It's been too long since...

[JPP]

It has definitely been far too long since I've been in here.... I did in fact cook a few racks of ribs last January but a huge dry spell in the sense that every dang weekend we were either on the road for good weather or it rained like nobody's business! That said I finally got a pork shoulder into the PBC last Saturday (sorry, didn't take photos)... and as usual, after adding the meat... the temperature climbed up to 260-270 and just stayed there. Second time this has happened. It stood at 265-268 for better than three hours and I'll be a monkey's uncle if I can explain why my PBC rarely shoots above 320 or so. If the thing behaves itself after adding the meat I don't care...

Of course that isn't why I'm here...

Up until now, my preference when it comes to Kingsford is to use the blue for my PBC and the professional in my Weber kettle. The latter seems to burn screaming hot compared to KBB so for me it's a must-have for steaks. A family member who is a tobacco farmer... (why this is significant later) gave me 60 lbs of Humphrey briquettes (http://www.humphrey-charcoal.com/ out of Pennsylvania). It is not sold in stores here in new england... It was Easter Sunday and He and his brother in law (second cousins to me) were using it for a lamb roast (a-la My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and it was amazing stuff. The briquettes are solid and clean looking (NO ROCKS!). A pain to light according to him... but I'm willing to bet it'll compare favorably to stuff like b&b. These briquettes are solid and hard and I'm thinking they'd work incredibly well for when I load the PCB up. I hate how the temperature plummets when I load it up with 6 racks of ribs or just by adding a chicken. My plan is to use the chimney to fire up the requisite 42 briquettes of KBB and dump it on this new stuff to get it lit. So...

Given Katherine's lighting process (which I follow), I'm going to try a dry run to see if I can get a handle on the wait times after the chimney starter briqs are lit. Knowing others have used hard to light stuff (eg. Jerod), I'm looking for thoughts, guesses, or experiences on what the best approach might be...

So how did this guy (up here in the new england area) get briqs nobody up here sells? Being a tobacco farmer, he has sheds for curing tobacco run on propane... some sheds are too remote to have propane delivered (off deep in areas that are only dirt road accessible for example) and he has *charcoal* burners for heat and needs high-quality long burning charcoal for this purpose. He has a tractor-trailer container full of the stuff... several tons in fact!

[fzxdoc]

Now this sounds like a fun experiment, JPP . The only charcoal other than KBB or KP that I've used in my PBC has been Ozark Oak lump, which burned a bit hotter as I recall, and really nicely in the PBC. I fired it up the same way you are planning on doing--with 42 briquets of KBB in the chimney poured over a PBC basket nearly full of the Ozark Oak. The biggest change was not so much in the temperature profile as in the significantly reduced amount of ash at the end.

I'm eager to hear how it goes for you.

And welcome back! You've been missed.

Kathryn

[JPP]

It is nice to be back!

[JPP]

btw I'll be out of town this weekend so the experiment will have to wait. I'll probably throw a couple of chickens in once I get an idea of how it's going since they a) don't take too long to cook and b) are relatively cheap (like me!)

[Jerod Broussard]

B & B definitely takes a bit more to light when compared to KBB. It's enough where I am going to set up a gas burner to light my chimneys, plus I'm getting tired of rounding up paper. I have the burner itself I just need a frame of some sort.

If I'm going the "dreaded" lighter fluid route, I put somewhat of a layer of KBB on top or else a basket of just B & B will NOT light worth a flip.

[JeffJ]

That's clever hogdog6
The guys who produce Po Man Grill recommend rubbing alcohol to light coals in their cooker - "Cooking in a can!"

[JPP]

Hey hogdog6 the idea worked great for the new charcoal even. Great burn and far less smoke.

[hogdog6]

Happy it worked out well 🔥

[JPP]

So after writing about the charcoal I got last april I FINALLY tried it out in my PBC. So I mostly filled the basket with the Humphrey's and added on top somewhere around 60 or so briquettes of KBB. I then took 40 or so of mixed KBB and Humphreys' and put them into the chimney. The alcohol in the tin (local CVS had 91% isopropyl !!!). I started the process using the tried -n- true method put down by Kathryn... prior to adding three racks of SL style ribs, the cooker was running around 320 F or so. I put the ribs in around 2 pm local. Of course the temp dropped when I pulled the lid but it climbed back up to around 260-280 but then started sliding down... so I cracked the lid for some time (15 - 20 minutes) because the temp climbed VERY slowly to around 288-290. I then put the lid back down where the thing stayed around 255 F for the next two or three hours. At some point around four hours or so, the temp dropped just a bit more but stayed between 244-253 F until the ribs hit a good point and I took them off for dinner. The boss said they tasted different and she couldn't put her finger on the right word to use... until I said "cleaner". They were the best I've done so far... to the max!

While we ate some of the finest ribs I've ever done, I put some sockeye salmon and some haddock (!) onto a cooling rack and put the rack on an aluminum throw-away pizza pan. I pulled out the hickory I had in there which was still smoldering and dropped in some chunks of apple wood. Mind you the cooker was now (after 4.5 hours of burning) running over 300 F!. Of course the rack was in the barrel and no rebar.... once the fish was done I continued to monitor the temperature... at over 7-8 hours in, the temp was running at over 400 F. And at 6 am the next morning, there were a few *still burning* coals! I'm quite sure at a stable 270 this charcoal would last 10-12 hours! We sampled a small amount and the fish was incredibly good... especially the haddock!
I didn't photo the fish but below you'll find the rib shots!

[kmhfive]

Sounds like a great charcoal! The ribs look excellent.

[JPP]

I'm expecting this stuff will be phenomenal when the barrel is loaded the the max

[hogdog6]

Good looking ribs. 👏