Lump vs briquette, and fav brands, for smoking on a Weber Kettle

[KevinInStL]

So after a stressful last few cooks with these damn Royal Oak Ridge Briquettes, I've had enough of them. Unfortunately I bought 4 bags of them at Lowe's when thy were on sale at LDW. But fortunately they were only $4 a bag. I'll probably end up putting them out by the curb for some other poor sucker to suffer through.

They just suck. They burn up fast, incompletely, and not very hot. They also produce a ton of ash, and the food I cook with it seems to make our stomachs unhappy.

I would prefer to use lump for everything as I try to minimize the additives and unknown chemicals when cooking my food. I use Rockwood because I saw it was highly rated on that NakedWhiz site, plus it's made here in StL so I can get it relatively cheap.

Anyway, all the youtube and interweb bbq gurus seem to recommend lump for fast, high heat grilling and briquette for low & slow smoking. I'm fairly new to this and I usually don't want to have to babysit my fire a whole lot, so I've stuck to those recommendations so far. So, right now I only use the lump for steaks, burgers, brats, or chicken pieces.

So my first question to you all is: have you had success smoking low & slow on a 22" Weber kettle with lump? Without requiring a lot of babysitting the vents and the fire? And if so, how do you do it? I only have the Weber kettle for now. There may a WSM in my future, but not until the spring at least. Btw, I say low & slow in a relative sense. I usually seem to end up in a time crunch and cooking my "low & slow" stuff more in the neighborhood of 275-325.

And if you haven't had good results BBQing with lump on a Weber kettle, what seems to be the longest, cleanest burning briquette that produces the least ash, and seems to have the least additives and most neutral flavor? Weber? B&B? Something else?

Thanks in advance :tea:

 

[mike243]

I tried some cowboys I think years ago on my performer, didn't take me long to quit using it, it popped a lot and put crusties all over my food, used the rest of the bag on my offset smoker . I will stick with regular charcoal and most of the times its Kingsford

 

[long haired hippie]

I use briquettes on everything. I usually toss in some hickory, apple or mesquite chunks (depending on what I'm cooking) when going indirect in my Webers or when using my off-set. Really never ruled out a particular brand of charcoal.

Put a thermometer into the dome of Your weber & get a wireless thermometer & an instant read. Slide the probe of the wireless through a tater to keep it off of the grates or the meat your smoking. Hell, I can be in my recliner in my living room and monitor the temp inside of my cooker. Be sure to get it up to temp & holding before adding your room temperature meat. Monitor the internal temp. of your meat occasionally with an instant read therm. When the internal is close to what you're after, pull the probe out of the tater & put it in the meat & go back to your recliner & watch the temp. Remember the thermometer you put in the lid? Check that from time to time for the cook chamber temp.
And the most important advice...Relax, it's Q, it's done when it's done.
Hope this helps...Good luck!

BTW, used to live in North County for years...

 

[AggieBoilerQ]

I use lump in my 18” WSM. I’ve tried briquettes, but like the lump better. Less ash to dump and don’t have to worry about the ash choking the fire during a long smoke.

Keep your briquettes. I still buy them and just use them in my chimney to get a good consistent start to my lump in the fire ring.

 

[big irv]

I like lump for steaks and fajitas. I Like briquettes for slow and low since each briquette will give you the same BTU value vs lump. You can use lump though, just have to watch temps. Temp control is easier with briquettes. I like B & B Lump, I also used to get large bags lump carbon from Mexico when I worked on the border. I think a 50 lb sack was 8 or 10 bucks.

 

[Stlsportster]

Where are you getting rockwood cheap? Over $20/bag at the Ace closest to me!

 

[Jrogers84]

What’s your smoking setup in the kettle? That will determine the best choice.


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[ShadowDriver]

I really like B&B lump. That said, I'm not that picky and I'll use most anything that'll be consistent. I use a set of 4 fire bricks to consolidate my heat when I smoke, and I'm a huge fan on the Vortex if I'm grilling or going for high indirect. It seems to really help with the efficiency of the fuel, too.

B&B does tend to pop/spark when I start it with my weed burner, but it calms down after that.

 

[stan5677]

I use kbb no complaints but haven't tried anything else

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[thirdeye]

My favorite briquettes (for now) are Kingsford Long Burning, but it's rare that I build a fire without some lump charcoal in there. I can order many B&B products through my Ace Hardware and I wouldn't mind buying and testing the Char Logs.

 

[KevinInStL]

I use briquettes on everything. I usually toss in some hickory, apple or mesquite chunks (depending on what I'm cooking) when going indirect in my Webers or when using my off-set. Really never ruled out a particular brand of charcoal.

Put a thermometer into the dome of Your weber & get a wireless thermometer & an instant read. Slide the probe of the wireless through a tater to keep it off of the grates or the meat your smoking. Hell, I can be in my recliner in my living room and monitor the temp inside of my cooker. Be sure to get it up to temp & holding before adding your room temperature meat. Monitor the internal temp. of your meat occasionally with an instant read therm. When the internal is close to what you're after, pull the probe out of the tater & put it in the meat & go back to your recliner & watch the temp. Remember the thermometer you put in the lid? Check that from time to time for the cook chamber temp.
And the most important advice...Relax, it's Q, it's done when it's done.
Hope this helps...Good luck!

BTW, used to live in North County for years...

Cool! I've lived in South City my whole life, but my wife grew up in Florissant.
Yes I have a good instant read thermometer, plus a 2 channel wireless, so I've been measuring the internal meat temp, as well as the temp about 3/4 inch above the grill next to the meat. My kettle also came with the lid thermometer.

Where are you getting rockwood cheap? Over $20/bag at the Ace closest to me!

I get it at Local Harvest Grocery in Tower Grove South for around $15 a bag. Still not "cheap" compared to lots of other charcoals, but still significantly cheaper than Ace. I've seen it for around that price at other small independent stores around town that carry it. I want to say Bolyard's Meats was one of the others.

What’s your smoking setup in the kettle? That will determine the best choice.

Snake method for longer cooks. This is where the RO Briqs really sucked. A 1/2 ring burns up in about 2.5 hours. With B&B briqs I was getting almost twice that with a 1/2 ring. For grilling I just use simple 2-zone with the coals banked to one side and the meat on the opposite side (except when searing). Drip pan opposite the coals, with water in it for longer cooks.

I don't have any firebricks, vortex, Slow n Sear, charcoal baskets, etc, but I'm definitely considering them. Might ask the wife for a SnS for Christmas.

No offense to anyone who uses Kingsford, but I really don't see myself ever using any type of Kingsford charcoal as long as I have a choice. Call me crazy but I just don't trust that any charcoal made by a giant bleach company is going to be without a bunch of chemicals and additives that I don't want in my food. (Clorox owns Kingsford for those who don't know.)

B&B does tend to pop/spark when I start it with my weed burner, but it calms down after that.

Yeah I tried a bag of it late this summer and it was popping & sparking like CRAZY in the chimney by the bottom 1/3 of the bag. Had it not been for the wet late summer we had, I'd have been a little worried it was going to start something else on fire. So I went back to Rockwood.

 

[Smoke on Badger Mountain]

Lump all the way for me. Every few years I buy some briqs for one reason or another. But never like them very much. The flavor is not as good as lump IMO. You can always tell when something has been cooked with briquettes. Sometimes I will put some unlit lump and wood chunks in charcoal baskets from Weber, and then dump some lit lump on top. More often than not I just arrange lump and chunks around the outer edge of the kettle and add a few pieces of lit at the end and let her go. I do take some care to make sure the ring is packed tight and that I have roughly the same amount of fuel in any given place. I do let it come to temp before I add the meat. And I never really have any trouble with temp spikes. I will admit it took me some time to get it down, but it was well worth it for me anyway.

I like Lazzari charcoal the best. Some grocery stores will carry it, but usually price it to high. I get it through restaurant supply companies. 40lbs for $17.00 They sell Oak and mesquite (I prefer the mesquite). Sonora is another good one. About $8 for a 15lb bag and available my local grocery. B&B is nice and Royal Oak will do if needed. Don't like Cowboy much. I have not tried the high end stuff like Rockwood, FOGO and Jealous Devil,never had the need. Not to say I wouldn't like to give them a try someday.

Using two baskets on either side for a little hotter. I use just one for a cooler shorter cook and line the edge without the baskets for a long low burn.

I don't have a pic of the lump lining the edge but you get the idea.