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Why Lump Charcoal

danny285
danny285 Posts: 360
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
why does everyone use lump charoal in their BGE, i have used it all but a friend uses Kingsford briquetes and wont consider useing lump, what is the diff except the ash{residue} just a thought. and maybe burn time.

Comments

  • kingsford is lump charocal, crushed, with added b8inders, and pressed into briquettes. doesn't burn as hot, and it creates a LOT of ash.

    we use our eggs three to four times a week, and clean them maybe twice a month.

    briquettes were invented to provide a product that had a predictable burn rate and temp. you'd light them, and once they ashed over (which means waiting for all the lump to be fully lit), you cooked on it. when you were doen cooking, the briquettes kept burning, leaving maybe a third of their weight in ash.

    when i'm done cooking, i shut my egg. next day, i open it up and fire off the lump which i didn't use from the night before.

    there are lots of reasons to consider lump. can't think of any to recommend briquettes. ;)

    ...but it is all about what you are comfortable with.

    consider this, you couldn't go overnight with briquettes (in an egg anyway) without worry from the copious ash choking it out. why bother? briquettes are cheaper, but cost more in the long run from waste, ash, lower temps, etc. etc.
  • Petunia
    Petunia Posts: 110
    To quote from the BGE cookbook, "Most traditional charcoal briquettes are made from scrap lumber that has been charred, ground to a powder, and combined with ground coal, limestone, starch binders, fillers, and petroleum-based additives to make them easier to light." Enough said. Almost sounds like the ingredients list on a package of Twinkies And before anyone jumps all over me, I love Twinkies. Of course I put red sugar sprinkles on sugar cookies and I just found out that contains carnuba wax.
  • tach18k
    tach18k Posts: 1,607
    I think 20 pounds of lump may last longer than 20 pounds of kingdford. people who use kingsford may not know of another way or product to use. I used to use kingsford to start my smoking in an offset unit, then just add wood as needed. portability, generally a small bag of kingsford may get you to the beach to cook easier than lump,
  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    Actually Briquettes were invented to sell more cars!!!

    or so Kingsford says
  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    You can use whatever your little heart desires; however, if you want peak performance from your Egg use Lump.
  • Little Chef
    Little Chef Posts: 4,725
    Danny...As the others have said, the briquetts generate SO much ash. Here is a recent example here....I (almost) filled the firebox with lump in preparation for a low n slow pork cook. The cook went 18 hours. I shut the egg down. Next firing of the egg, I knocked the ash out, and re-lit the same lump. We cooked steaks that night. The next night, I repeated...knocked the ash out, and we cooked some boneless thighs. Yesterday...I needed to smoke some Amberjack. I knew I was cooking it a low temps, so I knocked the ash, and relit. 3.5 hour smoking of the fish. ALL these cooks on one load of lump! And as a topper, I opened the bottom vent and pulled off the DFMT to burn off the rest....the Egg still reached over 550*!! This is the honest to God truth! I don't think I could have come CLOSE to that with a full load of briquetts....AT all. Try to convert him! :laugh:
  • Woody69
    Woody69 Posts: 360
    stripstike wrote:
    there are lots of reasons to consider lump. can't think of any to recommend briquettes. ;)

    .



    That pretty much sums it up. :) :laugh: :)
  • EGGARY
    EGGARY Posts: 1,222
    Kingford Briquettes was founded by Henry Ford. He used the scraps of wood that was used to make cars and was turned into briquette charcoal.
  • F308gt4
    F308gt4 Posts: 35
    Little Chef wrote:
    Danny...As the others have said, the briquetts generate SO much ash. Here is a recent example here....I (almost) filled the firebox with lump in preparation for a low n slow pork cook. The cook went 18 hours. I shut the egg down. Next firing of the egg, I knocked the ash out, and re-lit the same lump. We cooked steaks that night. The next night, I repeated...knocked the ash out, and we cooked some boneless thighs. Yesterday...I needed to smoke some Amberjack. I knew I was cooking it a low temps, so I knocked the ash, and relit. 3.5 hour smoking of the fish. ALL these cooks on one load of lump! And as a topper, I opened the bottom vent and pulled off the DFMT to burn off the rest....the Egg still reached over 550*!! This is the honest to God truth! I don't think I could have come CLOSE to that with a full load of briquetts....AT all. Try to convert him! :laugh:

    Just curious, what lump are you using, and what size egg? I have a large, and use either RO or Mesquite lump available locally- I can not get that much out of a load of lump.

    Thanks.
  • Frobozz
    Frobozz Posts: 98
    There are a lot of misconceptions about briquettes -- particularly about whether the stuff in them is bad for you -- but the main reason to use lump in an Egg is because it works better.

    Lump generally produces far less ash/residue (an issue in the Egg because ash can block air flow) and it is easily extinguished and re-lit/reused in the Egg. Briquettes aren't friendly to re-lighting -- even though you can sometimes -- because they have a tendency to fall apart and I don't think they put out much heat the second time around. They're really designed to be a one-use product. Lump can be lit again and again until it's gone.

    One great advantage of using the Egg is that the endless cycle of cleaning/emptying ash from the grill disappears -- I empty the ash from my Egg about once a month, and I use it 2-3 times a week. To get that advantage, you must use lump. If you insist on briquettes (and they will work, btw), you're probably going to have to clean out your Egg after every cooking session, which is a pain.

    Good lump can be found cheaply. Royal Oak lump and many private labels made by Royal Oak can be easily found for under $7 per 10 pounds (sometimes WAY under $7), and that's enough for at least a dozen cooks in my medium Egg (and probably more).
  • define "load of lump" :laugh:

    the old cookbook advised "a couple handfuls of lump". sure, that will work fine, but for only a short cook of medium heat.

    if you fill the firebowl with royal oak/bge, you can go 30 hours or more low-and-slo. for a long high heat cook like back-to-back-to-back pizzas, you'd want to fill pretty good, up into the fire ring maybe. that could give you an hour or more at 650-700.

    for most cooks, i think most of us add some new lump to the old, keeping the level of lump to a mound that fills the firebowl. i can't think of a time i ever ran out of lump during a cook.
  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
    Myself and my family don't like the lighter fluid taste on any of our food.
  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
    You can't relight briquettes and use them over like you can lump.
  • Wanabe
    Wanabe Posts: 355
    PhilsGrill wrote:
    You can't relight briquettes and use them over like you can lump.

    I would clean and relight my Weber all the time with old briquettes. Then the light came on and I bought an egg.
  • Cruzr
    Cruzr Posts: 91
    Can't do as well as LC, but I just did an 11 hour pulled pork cook on a med BGE, and could easily do another with the lump that's left, just knocking out the old ash (what little there is of it) clearing the vents/holes and relighting. That would have been a bag of briqs in the WSM and I would still probably have had to reload as well.
  • johann
    johann Posts: 111
    Far more information that you probably care for:

    http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm
  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
    Ah I should have said you are not supposed to relight as the used briquettes give of bad VOC's when this is done. That's why you should not add new briquettes to an already existing fire.
  • Lump provides the true flavor of cooking over wood, whether it be BBQ or grilling. Wood fires were built and burned down to coals which were then used to cook with. Many traditional pittmasters burn wood, but they burn it in a firebox until it burns down to coals, and the coals are what is actually added to the BBQ pit to cook the food. You don't see pix of Dutch ovens with briqs on them, it's always wood coals. Early backyard BBQ pit designs included a side box for burning down the wood before adding it to the cook. Briqs are just a product designed to use up scrap materials (as stated above)and were marketed very well back then, beginning a "new tradidtion" for backyard grillers. Use lump for that true wood cooked flavor be it grilled or BBQ'd. IMO
  • danny285
    danny285 Posts: 360
    I have always used Lump in my Lrg BGE, i have used Bge lump RO, Ozark Oak , Cowboy , Wicked Good and now am using Frontier because of the best price i have found anywhere on lump. I usually fill the bge up and use until its about gone , shake the turboGrate and refill and keep on going, The TurboGrate is the best Acc ever for the bge. No briquets for me too much ash and odors.