First.... briquette cook.

[MeatAndPotatos]

Yup. Well ok, maybe technically used briquettes one other time almost a decade ago. Don't know what brand and with a ton of lighter fluid, in a thin layer across the bottom of one of these stupid things


Only had a propane grill at the parents after then, and just recently got back into charcoal the last year or so, but have been buying lump because if nothing else I like the idea of it being a step closer to cooking over a legit wood fire.

But having read about walmart backyard bbq black bag being royal oak, and seeing a 16lb bag for $5 instead of an 8lb bag of lump for $7... Figured I'd give it a try.

Next up was ribs in the wsm anyways...

So far not bad. The lack of heat is actually kinda nice, too often you have to choke the lump out to keep temps down, which makes wood chunks smolder too much. Can give way more air with the briquettes.

Not too much smoke from them, or bad odor... A little bit more of the classic BBQ/briquette smell obviously but fairly minimal. Pretty pleased with the minimal smoke when lighting them up.

Not the picture forum, as I started this mostly about briquettes... But what the hell... What kind of monster doesn't like pics of ribs?


Getting ready... Yeah just a snack for me, so cut the rack in half.

Noticed the briquettes are slower to rise and fall in temp then the lump, but not too hard to get settled in. It wanted 250, so it can have it. After reading Aaron Franklin's book been trying closer to 265... but what ever I let it have its 250 for the first couple hours.

With water bowl, that was basically 1 vent wide open, wide open exhaust on my 14.5
Cranked it up to 266 by opening a second vent up to halfish and poking the coals a little.
Definitely seems like the extra ash chokes the coals up a little, as I have seen some minor temp drops with time. Will be curious to see the ash pile after.


Where we're at now... Color looking good. Time to wrap... I dunno tempted to just not wrap. Naw I'm gonna wrap, its late. Some Dr. Pepper I think.

[MeatAndPotatos]

Finished! With some naturally fermented 80/20 white flour/whole wheat bread.

Not bad, especially if I see this price again I will definitely buy more but probably look to use it mostly in the smoker. Other then water pan running dry and wondering why I suddenly had to close things up to normal empty water pan levels (cracked open instead of fully open), was easy. Will be curious to see how much coal is left and how much ash there is once everything cools down... But for the price this was definitely a good buy. 

[captjoe06]

Where did you see it for that price or was it just a random leftover single bag they had discounted?
When I got the bug last year the first ten or fifteen bags I bought were lump, thinking foolishly that anything else would be inferior.  Now I buy sales when they come to me of lump or Kingsford briquettes.  I use briquettes for smoking and lump for grilling/searing.  I find it much easier to control a smoke session using the snake method in a kettle with briquettes. 

[MeatAndPotatos]

There were two bags, price was marked down. Not sure how many originally offered or if it was just random bags like you said.

Sure left a lot of ash though. On the 14.5 I filled the charcoal ring a little less then level. Burned about half of it, and the ash is filled up to the charcoal grate.
It weighs about twice as much as the lump, burned about half as much and made two to three times the ash probably?

I'll be curious to do the snake in the kettle. I know when I have tried it with lump if I give it too much air it just ignites the rest of the lump much faster then it burns out, so instead of burning like a fuse it just ramps up till all of it ignites. I can manage the air and let it burn slow... But at that point its really no different piling it up behind a brick or rail and lighting one side with a blowtorch, so I never really bother.

[captjoe06]

My set up yesterday for beef ribs-
Held between 265-300 with minimal fuss for the 5 hour smoke.  I may have adjusted the bottom vents twice and am just amazed at how it just cruises along in such a tight range when it figures out where it wants to go.

[MeatAndPotatos]

Approximately what are your vent settings with that?

[captjoe06]

Approximately what are your vent settings with that?

I start out with everything wide open and let temps creep up to around 250. Once there I close the bottom vent about half way and see where she wants to go.  It was around 30 degrees outside.  About half way through the temps started to climb and I nudged the bottom vent to about 2/3 closed.

[LaTuFu]

I bought a bag of Walmart black for $5. I use it for burning stumps out of the yard. I may have to give it a try in the kettle now.

[MeatAndPotatos]

I bought a bag of Walmart black for $5. I use it for burning stumps out of the yard. I may have to give it a try in the kettle now.

Step 1: Throw spare grate over burning stump
Step 2: Hamburgers.