Briquettes or lump: My thoughts

[billg71]

I did my first cook with the Fogo lump Sunday, a 9 lb. pork butt and 2 racks of SLC ribs on the extender. I put the coffee can in the SCG, dumped in about 2/3 of a bag of the Fogo without measuring or sorting(it was 5:00 AM), lit about 1/3rd of a small chimney of it on the side burner and dumped it in when it got hot.

It took about the same time as the KBB I'm used to for the cooker to come up to temp, I used the same settings on the intake and top vents as the briquettes more or less, tapped the cooker with a rubber hammer a couple times during the cook and swept the ashes just like I do with the KBB.

All in all, I didn't notice any difference in the cook between the two fuels. The Fogo held a consistent temp with minimal vent fiddling, just like the KBB. The butt just didn't want to cook, I ended up refrigerating it overnight and finishing it in the oven. The ribs took about their usual 5-6 hr. to cook and came out great.

The load of lump held temp for around 14 hours until I gave up and put the butt in the fridge, there was still enough left to get the SCG up to 400+ when I opened the vents full to burn it out.

Honestly, I didn't really notice much difference in the cook between the lump and the KBB I'm used to. If anything, it took a little less fiddling with vents although there wasn't much of that going on anyway with either. I didn't get choked out while lighting and it looked to me like there was a cleaner smoke coming out of the cooker during the cook. After 50 years of cigarettes I don't have the most discriminating palette so I couldn't say either had an advantage in taste. There was a lot less ash by weight than I would have gotten out of an equivalent volume of briquettes and that's a plus.

I have a couple of cooks left of the Fogo(I bought two bags) and I want to use it up before I decide whether it's worth the price. But I'm pleasantly surprised with it so far, especially reading all the complaints about consistency with lump. I just didn't have a problem at all.

Best and thanks to all for their feedback!

Bill

[CeramicChef]

billg71 - looking forward to the rest of the story.

[billg71]

CeramicChef, SCG loaded with Fogo and ready to light early tomorrow, 2 chuckies to smoke for pulled beef. Burgers tonight cooking on the PK with Fogo.

I like this stuff!

[Johnonthelazysmoker]

Actually I find that briquettes have a "cleaner" taste with low and slow, as lump seems to impart more wood-smoke flavor the the food. I have noticed that kingsford blue does have a bit of a strange smell when lighting, however I have tried a few different brands of briquettes now and they aren't all like that. Lately I tried maple leaf hardwood briquettes, and they have no chemical smell whatsoever. YMMV.

Ii don't

[CeramicChef]

@kinddarb - I'd urge you to give a couple of bags of FOGO a try. FOGO has virtually no detectable odor except for maybe a very faint oak smell. That means you get to lay on the smoke flavor you want.

[billg71]

OK, it's been a while since I started experimenting with the lump. I used almost all of the last bag yesterday stoking the Summit Charcoal for beef ribs then sat down at the computer and ordered another two bags.

I got a 35# bag of the Super Premium(big chunks) and another 17.6# of their Premium(medium-small chunks). I thought their Premium has a little too much of the smaller pieces, I was picking through it pretty well to get enough to layer the bottom of the cooker so the small stuff didn't fall through.

I really like the charcoal, it lights clean, cooks well and is pretty good for ash production. A heckuva lot better than KBB anyway.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the 200# of KBB I've accumulated in the last two sales....

Best,
Bill

[Atalanta]

ship it to me

[fzxdoc]

billg71 , thank you for writing up your experimentation with Fogo lump charcoal on the WSCG. I'm following them with great interest.

I'm a KBB girl from the get-go, with a little KCompetition on the side, so jumping ship for FOGO would be a big one for sure. I used the KBB to develop consistent cooks with the PBC and hope to do the same with th WSCG. Just as you're doing, it took trial/error, changing only one parameter at a time until I got the cook I was looking for, over and over.

I did try OzarkOak lump in the PBC and found that its results were no better than KBB and there was a bit more variability in outcome.

It sure makes sense that the Komado-like design of the WSCG might make it better adapted for burning the same fuel used in Komados, though. I sure would like having less ash than the KBB puts out. For me, that's a huge plus.

And that's why I'm glad you're doing the research. Thanks again.

Kathryn

ETA: you could always try mixing the KBB with the FOGO, maybe KBB in the chimney and FOGO in the donut to gradually use up all the KBB. That would take a while, though, to use up those 200# of KBB, what with only a dozen or more briquets in the chimney for every burn.

[billg71]

Thanks, Kathryn. I do a little more cooking on the PK than the Summit so I'll continue to use the KBB in that. I hardly ever use more than a full chimney so it'll take a while.

And I like to keep a bag or two of Comp/Pro around for quick sears, I think it gets hotter than the lump.

Best,
Bill

[JeffJ]

[USER="6781"]billg71[/USERETA: you could always try mixing the KBB with the FOGO, maybe KBB in the chimney and FOGO in the donut to gradually use up all the KBB. That would take a while, though, to use up those 200# of KBB, what with only a dozen or more briquets in the chimney for every burn.

I did this last night. I finished off a bag of KBB and it didn't nearly fill my 2 charcoal baskets so I put lump on top. It worked well.