Lump Charcoal
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calldoctoday It went east of Rita’s path and also looked like it was a smaller storm (just more intense). All my family and friends in the Beaumont/Port Arthur seemed to have come out just fine, as the storm only grazed them (they were expecting worse, but the storm went further east at the last minute). You don’t have to go very far east to start finding significant damage, and it just gets worse from there.
I’m sure things are far more terrible around Lake Charles than what I’ve heard, especially if you go a little south. Much of the good reports I’ve heard from family are a lot of good fortune (such as a tree falling but missing the house).
Reports like those just make you grateful. We had two trees in our yard fall during Ike. One fell across the street but did not hit anyone’s car (not that many folks left them parked there). The other, a large live oak, fell across our front yard and only hit a silly ornamental pear tree that I didn’t like in the first place.
TexLaw I am with you on every item. From slightly east of Rita (but still just about same basic area) to those darn Bradford Pears that don’t give you any pears to eat. Speaking of Pears, my son finished his work early today so he & my wife are out picking a load of real Pears that just ripened. Looks like I have more work ahead.
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TexLaw I am with you on every item. From slightly east of Rita (but still just about same basic area) to those darn Bradford Pears that don’t give you any pears to eat. Speaking of Pears, my son finished his work early today so he & my wife are out picking a load of real Pears that just ripened. Looks like I have more work ahead.
calldoctoday The big difference between Rita and Laura is that Rita mowed down Beaumont and the surrounding area. Laura didn’t do much until you got to Orange County, from what I’ve heard. It’s a small difference by geography, but a huge one when it comes to population and damage. Lake Charles got mowed down by both.
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calldoctoday The big difference between Rita and Laura is that Rita mowed down Beaumont and the surrounding area. Laura didn’t do much until you got to Orange County, from what I’ve heard. It’s a small difference by geography, but a huge one when it comes to population and damage. Lake Charles got mowed down by both.
TexLaw Yes, just for the Rita incident alone, you are jarring my current extremely slow memory, I was working at times all the way from Lafayette up to Sam Rayburn if I recall at some point in time. The worst was in Lake Charles or at least the South end as I recall & down into way down into south Calcasieu Parish & across the ferry. But, also pretty bad all the way into Port Arthur & over that way as I seem to recall in my mind. Believe me, I was there. Glad to hear though that Beaumont was left with not so much damage as I am sure it is much larger now for certain that when we were last there or even when I last worked over that way for something.
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Okay guys, yesterday I cooked bacon in a microwave. When I do, I place a paper towel on top. I used that paper towel to start my lump charcoal in my Primo. It started very fast, much more than with other methods. Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
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Okay guys, yesterday I cooked bacon in a microwave. When I do, I place a paper towel on top. I used that paper towel to start my lump charcoal in my Primo. It started very fast, much more than with other methods. Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
Chef No I think you are good, it would be no different then using butcher paper that you had wrapped a brisket or pork shoulder in. I’ve also heard of people putting vegetable oil on paper towels and using them to start charcoal. A lot of the time I will use a propane torch to start the charcoal.
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Okay guys, yesterday I cooked bacon in a microwave. When I do, I place a paper towel on top. I used that paper towel to start my lump charcoal in my Primo. It started very fast, much more than with other methods. Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
Chef I can see no reason how it would be harmful. It might possible add some additional smells that make you want to eat the grill!
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Okay guys, yesterday I cooked bacon in a microwave. When I do, I place a paper towel on top. I used that paper towel to start my lump charcoal in my Primo. It started very fast, much more than with other methods. Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
Chef yeah i have done similar by spraying oil on newspaper. I use an electric starter on my kamado, but it does take a little while to get going. As long as your not adding a petroleum based excellerant you should be fine. At least with mine that voids the warranty as the excellerant can’t be absorbed by the ceramic causing it to burn off at high/uneven temps which could result in cracking.
Pretty much anything that heats or cools the ceramic unevenly is bad. Thats why it has the fire bowl to help disperse the heat to the outside ceramic. If the firebox cracks your odds of cracking the outer shell becomes allot higher. Ive managed to do this on the lower end vision grill, but i had documented cracking in the FB weeks after I got it so the warranty claim wasn’t much of an issue.
I’m more mindful with the replacement as I now know its limitations. I like the kamado cookers, but I think their best at grilling and indirect cooking. I havent done much low and slow and I think it would struggle to keep up with a decent vertical smoker. The longer I live the more I come to find that the Swiss army knife marketed types just don’t deliver like advertised.
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My local ACE Hardware has continually let me down this year. The store does not store it’s lump or charcoal inside. Skids of product outside on a “patio” that has been exposed to the rain we’ve gotten here in abundance in SE Michigan. So waterlogged, it won’t light. Don’t buy charcoal, or briquetes there anymore.
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I have been just using a chimney starter with just newspaper since a hurricane back in 04 & they were out of lighter fluid & had one chimney left. Remembered a neighbor making his own years earlier, so I thought I would give it a shot. Have used nothing since. Works great, just go through a few of them & have really tried to come up with a better one, but not sure I am there yet. Academy used to have a good one in the old days when they were the real Academy long ago, but the one I ended up with after they changed & built a store here, although not bad, is not the same. Chimneys still work great though. One with a cone shaped expanded metal bottom seems to work best & course they actually work better when they start rusting out.
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Years ago I bought a Weber chimney when I was grilling exclusively with Briquets. Always worked well for me and got me weaned from petrol starter fluids. Then… bought a 20 pound bag of Cowboy Lump Charcoal and stuffed a load in the chimney. Heat was so intense I thought the chimney would blow itself apart! It didn’t. But the heat from the lump charcoal altered the steel of the chimney. Each time I use the chimney now (frequently) I see the scars I caused using the lump charcoal.
So today, this, Summer I did my best to build Lump charcoal fires without the chimney. It was like I was cooking the wood, watching moisture surface and bubble & pop. Enough heat to grill hot dogs. But little else. I’m a wiser consumer going forward.
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Years ago I bought a Weber chimney when I was grilling exclusively with Briquets. Always worked well for me and got me weaned from petrol starter fluids. Then… bought a 20 pound bag of Cowboy Lump Charcoal and stuffed a load in the chimney. Heat was so intense I thought the chimney would blow itself apart! It didn’t. But the heat from the lump charcoal altered the steel of the chimney. Each time I use the chimney now (frequently) I see the scars I caused using the lump charcoal.
So today, this, Summer I did my best to build Lump charcoal fires without the chimney. It was like I was cooking the wood, watching moisture surface and bubble & pop. Enough heat to grill hot dogs. But little else. I’m a wiser consumer going forward.
RedJim64 Camp Fire Cowboy Style! That was where the old style heavy Iron (like oilfield pipe, probably was or well casing) Academy, no brand came in handy. The new Academy is heavier than the Weber, but not as heavy as the old style. The Weber probably lights faster though, I think it had the cone shaped floor.
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I have been just using a chimney starter with just newspaper since a hurricane back in 04 & they were out of lighter fluid & had one chimney left. Remembered a neighbor making his own years earlier, so I thought I would give it a shot. Have used nothing since. Works great, just go through a few of them & have really tried to come up with a better one, but not sure I am there yet. Academy used to have a good one in the old days when they were the real Academy long ago, but the one I ended up with after they changed & built a store here, although not bad, is not the same. Chimneys still work great though. One with a cone shaped expanded metal bottom seems to work best & course they actually work better when they start rusting out.
calldoctoday I built a chimney from one of those helium tanks you can buy for parties. I found sitting it on my fish fryer burner the most effective way to start it. Now I use either a gas burner inside the fire box of the gravity feed or an electric wand in my kamado. My fatherinlaw still uses a chimney to start his weber. I think he uses a weber chimney also.
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calldoctoday I built a chimney from one of those helium tanks you can buy for parties. I found sitting it on my fish fryer burner the most effective way to start it. Now I use either a gas burner inside the fire box of the gravity feed or an electric wand in my kamado. My fatherinlaw still uses a chimney to start his weber. I think he uses a weber chimney also.
pr0wlunwoof Whoa, Now that’s Serious!
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pr0wlunwoof Whoa, Now that’s Serious!
calldoctoday It worked pretty good.
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My local ACE Hardware has continually let me down this year. The store does not store it’s lump or charcoal inside. Skids of product outside on a “patio” that has been exposed to the rain we’ve gotten here in abundance in SE Michigan. So waterlogged, it won’t light. Don’t buy charcoal, or briquetes there anymore.
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RedJim64
Sorry for you, and that is inappropriate for them. Charcoal is packed at a specific moisture content that they are ruining. Can you be so bold as to tell them? -
Okay guys, yesterday I cooked bacon in a microwave. When I do, I place a paper towel on top. I used that paper towel to start my lump charcoal in my Primo. It started very fast, much more than with other methods. Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
Chef said in Lump Charcoal:
Has anyone done this, am I overlooking anything that could be harmful to the grill?
I’ve never done that, but . . .
Tex_77 said in Lump Charcoal:
I’ve also heard of people putting vegetable oil on paper towels and using them to start charcoal.
I do that every single time I’ve lit a fire in my (Weber) chimney for years and years without any trouble at all. Well, actually, I use newspaper, but I don’t know why a paper towel or bacon grease would cause any trouble.
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I have been using newspaper for years, but I would just about bet dollars to doughnuts, Double to nothing, that I have snuck some oil (not auto) or bacon grease in there a time or two maybe thinking I could ramp up everyone’s appetite or something. No Problems.
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