Coal in an Egg?

Marc wrote:

I've searched but couldn't find an answer. Can you burn hard coal - that is, anthracite - in a BGE? Does anyone know where to buy it?[p]Thanks.

Why would you want too?

My wife bought some briquettes from Dollar General for me to use on my Weber Grill. Reading the bag I saw that it was made in China. I used it and the ash was the dirtiest, blackest and sootiest I've ever seen. One cook was enough.

for some reason, people jump all over the thought of using coal in the egg. but it's been used to cook over for thousands of years. we had an old coal-fired six-burner stove built in the 1880s.


i'm sure you could, just don't know what the benefit would be. i'd imagine that lighter wood lump would burn hotter (for searing, etc.). fishless burns coal to heat his place, and i think he says the ash output is huge. ash isn't good in the egg.

Since the best pizza kitchens use coal-fired ovens and that my application would be baking and not grilling, coal might be worth exploring.

My only concern was 1) would the high heat be bad for the BGE and 2) where to buy the stuff in metro Atlanta.

I've gotten the BGE too hot for my pizza with lump charcoal. I'm thinking that I can maintain a moderately high temperature for a lot longer with coal. I go through too many bags of charcoal when making pizza.

you need to change to a different setup if its too hot for pizza. i fill this tank end with sand and place the pizza stone down into the sand for cooking. a blue flame rolls up the outside edges and hovers above the pizza at 1100 degrees F. 53 seconds and its done, spinning the pie halfway thru the cook as the back side really is hotter than that. from what i remember about the origional coal stoves the pie isnt placed directly in the coal fumes and soot, if you look at my yard in winter there is ash everywhere on top of the snow, coal has a tremendous amt of ash, i caryy 4 tons into the house a year, and it must be 3 tons of ash back out to dispose of. you would also need a different style grate to burn coal on as well. like i said though, watch those band, they get real loose.







the egg handles the heat, the firebox and ring doesnt, this is a nine piece firebox reassembled and still cooking. the high heat makes them whiter than new

I like it! You obviously fabricated the metalwork. Not sure what you mean by "sand."

But that it the key for perfect pizza: high heat for short baking times. I can only do OK pizza in under 5 minutes with my basically stock setup.

Yeah, I keep burning up my gaskets and I'm not even doing the hardcore setup you have.

So I guess the short answer is don't do coal.

Don't suppose you've seen this guy's site.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/

He rigged his kitchen range to cook at the self-clean cycle.

Marc,
need coal? i live in the coal region....it's everywhere... ne pa....i asked the same question and got scorned and ridiculed...one of these days... i'm going to try it..alot of folks use it as a heat source here.... i have fond memories of making toast(from homemade bread baked in coal stove's oven or in the outside wood fired bake oven) over the open fire of grandma's coal stove..thanks for reminding me to try it....my cast iron grate burned out on my egg....(i'm presently using a piece of stainless salvaged from an old farberware pot) i'm going to make a new one from a stainless beer barrel(nice and thick).... it think that would be the weak point in burning anthracite.... the factory grate won't last long...

i went from factory grate to expanded metal to this inconel one. should last a lifetime, but its probably worth a couple hundred dollars the way prices have increased in the last year.

Michael B wrote:

Marc,
The BGE was designed to burn lump WOOD charcoal.
Max burn temp for lump is between 1100 and 1400 degrees f.
Coal burns at about 3500 degrees f.
What do you think?

Well, I [ul]think[/ul] you definitely answered my question. Thanks. But if I limit the amount of coal and keep the damper openings at a proper setting, wouldn't it be possible to keep a consistent 650 - 700 degrees?

I have my BGE in a wood cart, so any higher temps would set it on fire.

To answer a previous question about pizza dough recipes, Jeff's recipe should work fine. Once you've let it cold rise and work it with more flour into a crust for baking, it'll be great. If your heat is hot enough and you can get the kind of circulation necessary in the BGE, you should be able to get a pizza cooked nicely in less than 2 minutes.

I use a wet dough as well, but only cook at about 600 degrees. Very good, but not the real deal that you'd get with a hotter temp.