I bought a bag of b@b hickoy lump charcoal and am wanting to smoke a couple butts in my 22 wsm, im thinking soo donut method with lump. any reason this wouldn't work, I haven't used lump very much and never for a long cook.
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I would pile it in the WSM, and then light the middle of the pile, small, hot fire. That is how I run lump. You could use the snake method as well. They are very similar. -
I would be very careful to keep my lit pile of lump small. A larger fire will get really hot and you’ll have to choke down the air supply to keep the WSM temp under control.Comment
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I am with Spinaker on this one too. Lump, or bricks, I use the Minion Method. I use B$B exclusively when I do use lump, but I only use lump for hot and fast these days. I LOVE lump, and especially B&B, but I have learned that if I want consistent, I use KBB, Minion method.Comment
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lonnie mac my local hardware store carries Cowboy Brand briquettes. They are pretty close to KBB or Kingsford Pro in price, and I like that they don’t have weird fillers, burn pretty darn clean and are consistent for temp. Pretty much converted almost entirely to Cowboy :-)Comment
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This is going to sound strange....fill the charcoal ring with unlit lump but use briquettes to start the fire. I use Soo's Donut in mine and it works well. Lump burns hotter than briquettes so just reduce the number of lit briquettes you use by a half-dozen and you should be all set.Comment
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I'm with the others. Lump burns hotter, so start with less lit charcoal. I've been eying the B&B 20 pound bags stacked at the entrance of my local Wallyworld Neighborhood Market recently, and will probably grab a bag soon just to try it out. Not that I need it - my stockpile of Weber/Royal Oak/KBB bags is still quite high.Comment
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I really don't recommend lump for WSM cooking. I think you can get it to work but I've never had good luck with it, just use briquettes. Lump works much better in drums and kamados it seems, but that's been my experience. Weber will even mention the WSM was designed specifically for briquettes. Either way, good luck with your experiment.Comment
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I'm guessing most people have read this on this site, but I'm including a link just in case you haven't read all about charcoal, its production, and its properties....I love this article!
Amazing Ribs Article on CharcoalComment
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thanks for all the input, my thinking is it might burn hotter to power through the stall without wrapping giving me a better bark, also it should be cleaner burn.... ill post pics of how it goes when I get the time to do it in a couple weeks!
also would you add additional wood chunks to it???Comment
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Yeah I've done some of my own testing and I can find no evidence for the notion that lump burns hotter. It was not mega-scientific, just 2 runs in a row in a kettle under similar conditions, and attempting my best to make sure the volume and arrangement of the coal was the same, and using an IR temperature gun...typically the difference was well inside 30 degrees or so IIRC. That being said I'll use lump from time to time if it's on sale, or if I'm doing something other than low and slow (not because it burns hotter naturally, but because I'll open the vents more and make it burn hotter that way) as I've found briquettes to be easier to control, particularly over long cooks; but say if I'm just doing burgers or something, I don't need that level of precision so I'll use some lump that maybe was cheaper at the store or whatever.
My only other thing is that I've found a *very* noticeable difference between say, Kingsford Blue Bag and so called "organic" (which I take to simply mean no binders or fillers, I think they just say organic because it's a buzzword). I used just the house brand organic briquettes from Canadian Tire and they worked great, then one time when I snagged a bag of the classic Kingsford and used it, I was absolutely stunned by the amount of ash they created. The organic perhaps takes *very* slightly more time to get fully lit but other than that, I didn't really notice a giant difference in terms of burn time or what have you, just a massive pile of ash when I used the Kingsford. So I'm back on organic, IMO it's a much better option and the price is essentially the same.Comment
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I never really got into lump. Tried it a bunch, but always enjoyed the consistency of briquettes. They always burn the same. Lump was a mixed bag for my experience.
For my 22.5" WSM's, I ended up with the Fuse method.
What this allowed me to do is keep my vents far more open than with the Minion, because the fire makes its way around the Fuse, rather than spreading out from the center in a Minion. This means a cleaner burning fire. I noticed this when the Smoke Rings on my ribs got much better with the Fuse. I would keep the vent nearest the start of the fuse about 60% open, keep the next one in line 20% open, and the one by the farthest end of the fuse closed. And I'd run the top vent at 60% or so. This would get me that 240 degree zone and keep me from the spikes and the need to really close down the vents. I liked the taste and the cleaner fire from this better.
Keep cooking and have fun!
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I’m gonna go against the grain here. I use only lump because I can "taste" the briquettes. I only add 2 pieces of hickory because lump is wood. Yes it does burn a little faster and after 11 hours I might have to refill a little bit to me I believe it’s worth it. I picked up a digi q the other week for 100 bucks on eBay and added it with the fireboard.
used 3/4 of 30 lb bag of lump and a half chimney to start it. Put the hot coals in the center added a 16 lb brisket and let it go.
Well everything ran like a charm
i know briquettes last longer but I can taste it and doesn’t taste natural enough to me. Brisket came out great for my sons party (came in from the military and stayed for a few days over the weekend after getting back from Afghanistan a month ago. All he wanted was to watch the eagles and cowboys play and eat brisket)
the house is a 50-50 mix of both teams.
Anyways it came out so good, that a guest has hired me to do a Christmas party next Saturday.
Here is a pic of the fireboard
A little way thru i upped the temp to hold at 260 instead of 250.
Next Saturday I’ll try and get some pics of my next cook
here is another of the drive working up and down
i suspect that the up and down is due to the lump and air space. I didn’t have to reload it on this cook
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Didnt have time to get that brisket in the pics cause when ya have 50 people and a wsm 22.5 going it’s sorta hard when everyone is wanting it (like a pack of wild dogs). Slice n serve slice n serve type of thing.
However when I do the other one next Saturday, I’ll def get pictures. Also doing some more pork, Baltimore pit beef along with with some bourbon beans.
I understand, that it didn’t happen without pics but I must say, it was one of the top briskets that I have done. (103rd and counting. Yes I do count em)Comment
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