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Charbroil Center Cut Charcoal review

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    Charbroil Center Cut Charcoal review

    There's been a lot of chatter about this product around the BBQ forums, especially since it's on sale until the end of January for around $1/lb. I used it for my overnight brisket cook.

    Everything I've read about this charcoal was confirmed by my use of it.

    For the cook, I used a Large BGE. Outside temp was 37* at the start of the cook, and around 50* at the end of the cook 12 hours later. There was a light rain most of the time.

    I loaded up the Egg to about halfway up the fire ring, using about 60% of the box of charcoal: about 6lbs. Using 3 paraffin cubes, the coals lit very quickly.

    Once lit, there was NO period of gray or white smoke: this stuff burns clean right from the get-go. Seriously, it is pretty much all heat.

    I set up the DigiQ and the Maverick. Temp stabilized quickly at 225*, I put the meat on and went to bed. Checking the Maverick at 3AM and 5AM, temps were still stable in the 220-235 range.

    7AM the temp was falling, and that persisted for the next hour so I went out to check the coals. And at that point, a little after 8AM, they were pretty close to all burnt out. There was nowhere near enough charcoal to get the brisket from 170 to 200. So I dumped about 2lbs more in, waited about 5 minutes for them to fire up, and finished off the cook.

    Good: No bad smoke. This stuff is well carbonized, and very clean.
    Bad: It burns quickly, very quickly. I've done overnight cooks in cold weather before, and never had to do a reload.

    This is exactly the same as what others have reported. On one hand, there's no waiting for the fire to heat up and even out. On the other hand, you have to use more coal per hour, and forget about getting 20 hours out of it. I put about twice as much fuel in the BGE as I normally would have for a brisket, based on what I'd read, and I still had to do a reload.

    So, use it for steaks, and for ribs, and chicken, and fish. Avoid it for pork butts and briskets.

    #2
    Great review! Thanks

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Mosca View Post

      So, use it for steaks, and for ribs, and chicken, and fish. Avoid it for pork butts and briskets.
      That's exactly what I was thinking as I got to the end of your review. Good points!

      Comment


        #4
        I am cooking a brisket with it right now and am doing a version of Chris Groves turbo Brisket. I am hoping I won't have to reload after starting out loaded to the fire ring. I have never loaded above the fire ring with Royal Oak and have gone 22 hours with 40# of Butt.

        Comment


        • Mosca
          Mosca commented
          Editing a comment
          It will be interesting to see what your results are. I overloaded specifically based on what I'd read, and I wasn't expecting to reload. The good thing about a reload is that it burns clean from the start, so you won't get bad smoke.

        #5
        Hmmmmm....something groovy is going on with Char-Broil.

        Comment


        • FireMan
          FireMan commented
          Editing a comment
          You sneaky rascal you, or should I have said imp.

        #6
        Thanks for the share Mosca!

        I may have to get some of this and try in the PBC.

        I'm interested to see what the cats over at C-B are up to... Max just keeps hinting at interesting things to come but won't spill the beans... Just saw the other day where they are making the OK Joe Longhorn and Highland smokers to be both reverse flow and traditional offset depending on how you set them up.

        Comment


          #7
          Mosca

          Turbo Brisket with Char-Broil Center Cut

          Here is what I did:
          1. I separated the point and flat and injected both with beef broth, rubbed with mustard and Meathead’s Big Bad Beef Rub the night before.
          2. At 6:00am I loaded the Large Big Green Egg to the fire ring with Char-Broil Center Cut Charcoal with an ambient temperature of 17. Started a fire in the center with a Nap Torch - 20 seconds. Closed the lid with bottom and top vents open and let it run until it reached 225 - about 10-20 minutes - can’t remember. I put two chunks of oak on the center fire and put the Ceramic Grill Works Rig in with the stone and the grate at the top setting along with a water pan. At 7:00am when the temp and smoke stabilized at 225 I put the flat on the grate, added the Rig Extender and grate, and put point on the Extender.
          3. At 10:00am when both the flat and point reached 140, I increased the dome temp to 250 for 20 minutes, then 275 for 20 minutes and then raised the temp for another 20 minutes to 300 and kept it their for the remainder of the cook.
          4. At 12:40 pm both the flat and point had reached 170 but were not moving very fast, so because of time constraints and I wanted it to put it in a faux camber for at least two hours I decided to wrap.
          5. By 1:45pm the internal temp was up to 193, and I pulled it prob tender with an internal temp of 203 at 2:10pm and an ambient temperature of 42. The total cooking time was 7 hours and 10 minutes.
          6. I took out the Rig Extender and the grills leaving the Rig, stone and water pan in to see how long it would hold 300 before running out of fuel.
          7. The temperature began dropping below 300 around 3:30pm. After running from 7:00am to 3:30pm for a total of 8 1/2 hours with 5 1/2 hours at 300 and ending with an ending ambient temp of 37. It finally dropped to 225 at 4:30pm. My best guess would be with ambient temps above 70 and cooking at 225 we should be able to get between 12 and 15 hours on one load of charcoal which would take care of most low and slow cooks.
          Photos to follow.

          Comment


            #8
            Click image for larger version

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            After the cook
            Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_0243.JPG Views:	1 Size:	5.98 MB ID:	252491
            The flat Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_0247.JPG Views:	1 Size:	4.95 MB ID:	252492
            Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_0251.JPG Views:	1 Size:	6.96 MB ID:	252494
            The point Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_0241.JPG Views:	1 Size:	6.56 MB ID:	252493
            The fire is out

            Comment


            • Nate
              Nate commented
              Editing a comment
              Nice looking cook. The brisket bend test looks nice too. Thanks for the info on the turbo cook.

            #9
            LA Pork Butt , the bottom photo is what my fire bowl looked like when I added more coal, except I still had burning embers. The point/flat were at 171.

            I like the product at around $10/box. It isn't worth $20 though.

            Comment


            • LA Pork Butt
              LA Pork Butt commented
              Editing a comment
              Agreed. I think I paid $9.22 with free shipping from Amazon Prime. Unfortunately they are now asking $21.99. My 60# will,have to do until the next sale.
              Last edited by LA Pork Butt; December 19, 2016, 07:28 PM.

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