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B&B Charcoal First impressions

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    B&B Charcoal First impressions

    After reading about the success many are having with B&B charcoal, I ordered a bag of briquettes and "char-logs". Here at the end of the road we are closer to Havana, Cuba than a Walmart or other such store. The local Ace Hardware here is very small and does not stock items like this. I ordered them and had them delivered to the store.

    I wanted to do something different, I've getting pretty tired of pork butts. (I know Blasphemy) I WANTED to do a brisket, but the lack of brisket in the Florida Keys made that plan go out the window. I ended up with spare ribs and beef short ribs. I seasoned ribs with my normal rub, a modified version of Memphis Dust. The Short Ribs I did with just salt, pepper and garlic powder.

    I normally use Kingsford so the B&B is new me. I was looking for about a 6 hour burn at 225 - 250. about 4 hours for the pork and 6 hours for the beef. My set up was about 50/50 mix of char-logs and briquettes. The logs and my wood chunks went in the basket first then the smaller briquettes. Used one starter and only filled about 3/4 full. Lit it off and it took about 30 min before i was comfortable putting the defector on and then another 15 min to come up to temperature. The meat went on and for the next 30 min the temperature hung at about 225. It then shot up ot 350. I adjusted air flow and opened the top for about 30 seconds to cool things off. Checked temp again in 15 min and temp was down to 225. over the next hour it crept back up to 300. Made minor adjustment and got it back down to 250 range. At the 3.5 hour mark I checked the meat. Pork ribs were perfect, I started the "spritz" on the short ribs. 30-45 min for the next 2 hours they got spritzed with apple juice and apple cider vinegar mixture. Unfortunately the last 1/2 I had a conference call that went long and the short ribs stayed on a bit longer than I wanted. Not a fail...just next time need to pay more attention at the end.

    The fire temp was still, I didn't want to waste the heat, so I had a package of chicken thighs in the fridge. I quickly seasoned them and tossed them on the now empty grate. About 1 hour later the temperature stated to fall back to about 200. I opened vents up all the way and temp came back up a bit. after 2 hours the fire was failing, unfortunately the thighs were not quite done, 15 min in the oven at 300 finished them off.

    I am happy with the B&B so far, much less "bad smoke" flavor. The burn was defiantly longer. Not sure about my fluctuations in temperature and the start time. My issues may have been operator error. I'll try something again next week and see how it goes.

    PS Ribs were paired with an ice cold Red Stripe beer. No PBR here, we are on island time!

    #2
    Red Stripe. Hurray beer!

    Comment


    • smokin fool
      smokin fool commented
      Editing a comment
      Yup. You had me at B&B and pork butt, sold me on Red Stripe beer.

    #3
    I love B&B that is what I use most of the time in my Kamados and PBC. And it is reasonably priced. Good Lump.

    Comment


      #4
      Red Stripe > PBR. Hopefully B&B continues to be available for you. It is definitely better than Kingsford for low and slow cooks.

      Comment


      • bbqLuv
        bbqLuv commented
        Editing a comment
        PBR > Red Strip.

      #5
      Nice write up, what type of cooker were you using? I’m a newbie to B&B also, and I had similar results over my usual KBB. A lot less bad smoke and longer burn times.

      Comment


      • CaptGreg
        CaptGreg commented
        Editing a comment
        OJ Bronco

      #6
      I'm a big B&B fan. Their briquettes have given me a more consistent even burn throughout the cook and the ash make is pretty much the same as KBB IMO.
      I really like the charlogs if i'm going to do anything over 6 hours those are the ticket......they are a beast to get lit but i've found using a few briquettes in a chimney starter works just fine.

      Comment


        #7
        I hung a spatchcocked chicken over a half pan of Kingsford in my OJB. I had spikes and dips like your cook. But when the basket is full of charcoal, the temps seem to be more stable. I did a brisket two weeks ago. I used B&B briquettes and char-logs. 80%-20% split. In the first layer in the basket, I placed the briquettes verticle. 4 char-logs were also placed verticle along the edge. I put some smaller hickory chunks and buried them with more briquettes and logs. With minor adjustments, the fire stayed pretty stable. I know I shouldn't have, but I even got in a nap and a trip to the store during the cook.

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        Comment


        • bbqLuv
          bbqLuv commented
          Editing a comment
          Nice to see you put the paper down first. I do the same for our pets. Don't want a mess on the floor.
          Since I switched to a Traeger pellet grill It is housebroken. 😛

        • DTro
          DTro commented
          Editing a comment
          😂 It was a learning experience... so this was a training session and accidents can happen🙀. Now the basket is tamed. No future paper will be needed. By the way I love pellets. I use them to heat my house, but I really miss my fireplace🙁

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