Lump Charcoal
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Chef - glad you can get Royal Oak there. I lived in Houston for a year; in fact I have a son born there. What is the small town you are from?
Robb I live in Sealy, about 30 miles west of Katy. About 6500 people, Got an old farmhouse on 2 acres with 10 Beautiful old oak trees. I look at it as my private park.
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Robb I live in Sealy, about 30 miles west of Katy. About 6500 people, Got an old farmhouse on 2 acres with 10 Beautiful old oak trees. I look at it as my private park.
Chef I passed by Sealy earlier today while driving my son out to the Hill Country for camp.
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Chef I passed by Sealy earlier today while driving my son out to the Hill Country for camp.
TexLaw Hope I-10 did’t present too much of a problem. Just where do you live?
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Chef Not at 6:30 AM, it didn’t.
I’m in Bellaire.
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This is a fun question to answer.
I have gone the full gambit on charcoal research. What I can tell you is 95% of it is marketing.
We went so far as to build a charcoal retort which used waste motor oil atomized through a pressurized tank and special spray nozel. We made about 200lbs of charcoal from various wood sources. Guess what we figured out. Its all charcoal. It all burned clean and at no noticeable/measurable rate to differentiate itself.
From that I learned 2 important things.
- Charcoal is charcoal.
- Marketing works.
Buy the least expensive lump charcoal you can find. Charcoal briskets are a bit different as its a manufacturing process with possible additives, but again allot of that is marketing also.
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One thing I will add. Get a fan and a digital controller. Its the best way to take the majority of the variables out of the equation when it comes to burn times and temps. Then buy cheap fuel and let the computer figure it all out for you.
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This is a fun question to answer.
I have gone the full gambit on charcoal research. What I can tell you is 95% of it is marketing.
We went so far as to build a charcoal retort which used waste motor oil atomized through a pressurized tank and special spray nozel. We made about 200lbs of charcoal from various wood sources. Guess what we figured out. Its all charcoal. It all burned clean and at no noticeable/measurable rate to differentiate itself.
From that I learned 2 important things.
- Charcoal is charcoal.
- Marketing works.
Buy the least expensive lump charcoal you can find. Charcoal briskets are a bit different as its a manufacturing process with possible additives, but again allot of that is marketing also.
pr0wlunwoof That’s the conclusion that I am arriving at. So far my top brand is Royal Oak Lump at Walmart which sells for $16.98 for 30 pounds. Clean, low ash, lights fast, burns long. The website naked whiz which has rated many brands ranks this as very high and an extraordinary value.
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One thing I will add. Get a fan and a digital controller. Its the best way to take the majority of the variables out of the equation when it comes to burn times and temps. Then buy cheap fuel and let the computer figure it all out for you.
pr0wlunwoof A Fireboard with Drive fan is my go to setup for temperature control. It’s not fool proof, because for the best results you need your cooker pretty well dialed in from the start to the temp you want, then just use the fan to maintain. I think many people think right out of the gate all that they need to do is hook the fan up set the temp and walk away and everything will run perfect which isn’t the case.
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pr0wlunwoof Chef I agree low cost charcoal is the way to go. Some charcoal is crazy expensive like Jealous Devil.
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pr0wlunwoof A Fireboard with Drive fan is my go to setup for temperature control. It’s not fool proof, because for the best results you need your cooker pretty well dialed in from the start to the temp you want, then just use the fan to maintain. I think many people think right out of the gate all that they need to do is hook the fan up set the temp and walk away and everything will run perfect which isn’t the case.
Sounds like you are on your way to figuring it all out. Allot of what I like about this area of culinary arts is the amount of information that is out there to dig into. Meatgistics has been super informative when it comes to sausage making and I can’t wait to get my equipment and seasoning in. I wish someone had done this style of marketing/packaging/community when I started in BBQ several years back because I spent allot of time digging to get the same level of information Meatgistics is putting out there with their products.
Yeah I have not tried a controller on my ceramic cooker, but I have been using one exclusively on my gravity feed I built. The gravity feed has allot of advantages when it comes to controlling temperatures and fire because it only has one possible route for air which the fan is attached too and it has a damper built in so when it goes to 0% it totally shuts off air.
I use a Heatermeter which is a do it yourself controller and paired it with a ducted fan which I put in a 3d printed case that holds a servo controlled damper. Allot of advantages to this system is you can use various types of thermometers and you have unlimited calibration.
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Sounds like you are on your way to figuring it all out. Allot of what I like about this area of culinary arts is the amount of information that is out there to dig into. Meatgistics has been super informative when it comes to sausage making and I can’t wait to get my equipment and seasoning in. I wish someone had done this style of marketing/packaging/community when I started in BBQ several years back because I spent allot of time digging to get the same level of information Meatgistics is putting out there with their products.
Yeah I have not tried a controller on my ceramic cooker, but I have been using one exclusively on my gravity feed I built. The gravity feed has allot of advantages when it comes to controlling temperatures and fire because it only has one possible route for air which the fan is attached too and it has a damper built in so when it goes to 0% it totally shuts off air.
I use a Heatermeter which is a do it yourself controller and paired it with a ducted fan which I put in a 3d printed case that holds a servo controlled damper. Allot of advantages to this system is you can use various types of thermometers and you have unlimited calibration.
pr0wlunwoof You are so correct that there is a lot of really good information to be had, way more than when I started. So, just where do you do BBQ? Did/Do you do it commercially?
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I worked as a line cook for a few years when I was high school and I’m happy to not pull those hours anymore. I BBQ in South East Georgia. It’s a hobby, but I get pretty serious about my hobbies. I would like to get into competition BBQ at some point, but I lack the extra time at this point, maybe in a few years. Most of my hobbies feed each other (welding to smoker fabrication, fabrication to cooking, electronics to controllers, brewing cause beer makes everything better) so sausage making is the next venture.
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pr0wlunwoof That’s awesome that you did that, thank you for sharing! What do you like to do for BBQ? Have you heard of or tried the Steak Cookoff Association? We were going to host an event for them but it got canceled (Covid-19) and then we were going to have one of the founders on the podcast but he had to cancel last minute. Still, last years event was awesome and we look forward to having them in future years.
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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pr0wlunwoof That’s awesome that you did that, thank you for sharing! What do you like to do for BBQ? Have you heard of or tried the Steak Cookoff Association? We were going to host an event for them but it got canceled (Covid-19) and then we were going to have one of the founders on the podcast but he had to cancel last minute. Still, last years event was awesome and we look forward to having them in future years.
First off thanks for the great content on youtube. It really got me hooked on researching sausage/cured meats.
I had not heard of the the Steak Cookoff Association, I will have to look over their site.
Here is a link to the Retort build.
Few pics for perusal.
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pr0wlunwoof Looks great, once I get my wife and I out of the suburbs and onto some land I might give that a try! If I did now the HOA would probably have an enormous issue with it because they are stupid and annoying! Actually, I have never made charcoal, I am assuming that it smokes excessively but…am I wrong on that?
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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Don’t get me started about HOAs. I got introduced to them around 40 years ago & had high hopes wanting to be part of it all & help folks with real solutions, etc. Then I realized in a short while what I was really dealing with & want nothing to do with the boards. They are not about helping folks, but controlling folks & they really have no idea what they are doing in many cases, at least regarding building & design, but are just about control. I will no longer live in an area that has them if I can help it, so we have pretty much stuck to rural settings. I will say nothing more as I have probably said more than enough. I did not think there was that much smoke when making my own once I shut it all down & sealed it off. However, mine never looked quite as good as yours, Prowling Wolf, I don’t believe. Your operation looks very serious.
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pr0wlunwoof Also thank you for the compliment, it actually does mean a very large amount to Austin and I that we have so many users who have enjoyed or benefitted from the videos we have put out. Some videos like the will it bbq or recipe for disaster stuff is more so we can do something fun but it is nice to know.
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pr0wlunwoof Looks great, once I get my wife and I out of the suburbs and onto some land I might give that a try! If I did now the HOA would probably have an enormous issue with it because they are stupid and annoying! Actually, I have never made charcoal, I am assuming that it smokes excessively but…am I wrong on that?
It does smoke a good bit as your pushing off the moisture up until you get the combustible gasses ignited. After ignition it is pretty clean. I think the worst part of my setup is the noise the Air Compressor makes.
The setups which use two 50 gallon drums would probably be the best setup for a suburban area. I will try and find that video. Most ordinances/HOAs require you to burn/bbq in an enclosed apparatus such as a drum anyway so you might be able to argue that your following the rules etc.
If I had a more unlimited source of wood I would probably go that route as the oil burner is a PIA to get dialed in. I have a good supply of waist oil though and we were talking at one point about getting into forgery so it was a two bird one burner type project.
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