Coshell cook

[Jon]

I've heard folks on here about coshell briquettes, but I've never tried coshell briquettes, so I thought that I would.

And I wanted to do a test. Not a real, scientific method test, but a lazy empirical test. "Does it do this thing that I normally want charcoal to do?" Because that's how I am. Empirical and lazy. Mostly.

But this isn't a review, I don't have stringent requirements or lofty standards. I'm just cookin' dinner with some new kinda charcoal. So not rocket surgery here, just a cook and an opinion.

So I bought a 9-pound bag from Amazon, because I don't know where to get it locally. This stuff:
I don't know if this is the brand all the cool kids are using, but it looked ok. So after I got past the compare and contrast exercise of "Cleaner, Hotter, & Longer" with "Bigger, Longer & Uncut", I got down to business. And of course by "business", I just mean "cooking dinner."

My test was a dinner cook for my wife and myself, the kids being off doing their own thing. So I want to start a full mini-chimney, and cook dinner. I can do that with KBB, usually with the charcoal crawling on it's knees to the finish, or with lump. Lump usually does a little better, but not every time. If I use just a little bit of lump, I can get bitten by how inconsistent it is. If I use a lot of lump, it is almost always good.

My hope was that coshell would power through a mini-chimney cook, and it mostly did. I certainly didn't help it by being efficient with the kettle. To start, I loaded a full mini-chimney and lit it on a Performer, let it run gas for about five minutes, then went inside for half an hour. Little bit too long? Yeah, I got distracted by my wife coming home and asking about the drywall work and wallpaper removal I'd been working on today. So I overcooked the coshell. Usually with briquettes you just can't do that, you will probably need to add at that point to replace the burnt out coal on the bottom of the chimney.

But all was well, for whatever reason. Maybe coshell just takes longer to start? I really wasn't testing for that.  I poured it into a couple of wire baskets and it filled them about 3/4 of the way and the briquettes on top looked the same size and shape as they went into the chimney. Just whiter and hotter. Usually the stuff at the bottom of the chimney is sacrificial and gives it's all to lighting the briquettes above. Not so here, good sign. All full size, perfectly formed coals.

Other coshell qualities? OK, Smoke? - don't mind if I do, but there wasn't much from the charcoal. The coshell smoke was mild, pleasant, and invisible in the dark conditions of the cook. No chemical smell, no oversmoking smell or taste is gonna come out of this stuff.

So anyway - I started the farro in a aluminium tray partially over the coals.



Then I added the root veg - turnips and parsnips:


After the farro was done, I removed it to cool and added ribeyes. Cooked 'em up to temp and seared over what coals were left.



The baskets started out about 1-1/1 to 2 rungs level with charcoal and finished about 3 to 4 rungs down. (That's some Jon Math right there.) So from "almost full", down to "bout half." KBB would be on it's last legs, and lump that I have tried would be...inconsistent. The coals that were left over could do quite a bit more cooking.

So good on coshell.



The verdict? I'll buy it and use it based on price and availability. Just like everything else. It certainly gets a leg up from my experience with it tonight. I don't know where to buy it locally and conveniently, and it is hard to compete with the couple of big sales a year of KBB. Diligent research will continue...yeah, OK, lazy, intermittent research will continue.

[Stringplucker1]

Nice write up. I too just did my first Coshell cook this weekend. I'll be posting something about it when I get the time. I happened to find it half of at a local grocery, $3.49 for a 9lb bag. Needless to say I grabbed every bag on the shelf! I did notice that it took a bit longer for my performer to get to coals going than with KBB. But I had steady temp throughout and believe there is plenty left for my next cook. Seemed to burn real slow while producing good heat.

[austin87]

Do you have recipe/guidelines for that farro?

Your meal looks great, the steaks are perfect.

[TheDude]

Long post for someone that claims to be so lazy. Haha. But good info. Been keeping my eyes open, but haven't seen it local yet.

[BBcue-Z]

Nice write up Jon!
I've never seen this charcoal in any of the stores around me, but I'm tempted to give it a try.
Great looking meal too

[WNC]

That steak looks awesome!
I got some last year when it went on sale at lowes, but they haven't carried it again, and I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I liked it a lot, but after all the inconsistenties with lump, Stubbs has been my go to.

[Jon]

The farro is easy. And the same technique works for quinoa.

1 disposable aluminum tray like in the picture above. I don't know what they are called - they look like mini-meat loaf pans. Or the cooking vessel of your choice.

1 cup farro or quinoa
2 cups water

On the grill partially over the coals, adjust as needed to get to a slow simmer. Stir every 5 minutes or so. I usually set a timer to five minutes and check and stir. Once simmering quinoa takes about 15 minutes, the farro took 20. Cool the grain once all water is absorbed.

For the salad: Add diced tomato, onion, herbs, olives - whatever you want. A bit of vinegar and olive oil to dress, I like adding soy sauce (I like the strong flavor of tamari), season with salt and pepper to taste (If needed, some soy is really salty).