. When those peeps would flounder, without their Thermapen, Guru, Rockwood, commercial rubs, BGE, etc etc. "

ten years ago it was not possible, given the great lore of the green egg, to cook a pork butt over 250. now it's 'turbo everything'. lots of stuff like that.

if people just slow down and pay attention, the answers are all there. just figure it out.

Carolina Q · August 2015

Focker said:

...bash something that they never quite grasped, or even had experience with. When those peeps would flounder, without their Thermapen, Guru, Rockwood, commercial rubs, BGE, etc etc.

But, but... those products are the darlings of the forum! The Kool-Aid! On a forum like this, people have to hop on the bandwagon for the favored products, and show no mercy when discussing the others. To do otherwise is simply begging for ridicule!

shadowrider · August 2015

Ladeback69 said:

@shadowrider, you do know that BGE is basically RO? So if you like like RO just buy it, it is cheaper. Rockwood is made in St Louis, what state do you live in, because I believe they sell in all the states around Missouri? @stlcharcoal that is correct, right? It's good stuff IMHO.

Yes, that's why I use RO. They have pallets of it at Home Depot for about $13 a bag. About 1/2 the price of the BGE which is stocked at the pool store right by my house. HD ran it on sale this summer for $9.97 and it sold out before I could get up there. Of course as soon as the sale was over new pallets appeared.

I'm in Oklahoma and have not been able to find Rockwood anywhere. I know I can order it online but I'd like to try a bag before I back up the truck. Plus I'd likely just use it when I wanted to manipulate the smoke taste in the food and use RO for most general cooks. With the price of RO and it working so well I just can't justify a large qty purchase which is the only feasible way to buy online. $30 (after shipping) for a bag just doesn't really make sense. When I get up that way I'll pick up a couple bags of RW.

What's wrong with briquettes?

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