Howdy again, Meathead Maniacs!
Sorry it has been so long since the last installment of out last installment of Kamado Cooking. I've been up to my ears in alligators.
Breadhead deserves a HUGE portion of thanks for what follows. Breadhead was gracious enough to lend his BGE and his expertise in lump piles to our efforts here. KUDOS! Thanks so much for your help! It's greatly appreciated. I"ll try and remember to point out his contributions as we progress. So, let's get started!
Whenever I have someone ask me questions concerning about kamados that can't get up to temp, maintain temp, or fires that extinguish, invariably the answer is found in the guts of the kamado. Literally. Everything starts in the lump pile and that resides in the fire bowl of every kamado.
Remember from our first discussion that kamados need to breathe and the vents help regulate how efficient that creating process is. Remember the various configurations of fire grates we briefly discussed? Here is a look at a basic BGE fire grate :
You can see the fire grate plainly labeled. Notice the holes. in the fire grate. Those allow for good airflow into the lump pile.
If those become blocked for whatever reason, airflow is reduced and the fire can't breathe properly. This equates to fires that can't reach temps, fires that starve and extinguish. Here is a picture of the culprits that can give you so much trouble by plugging up the fire grate.
These are little shard of lump that in an improperly built lump pile that can fall down through the lump pile and plug the holes in the basic fire grate and lead to such problems as were mentioned above.
Now here is a picture of a grate that Breadhead uses.
I want you to notice that in this picture, the fire grate has much more of an open feel to it. It facilitates more air flow than the standard fire grate above. There is also an added benefit to this fire grate ... it is MUCH less likely to be plugged up by small bit of charcoal falling down through the lump pile during a cook. I think you can see the benefit of a fire grate like this versus the standard fire grate. Don't get me wrong, I think the standard fire grate is fine ... I cooked with one for years and they work well if you build your lump pile correctly, and as we shall see, Breadhead certainly does that!
There are two basic ways to build a lump pile. I'll cover my method first and then we'll cover the method used by our friend, Breadhead. I'm a dumper; I just dump lump into my cooker. Breadhead lays his lump in the fire bowl in a very specific way for a very specific purpose.
First, The Lump Dump!
Here is a look back into TheBeast, my Komodo Kamado Big Bad 32". As you can see and probably remember, TheBeast handles charcoal and airflow completely differently than any other kamado. There is no fire bowl and no fire grate.
Notice the bits of lump laying in the bottom. In a normal kamado cooker, those would have posed a real problem. BTW, that's all the ash accumulates after something like 10-12 cooks. That is on major reason why I use lump instead of briquettes. After every other cook in TheBEast, I'll pull the lump basket and sweep with my broom all the ash to the back of the belly of The Beast. Maybe you can see that above.
For EVERY, and I mean EVERY low-n-slow cook, I completely empty all ash from the belly of TheBeast. I don't want anything getting in the way of great airflow to and through my lump pile. Here is TheBeast completely leaned out of ash.
Now here is a picture of TheBeast with his 2nd lump basket in place and ready to receive lump:
As you can see here, all airflow is channeled up through the lump held by the lump basket. There is no other place for air flow to go.
Now here is a picture of lump sitting in the lump basket. Notice the white on some pieces. That lump was used in a previous cook.
Previously used lump will work just fine. Remember the picture of the belly of TheBeast above that showed ash and some small lump pieces? Well, all I do is grab my lump basket, give it a couple or three really good shakes, and the ash falls through the lump pile into the belly of TheBeast. That's how that charcoal got there. TO reuse lump, just get the old ash off and you're good to go.
Now here is a picture of that same lump basket with new lump just dumped on top of the old lump. Once I finish dumping in new lump, I shake the basket to insure good lump contact within the lump pile.
Notice that through out both lump pile pictures above, there are interspersed pieces of large, medium, and small lump. That's what I'm looking for. There is enough space for within the pile for air to freely flow. That's what make for a good fire ... fire has access to fuel and air. Finally, here is the dumped lump pile ready to light.
Breadhead was gracious enough to help me out with everything that follows. Any errors are mine and unintended.
This is a much more meticulous way of building a lump pile. It is meant to facilitate airflow through the lump pile and works well for most people. I'll do my best to talk about this as we go through and any questions can be quite ably be answered by Breadhead.
Here again, everything starts with a clean kamado. Notice that no ash is seen and the kamado is spotless (a clean kamado is a safe kamado ... more on that in future posts.). The grate is cleaned of all charcoal chards, and the bottom is clean and unobstructed. This is where air enters the kamado. For every low-n-slow use this technique or use this technique if it has been a few cooks since you cleaned out the ash in your cooker.
Now Breadhead purposely lays in a good number of the bigger pieces he's found in his lump bag. Ye indeed! Our Friend, and others, sort through their lump and and separate their lump into large, medium, and small pieces. They want that separation because they lay small pieces on the bottom, then medium, and finally small on top when creating their lump piles.
Here is the large laid in first.
Next Breadhead lays in a good layer of medium and some small sized pieces on top of that to create a lump pile that will support a fire for hours.
Here is picture of his method for starting his fires ... an electric loop lighter.
So what we have seen here is that there are a couple of different ways to get to the same point. Our Friend, Breadhead, uses a very deliberate methodology to lay in his lump pile. I, on the other hand, dump the lump and shake it. So why the different methods? Well, it's quite simple. Different cookers call for different methods. The BGE that Breadhead uses is an entirely different cooker with its own idiosyncrasies than my KK.
Breadhead has found, though experience what works best for him and the types of cooks that he does. So too, with myself and TheBeast. You also need to factor in the brand of lump charcoal you use. If I remember correctly, Breadhead uses Royal Oak, a good middle of the road brand of lump. Conversely, I use FOGO, a premium brand. RO generally has a good assortment of sizes in each bag. FOGO tends to be about 75% XXL and XL sized pieces with about 20% M and 5% S and fines.
Again, big time THANKS! to my Friend, Breadhead for all his help in putting this together.
Questions, Comments, Discussions?
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