Charcoal Choice

THEBuckeye

northGAcock said:

stlcharcoal said:

I bought my kids a box of Snyders Hard Pretzels last week.  The guy had just put them on the shelf, they were in a box, and they went from the shelf, to my basket, to the front seat of my truck.....never got dropped.  I open the box for them, and there were three complete pretzels--the other 15-20 were in pieces.  The kids didn't care, and they tasted the same.

The whole size argument really only means anything when it comes to burn time if you have an open air grill (no lid).  If you're metering the airflow, like in a kamado, it doesn't matter if it's one big piece or a bunch of little pieces.....there is only so much oxygen that's hitting the heat and carbon.  Lump is porous--ours is ~250 g/m2 which means a golf ball sized piece of lump has as much surface area as a tennis court.  BTU/lbs is BTU/lbs--doesn't matter the size.  

The one exception is the kamado where the firebox funnels the charcoal together keeping it tightly packed.  If the pieces are too small and you haven't replaced the firebox, it can choke the airflow.  But the opposite holds true as well since it uses so little airflow.  There is a VERY small part of the charcoal burning in that firebox and if it's a big chunk that's too far away from the next big chunk, the fire will go out.  Some here call it a "fire bridge".  I just know it takes a temp of 673F to keep charcoal burning, and with such a tiny little spot burning, that next piece better be close enough to catch that radiant heat since carbon burns at about 1500F.  The fuel efficiency of the kamado can also be it's downfall.  Put two eggs side by side with the same weight (not volume), and burn them as the same temp......one with the top half of the bag, one with the bottom half of the bag.  They'll go out at the same time unless one of those two things happen.  And in 25 yrs of Egg'ing, I've had both happened equally.

The other thing with huge chunks of charcoal, unless it was carbonized really well, you'll still have wood inside (which is fine unless you're looking for a flavor profile that doesn't include that species' smoke.  In the US with the clean air laws, and thus kilning hot and fast, it's pretty tough to get it 80%+ carbon all the way through.  By the time the inside is 80%+, you've lost a lot of carbon that would have been on the outside.  If they're good, they can get away with this south of the border where they kiln low and slow, pumping out tons of particulate into the atmosphere.  No guarantees they carbonized all the way through, but you can do it if you do it right.  If not, you're going to get some really bitter smoke as most of that wood is a walnut, cashew, or similar.  In any case, they're tough to light since the rest of that huge chunk is just a big heat sink.

Quick fix, KICK ASH BASKET!  Seriously, this solves the problem.

How I do it.......because I haven't taken home a "good bag" in 5+ years.  I take the bags that were hit or run over by a forklift, the ones that comes back ripped or damaged, left outside, etc.  On a clean egg, I dump a new bag straight in.  No stacking, no sorting.  If I have an empty egg with less than a 1/4-1/2 bag left and it's looking really small, I'll open a new bag and fill about halfway up the fire ring.  Then I'll just the old bag to "top dress" it.  All those little pieces sprinkle in and nest with the bigger chunks.  Do the same thing the next time, start with the fuller bag, then top dress with the old bag until it's gone.  Anything that falls through the fire grate or KAB will burn.  I use 100% of that bag.  It's all BTU's that will burn.  Don't waste money.

This is called being schooled by the head master.

Um, it's "Headmaster", speaking of being schooled. 

DMW

THEBuckeye said:

DMW said:

BGE lump is re-branded Royal Oak. That would match your findings.

I've seen this now for the handful of years I've had my Egg. Is this actually documented somewhere, or, is it more of an urban legend?

I said it. I don't say things unless I'm right. Therefore, no further documentation is necessary.

JRWhitee

THEBuckeye said:

northGAcock said:

stlcharcoal said:

I bought my kids a box of Snyders Hard Pretzels last week.  The guy had just put them on the shelf, they were in a box, and they went from the shelf, to my basket, to the front seat of my truck.....never got dropped.  I open the box for them, and there were three complete pretzels--the other 15-20 were in pieces.  The kids didn't care, and they tasted the same.

The whole size argument really only means anything when it comes to burn time if you have an open air grill (no lid).  If you're metering the airflow, like in a kamado, it doesn't matter if it's one big piece or a bunch of little pieces.....there is only so much oxygen that's hitting the heat and carbon.  Lump is porous--ours is ~250 g/m2 which means a golf ball sized piece of lump has as much surface area as a tennis court.  BTU/lbs is BTU/lbs--doesn't matter the size.  

The one exception is the kamado where the firebox funnels the charcoal together keeping it tightly packed.  If the pieces are too small and you haven't replaced the firebox, it can choke the airflow.  But the opposite holds true as well since it uses so little airflow.  There is a VERY small part of the charcoal burning in that firebox and if it's a big chunk that's too far away from the next big chunk, the fire will go out.  Some here call it a "fire bridge".  I just know it takes a temp of 673F to keep charcoal burning, and with such a tiny little spot burning, that next piece better be close enough to catch that radiant heat since carbon burns at about 1500F.  The fuel efficiency of the kamado can also be it's downfall.  Put two eggs side by side with the same weight (not volume), and burn them as the same temp......one with the top half of the bag, one with the bottom half of the bag.  They'll go out at the same time unless one of those two things happen.  And in 25 yrs of Egg'ing, I've had both happened equally.

The other thing with huge chunks of charcoal, unless it was carbonized really well, you'll still have wood inside (which is fine unless you're looking for a flavor profile that doesn't include that species' smoke.  In the US with the clean air laws, and thus kilning hot and fast, it's pretty tough to get it 80%+ carbon all the way through.  By the time the inside is 80%+, you've lost a lot of carbon that would have been on the outside.  If they're good, they can get away with this south of the border where they kiln low and slow, pumping out tons of particulate into the atmosphere.  No guarantees they carbonized all the way through, but you can do it if you do it right.  If not, you're going to get some really bitter smoke as most of that wood is a walnut, cashew, or similar.  In any case, they're tough to light since the rest of that huge chunk is just a big heat sink.

Quick fix, KICK ASH BASKET!  Seriously, this solves the problem.

How I do it.......because I haven't taken home a "good bag" in 5+ years.  I take the bags that were hit or run over by a forklift, the ones that comes back ripped or damaged, left outside, etc.  On a clean egg, I dump a new bag straight in.  No stacking, no sorting.  If I have an empty egg with less than a 1/4-1/2 bag left and it's looking really small, I'll open a new bag and fill about halfway up the fire ring.  Then I'll just the old bag to "top dress" it.  All those little pieces sprinkle in and nest with the bigger chunks.  Do the same thing the next time, start with the fuller bag, then top dress with the old bag until it's gone.  Anything that falls through the fire grate or KAB will burn.  I use 100% of that bag.  It's all BTU's that will burn.  Don't waste money.

This is called being schooled by the head master.

Um, it's "Headmaster", speaking of being schooled. 

It depends which head you are mastering...

RRP

THEBuckeye said:

DMW said:

BGE lump is re-branded Royal Oak. That would match your findings.

I've seen this now for the handful of years I've had my Egg. Is this actually documented somewhere, or, is it more of an urban legend?

Well if you believe The Naked Whiz - then it's more that just a rumor. 
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag5.htm#otherinfo

HeavyG

RRP said:

THEBuckeye said:

DMW said:

BGE lump is re-branded Royal Oak. That would match your findings.

I've seen this now for the handful of years I've had my Egg. Is this actually documented somewhere, or, is it more of an urban legend?

Well if you believe The Naked Whiz - then it's more that just a rumor. 
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag5.htm#otherinfo

I'm not saying that The Naked Whiz is wrong, however, that site is so outdated that I'm not sure it can always be relied on to provide useful/accurate info.

As far as the BGE/Royal Oak linkage - according to Naked Whiz they say it says right on the BGE bag that it is made by Royal Oak - do the BGE lump bags no longer have that statement?