Is this lump? or something else.... (answered: binchotan)

babalabashabalaba

Hello,
My neighbor saw me grilling and gave me a sample bag of these charcoal logs. He told me it was japanese, and very expensive. I used 1 piece of it today making pizza, and filled the rest of the egg with carbon del sur lump from RD. I had temps around 600f for about 2-3hrs. Most of the RD lump seem to have burned away while the piece of log remained. I was shocked. I know RD lump isn't top quality but damn, that one piece of lump outlasted the complete fill of the carbon del sur lump.

About the mysterious bag of lump.
1: they are very dense, putting a piece down on the cement sounded like they were rocks/light ceramic.
2: after the outer layer of carbon was burned away, it looks like plain wood, still extremely dense
3: looks like dehydrated logs, stopped midway during the lump making process

Does anyone know what these logs are? Are they even lump? Do more quality brand lumps exhibit these qualities-like rockwood?

I will ask my neighbor more about this. 


pic1: sample bagpic 2: next to weber jumbo joe for size reference

pic 3: pulled out 3 pieces from the top, very dense

pic 4: remains after shaking the KAB

pic 5: before shaking the KAB

yljkt

Looks like Binchotan to me....

babalabashabalaba

yljkt said:

Looks like Binchotan to me....

I think that's it!. White charcoal... interesting. v cool
Don't see much discussions on this. Wondering if anybody's used it.

stlcharcoal

Im not an expert on bichotan, but from a charcoal standpoint, what a ripoff!  Charred wood is not charcoal.  Charcoal should be the same carbonization all the way through.  Otherwise youre selling somebody a bag of wood......and wood weighs 6x more than charcoal thats 80-85% carbon.

blasting

If it won't burn, doesn't that make it debris?

nolaegghead

stlcharcoal said:

Im not an expert on bichotan, but from a charcoal standpoint, what a ripoff!  Charred wood is not charcoal.  Charcoal should be the same carbonization all the way through.  Otherwise youre selling somebody a bag of wood......and wood weighs 6x more than charcoal thats 80-85% carbon.

I'm not an expert on it either but it's reportedly one the few few charcoals that can be burned indoors (obviously not in large fires) because it does not create any smoke. 

I read they use a special oak and steam the wood at 1000 C.  I'm not sure if this stuff is not totally carbonized, or if it's even binchotan.

SamIAm2

If your interested:
http://blog.chefsarmoury.com/2010/07/binchotan-japanese-white-charcoal/

gdenby

Bichotan has a really high kindling temperature. From what I know, the remnant might not ever have been hot enough to really get going.

If the remnant was wood, it should have burned. so what is it?

Have you tried breaking the leftovers up? I wonder if you would find a porous structure that is a remnant of un-burnable material that the wood incorporated while growing. Silicates maybe, which some plants draw into their cells.

From what I've read, the sound from it when bumped should be a "clink" somewhat like metal.

And it does cost a fortune. Its only made from a kind of oak that is now rare in Japan, and carbonized by being blasted w. live steam.

stlcharcoal

The stuff I've seen almost reminds me of the sidewalk chaulk my kids play with.  Neat stuff, but nothing to be used in the average BBQ grill or smoker.  Definitely something invented prior to propane & natural gas.