Lump or Briquettes?

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Whut bbqbuzz and Dats said. Since you are from Sunny CA ought to be fairly easy to find some Lazzari Lump. It comes from the raping and pillaging of the Sonoran high desert of Mejico. Very good stuff direct cooking on a a big pit. Purty sure it would not be good to use it in a R2D2 type water smoker gizmo. The chunks is fairly big thusly not packing tightly enough to give off steady heat using a small fire pan. Best choice for small pits is Ozark Oak which comes from Arkieville. Stay away from B&B and Cowboy brand. Both are garbage. Royal Oak Lump is supposed to be good. I have used it a few times but its been many moons. Dont see it around here very often. They have the crappiest briquettes ever invented. If lump aint feasible Kingsford Mesquite flavor aint too horrible.

bigwheel
 
What about using the Minion method on a WSM? Seems many of these burn hot, and don't last as long as the blue bag.
Has anyone found a lump brand that works as (or nearly as) well for the WSM-Minion?
 
I've used Royal Oak lump (their Nature-Glo label, actually) exclusively for the past 4 years in my WSM. It works just fine using the Minion method. I just pour it into the charcoal ring, and then push and move it to one side, which compacts it (eliminating any big voids in the pile) while creating a "hole" into which I pour the lit charcoal. As for not lasting as long as Kingsford, it has been so long since I used Kingsford I can't make a direct comparison. But lump is less dense than Kingsford (compare the relative size of a 20-lb bag of K to 20 lbs of lump), so you can't pack as much fuel into the WSM when using lump. I think that, on a pound-for-pound basis, the burn times would probably look a lot more comparable.
 
What Larry says, use a poker to pack the ring tight, pour a chimney of hot coals on and in warmer weather I get 8 hours and freezing weather 6 hours. I do use two charcoal grates in the bottom of my WSM to prevent the smaller pieces of lump from falling through. Well worth the $9 for an extra grate.
 
Lump 100% for me.
This is why I bought a stoker system.
Lump holds weak in a WSM. and now UDS
I usto use K but the smell chokes me out and just something about all the funk that's burning below my food weards me out. I can taste an off taste too.
I am from California. The best Mesquite, and Ive tried many is CA Hotwood at Albertsons.
It has less spark and the flavor is more mild than best of the west and lazarri. I hit it with a pick hammer and put it in a big Rubbermaid container to get it all uniform in size. Cowboy bruns at 1,000,000 degrees and lasts two seconds. It's junk. Look how large the bag is compared to the weight. RO is good but its way too woodsy especially on chicken and a rib roast.
Lowe's just started replacing the Stubb's with Frontier which burns like mesquite but milder in flavor. This is the best so far out here Ive used. Don't like the BGE for $28 for 20lbs when its just royal oak in a green bag. Rip Off! I will be totally content when we get Wicked Good down here in So Cal. Its the best! I like that with lump I can put a huge stack across the bottom of my drum grill and light one side. It will burns down and across for up to 3 hours (keeping the lid down as much as passable) when I am cooking for large parties. You just can't do that with K because as it lights it stinks and arguably adds funky flavors to the food. Lump is better when relighting from a previous cook also.
 
Well the only detectable flavor/odor of any charcoal ranges from stinky to none (discounting certain versions of briquettes impregnated with raw wood)..with no odor being the best choice. Hard to understand folks who become affectionate toward the nasty stuff. Only reason I can figger out for why anybody want to buy the junk is them who want to comp cook in situations where less crappy heat sources are not permitted. Whut am I missing here?

bigwheel
 
Greetings all,
I went to grab something at the store, and saw Kingsford lump. Didnt know they had decided to enter that market. It was overpriced, but I said hell, and bought a bag. You never know for sure if you dont do it first hand yourself. Cooked a couple steaks on a grill over some. No discernible smells or whatnot, lit real easy in the chimney, and burnt fairly hot considering it was 0 degrees out. Anyone else try this stuff?
Ill stick with the lump i can get at Lowes or Home Depot, tons cheaper, but thought I would try it anyways.
A great day to all....
 
Medo, the KF lump has been out for a while to not very good reviews...especially for the price. I would scout for better option in your area if at all possible. The biggest complaint I heard aside from price was that it sparked like crazy on start-up.
 
Greg Rempe said:
Medo, the KF lump has been out for a while to not very good reviews...especially for the price. I would scout for better option in your area if at all possible. The biggest complaint I heard aside from price was that it sparked like crazy on start-up.

Thanks Greg, I didn't know what that sparking was all about. I switched from Cowboy to Royal Oak because I thought I might set my deck on fire with the Cowboy sparking. I guess I thought all lump did that and the sparking was the advent of something I was doing, but now that you mention it the RO does not spart much.
 
Well I aint never seen any of em which would not spark like roman candle when first lit. Especially when you hit it with a propane flame thrower. Best turn your head or at least shut your eyes. Now they have brand called B&B down here in God's Country. That stuff will soot up your chicken something pitiful in a water smoker and the Mesquite version pops like Orval Reddenbachers the entire time it is ablaze. They must import that junk in from China or something.

bigwheel
 
Medo said:
Greetings all,
I went to grab something at the store, and saw Kingsford lump. Didnt know they had decided to enter that market. It was overpriced, but I said hell, and bought a bag. You never know for sure if you dont do it first hand yourself. Cooked a couple steaks on a grill over some. No discernible smells or whatnot, lit real easy in the chimney, and burnt fairly hot considering it was 0 degrees out. Anyone else try this stuff?
Ill stick with the lump i can get at Lowes or Home Depot, tons cheaper, but thought I would try it anyways.
A great day to all....

I tried the K lump last year. It put a good layer of soot on my chicken.
Not too tasty, and my wife made the comment. I usually put her to the blind test.
She didn't know I had used it. It does burn good. It seems there is a trade off. The more dense and longer burning, the more it sparks.
I recommend when trying a new lump, do two cooks. A whole chicken and also chicken pieces. I also do a minion style cook where the lump is continually lighting.
Continually lighting coal will defiantly have different flavors than coal that already fully lit.
No marinades beer can with water in it only. Even without spices. Only olive oil. This is how I get the true taste of the coal.
Chicken is very mild in flavor so you will defiantly taste the coal flavor. Beef will drown out the flavor a bit more since it is heavy in flavor.
To me there is not an issue of sparking while in a WSM or UDS. When grilling it pops all over my food but for some reason when I'm starving the oxygen at 240 degrees there is little or no spark even with heavy sparking lump.
In my opinion RO is all around best for grilling and BBQ however I hate the taste it puts on chicken so I use Frontier or fully lit Mesquite. Ive done a shoulder now and a brisket this past weekend with Frontier and red oak chunks. Excellent flavor. Frontier does spark like crazy for grilling.

Mike
 

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