Started the holy gospel of Meathead’s book and noticed he recommends briquettes and discouraged lump charcoal - this is contrary to most everything I’ve read or watched on kamado grilling.
Anyone here using briquettes in a Kamado?
If so, what’s the advantage over high quality lump?
Too much ash for the Kamado. The ash will fill in and block the vent holes. The Kamado is so controllable that there is no issues running the variables found with lump.
I like the consistency of briquettes in a kettle or hibachi, as per Meatheads advice in those cookers briquettes are the only way I go.
Whenever I am doing a low and slow long cook I use lump for the reasons mentioned above. For any other cook I use briquettes. Just as a baseline probably anything 2 hours or less you would be fine with briquettes. That's about the longest I've done with briquettes .
I've used briquettes, the ash isn't that bad. I still prefer lump, though. With the vents properly set, there isn't really any problem with uneven burning. The ceramic hold the heat really well and evens everything out.
In fact, I can control temps, using lump, to within a degree or two. A stable 225 in my Egg is top and bottom vent open just a tiny smidge. If I take my finger and juuuuuust tap the top vent and move it almost imperceptibly, the temp goes up a couple degrees and restabilizes. If variable burn with lump was a problem, I wouldn't be able to do that.
I prefer lump way over briquettes in a kamado. Can you use them? Yes, do they work as well as a quality lump? No.
As others have said, the binders found in briquettes produce more ash. And because the airflow is so little in a kamado, it is easy for this extra ash to plug up the kamado and snuff the fire.
I have used briquettes in my BGE MiniMax since the fire box is really shallow. I would be afraid to do a 14 hour cook with them in my Large BGE for fear of the vent holes clogging not to mention the volume of ash would be a pain in the ash. Ido use briquettes in my Weber Jumbo Joe.
No. There is no advantage. In general briquettes are preferable over lump, but Kamado cookers are one of the exceptions. You should only use lump for those.
But I would like to thank those who use lump in kettles and other charcoal cookers! By creating additional demand for "organic" charcoal that isn’t "processed" with "chemicals".....you have made lump available virtually everywhere. Whenever I need more lump charcoal even the nearby grocery store has it. It is everywhere!
So I'm not going to try too hard (or at all) to tell people anything
Cookers:
Weber Kettle (used/fair condition; a gift).
Grilla OG.
Pit Boss 3-Burner Ultimate Lift-Off Griddle.
SnS Kettle.
Everything Else:
Sous Vide equipment.
Instant read and leave-in thermometers.
Grill Grates.
Kingsford Blue Bag, Royal Oak Lump Charcoal, Weber lighter cubes, Weber charcoal chimneys.
BBQr's Delight Hickory & Apple flavor pellets, propane torch, 6" smoke tube.
Grilla apple & hickory pellets, Royal Oak charcoal pellets.
Rubs with salt: Meat Church, Meathead.
Rubs without salt: SnS Grills Rocky's Rub and Not Just for Beef.
Rubs home-mixed: None at this time.
Spices: Lots of 'em.
As customtrim mentioned, I've been using briquettes in my XL BGE (for long cooks). Not because of any issues with the lump available in my area, but rather I wanted to reduce the various bags of charcoal on hand. I've been using Weber briquettes since I also use it for long cooks in my kettles. Prior to using Weber I had a bag of Kingsford Professional that also performed well for a 16 hour butt cook. I'm not cooking a lot on the BGE and it's possible I'll eventually have an ash issue, but so far so good. I think I did one cook with B&B hardwood briquettes with no issues.
Last edited by fuzzydaddy; July 23, 2018, 04:36 PM.
I have been running briquettes in the Keg at the lake this summer for burgers etc.. It does not get any where near as hot as lump and leaves a ton of ash after the cook. For low and slow as well as high temp pizza cooks, I will definitely stick to lump. Burgers at the lake can be briquettes but that's about it.
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