Season your Charcoal?

[Edward_Fortin]

I have used Kingsford Blue brickettes for some years now. It is a good stable heat source. I have noticed that when lighting new charcoal in a chimney, the first smoke is heavy white smoke. This changes to thin blue smoke as the coals slowly ignite. If charcoal is only carbon, what is initially burning to create the white smoke?
I have also noticed that if I pre-bake my charcoal by reusing unused charcoal from my last cook, the charcoal does not produce white smoke when initially ignited. Why does this occur? Could you use this pre-bake technique to "season" charcoal for your smoker and avoid the bitter tasting white smoke?

[Attjack]

How exactly are you doing the "pre-bake"?

[Attjack]

So you would use the unburnt charcoal at the start of your new snake thus prebaking the new briquettes?

[Edward_Fortin]

Yes, exactly. I almost always have charcoal left over from cook to cook.

[Attjack]

Sounds like it's working for you. If you try to pre-bake a big batch let us know if it works at a larger scale.

[Donw]

Generally white smoke is the result of particles due to incomplete combustion. If you light your charcoal and wait a short while as it heats up and the combustion becomes more efficient the smoke will change to bluish clear. I personally would just wait for that stage to be reached before adding the food instead of doing a pre-burn to season. Even during the white smoke phase heat is being generated and raising the temps in the cooker.

[Edward_Fortin]

Thanks for the reply. You are probably correct in that I should only cook on red coals. I thought this might be a good way to add charcoal on long cooks.

[Troutman]

Kingsford uses gypsum and starch as binders in making their briquettes. That initial plume of white smoke is the binder burning off, along with whatever other additives they use (like sawdust for filler). Once all that is gone you're presumably left with charcoal.

I don't personally like re-using half burnt briquettes. They never seem to re-ignite (probably since the ignition items like sodium nitrate have already burned off) and never want to get as hot as fresh charcoal. I usually just let the left over burn down to ash.

[Edward_Fortin]

That makes allot of sense. I know that something is different in coals that were untouched by fire but were exposed to convection heat. I always thought that pre-baked briquettes don't light as well in a chimney because they are smaller and leave less space for air. Your idea seems better.

[klflowers]

I do use leftover charcoal in the wsm for long cooks. I mix it in with the new coals when I use the minion method

[tbob4]

I often have a lot of leftover charcoal and wood in my Vision grill which I use for the next cook. It lights very quickly and burns hot. However, I have to add new charcoal because of those properties.

[Uncle Bob]

And an oft forgotten component is water being turned to steam which appears white. Porous products like charcoal are willing "sponges" for moisture........

[texastweeter]

Hydroscopic...big words for this here redneck.

[Uncle Bob]

texastweeter close, actually hygroscopic.........

[texastweeter]

See what I mean, lol

[pkadare]

You're overthinking this.

[Jessterr]

"If charcoal is only carbon, what is initially burning to create the white smoke?". I concur with Troutman and Uncle Bob. Briquettes are not solely carbon but in fact only about 50% carbon (ballpark), the remainder being binders / fillers and likely some residual moisture as well, and it is those components that are causing most of the initial smoke. The starches burn off, but briquettes do contain large amounts of inorganic materials like borax (and gypsum per Troutman) that do not burn off, and it is these that create the copious amounts of ash that briquettes produce compared to lump. I’m of the camp that I do salvage unburned briquettes for future use, but keep them segregated from unburned lump and use them as starter fuel in a chimney for my next briquette cook, to ensure that they are used up completely. I despise wasting unburned charcoal whenever practical.

[bbqLuv]

Thank you. Another confirmation. I think I will stick with my pellet grill.

[RichieB]

My brain is going to blow up. Put a load of charcoal in the chimney, let it ash over, dump in cooker. Cook food. What am I missing?

[Bbqmikeg]

The Virtual Weber bullet website has a list of Kingsford briquette ingredients that’s pretty succinct.
Google Kingsford briquette ingredients and scroll down to the virtual Weber bullet listing to find it easier.
Meathead’s article about charcoal is very in-depth to say the least.
Clorox owns Kingsford so they are kind enough to include Borax to help you keep your kettle squeaky clean.
I use Kingsford because it’s dependable and cheap.
I also put my used briquettes in a plastic bag the next day and give it a twist to keep moisture out.

[Steve R.]

Seasoned charcoal is the new pre-burned wood. What an epic thread!

[texastweeter]

Oh lort

[texastweeter]

There are binders like borax, and starch not pure carbon.

[Edward_Fortin]

Thanks to all for the good insight. Last Saturday I cooked beef short ribs for 11 hours on my offset using nothing but pre-burnt charcoal that I was saving. I used the equivalent of 3 16 lbs bags over the duration of the cook (225 for 11 hours). There was absolutely no white smoke at any time. There was also no flavor. I could have cooked them in the oven and achieved the same smell / taste. I did not use any wood so as to not complicate the test. The ribs were juicy and tender and had a nice visual smoke ring. I miss that "charcoal" flavor though.