Royal Oak Lump on UDS - first time user

[zippy12]

To start this conversation I am a kingsford bricket user(pain old blue bag).

I did 2 cooks with the Royal Oak Lump(ROL):
A) Cold smoke beef snack sticks with cure 1
B) Pork Butt making Cochinita Pibil

A) The snack sticks did not cook well. I wanted a low temp and many times I had to pull the sticks off because the ROL took off in heat. To finish the sticks I had to SEAL ALL areas where air could get in. I managed to finish but it was frustrating to say the least and the sticks looked like ****(great flavor, but some fat melt)... So ROL is not good for low slow and this stuff will seek out any air and burn like hells fire!

B) The Cochinita Pibil cook went well I am glad I had the ROL. I found my placement of the diffuser plate a bit misleading to barrel temps. I was maintaining 250F with 1 port open 1/2 cracked(kinsford takes 2 ports open at 225F) but at 3hr mark the butt was at 100F. I opened 2 air ports all the way and got the barrel temp up to 400F!(never seen 400F with kingsford) Managed to reach 140F internal on the butt in 5hr period(I'm good with that I believe I'm out of the botulism zone). After that I was able to close one port and 1/2 crack the other to bring heat down to 240-250F to slow the cook till the butt reaches 205F.

ROL is good for high temp cooking!

Not good for smoked sausage!

My question is about the kingsford... I read something about kingsfrod giving off "SOMETHING" when you cook without it being ashed over. Is this true? Is this bad for top down burn?

What an alt to ROL for a slower less hot cook?

 

[mikemci]

I had the same temp swings with ROL.
You can make it more manageable by packing it in your basket, with a minimal amount of air space between the lumps.
I use B&B Oak lump exclusively now. It seems a little more forgiving.
If you want complete temp control, you can use Stubbs briquettes.

 

[IamMadMan]

I love to use lump, including ROL, in my Down East Beast. An air-tight vertical reverse flow will hold 250° for 14 hours and still have more than enough coals to add more charcoal for a longer cook if needed.

Stubb's Briquettes work well in my kettle.