Chemical taste from KBB?

[Baychilla]

Oh the irony.

[Texan79423]

I have not used KBB or any briquet in years. In my primo I use lump. In the smoker I start with a chimney of lump and add wood for a base of coals. A while back in a bind I started the smoker with KBB. Cooked brisket, ribs and sausage.

The family ask what was wrong with the ribs they tasted funny and they did taste of charcoal. Unless you use a stick burner you don't notice the difference. There is a difference

[Rusty Kettle]

Kbb has an off taste. I switched to save money and switched back and boy did I notice. It was bad. High heat grilling its fine. Smoking just nasty.
Never use to bother me. It does now. Best briquettes I have found are Expert Grill briquettes. No off taste. Long burn times.

Most people aren't going to notice. I do notice.
So I use a different brand.

I wonder if it has to do with the woods used to make the different charcoals. Not necessarily different chemicals but different woods.

Either way kbb tastes off to me. Most won't notice.
Use what works for you.

[EyeBurnEverything]

Originally Posted by Blizzard

Whitewookie:
I noticed a chemical taste. Well my wife did, when I used the “Cherry” flavored type. I then tried Stubbs “regular“ and did not notice any off flavors.

It’s been a while since I’ve used my WSM but I want to this weekend. I’m going to rethink the minion method now... preheated charcoal sounds like a good idea.

Not a WSM, but i have a gasser that has a charcoal basket as well. I found a full chimney preheated and added to the basket can easily reach 350F for an hour or two and then switch to gas the rest of the cook. Nice smoke ring. And tossing a handful of pellets into the charcoal basket for the first hour or two produces a clean pellet burn.

[Monkey Uncle]

Originally Posted by Texan79423

Unless you use a stick burner you don't notice the difference. There is a difference

I've used wood, lump, and briquettes in various combinations over the years. If you manage your fire properly, you can get clean-tasting food from any of them. Or if you don't manage your fire right, they can all produce bad flavors. As I've mentioned before, any kind of charcoal needs to be thoroughly heated up to off-gas the nasty smell before you put the food on.

Twice I've gotten an off flavor from using KBB in my WSM, and both times it was due to the way I managed the fire. The first time I started the fire according the directions on the Virtual Weber Bullet web page, which involves pouring in a heaping chimney of fully lit charcoal and then putting unlit charcoal on top of it. This produced bad flavor because the unlit charcoal was off-gassing upward without the smoke passing through any lit charcoal to clean it up. The second time I put the lit charcoal on top of the unlit, but I used so much lit charcoal that the cooker came up to temp instantly and I put the food on before the unlit charcoal had time to finish off-gassing. Both situations produced food that tasted like the dust out of the bottom of the charcoal bag. Since then I've always filled the ring with unlit charcoal, put a small amount of lit briquettes on top (just enough to cover the bottom of the chimney), then waited 20 minutes or so until the cooker comes up to temp. This produces the cleanest-tasting Q I've ever made.

At times I've gotten the famous "lighter fluid flavor" from using nothing but wood in my COS. Paradoxically, this has occurred when the coals were burning very hot and clean. It can occur as a consequence of the chemical reactions that take place during the combustion of the hydrocarbons that are left in the wood when it has burned down to coals. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with added chemicals.