Lump Charcoal, Logs, or Both???

[Mista D]

OK. I need your help. I have a BBC that works for me. When cooking, I currently use BGE natural charcoal along with chunks of pecan, apple, or cherry depending on my meat.

I will be buying a large smoker on a trailer soon. I want to know what will work best for long burns on a larger smoker while getting the best results.

My concern is putting too many logs on creating a chemical taste on the meat. Another concern is having to spend tons of money on BGE charcoal...(I can imagine the thank you letters they would send me for buying so much of their product).

One of my first smokes on the BBC, I used pecan logs with BGE charcoal. Admittedly, I left the bark on the logs which I'm now finding may be a problem. I also helped a friend smoke brisket on a large smoker where they used logs with the bark left on. I'm not sure if it was the bark or the pecan logs themselves that created the after-taste.
Plus, it seemed we were adding a log every 90 minutes to maintain a consistent low temperature. This calls for many long nights for what I intend to do with the larger smoker...a sacrifice I am willing to make.

Anyway, please let me know your thoughts. Would you use primarily lump or hardwood charcoal, logs, or both.

[wnkt]

The bitter taste was probably from the wood not burning hot enough. a smaller hot fire is better than a larger smouldering one.
That being said, I use charcoal and wood chunks. Just about everyone here does it different. There are charcoal briquette users.... Lump users....those that use both ( me ) and those that use wood chips...chunks...smallish limbs..and full blown split logs. Some use gas.some use a gas log lighter to get the wood started....

have I confused you enough yet?
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[roxy]

[NCBBQFAN]

I have been using split hickory & oak for 4-5 yrs, but have lately started mixing in lump as well I have found it gives me a longer burn time and a chance to take a rest on those 12 hour night cookings.

[brae0408]

I get a good bed of coals going with lump charcoal and then add my logs every 50 minutes or so.

[Jeff T]

I think they mean like this......

I started with unlit lump in the basket, added a charcoal chimney of lit lump on top. Added the first log. This pic was taken about an hour and a half to two hours later ..... the third log . After each log is burnt up i bust the log into coals with my poker, this will replenish the coals that way. The first two logs are on the outer edges of the pile as you can see.

[Mista D]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I began smoking in my BBC at 10:30 last night. Unlit coals, then a chimney of hot coals. Once that was ready, I added the log and let it catch fire.

About every 2 hours I added a new pecan log, but I did not smash as suggested in the prev post. Temperature control was good allowing me to get 2 hour sessions of sleep thanks to my maverick remote.

However, my 11 pound brisket is darker than the BGE coals I put on the fire. We'll see what taste is like in a few hours.

I also just put on a 6 pond butt. Hopefully, by adjusting the amount of pecan logs, I can get a good color on the butt.

I'll keep you posted and take some pics for all to see. I want any newbies like me to see my mistakes so they don't make similar ones.

[lantern]

I may be alone on this one, but I stop my flavor woods after 140-145* internal temp. I've always been of the opinion that meat stops taking "in" flavor at those temps.

What happens after that is darker coloring and often a bitter taste. In my opinion of course.

[roxy]

[Mista D]

Well, a 10.57 pount brisket reached internal temp of 195 in 10 hours...10:30 PM to 8:30 AM.

I know for a fact that my firebox did not go past 240 degrees at any point with my most consistent temp in the 200-225 range.

So it took @ 60 min per pound using BGE coals and 14" pecan logs.

I will humbly take any and all suggestions...please

[necron 99]

Like you, I'd previously been using Brinkmann, and before that, Cook'n Ca'jun vertical smokers since the 1970's. I just got back into smoking again recently after about a 10 year hiatus, and I got a Bar-B-Chef as an early birthday gift from the missus. My Brinkmann has been idle for some time now with a hole in the water pan. I added the cooking chamber thermometer to my BBC before seasoning it or cooking with it. I bought the $9.99 Char-Broil brand 3" dial thermometer at Academy which fit perfectly, while the $19.99 one I bought at Barbecues Galore when I bought the Bar-B-Chef did not, and I'll return it during my next Houston trip.

I'm planning to cook tomorrow on my BBC, so I'll pass along the results and any tips. My first cook on my just-seasoned BBC two weeks ago came out great using OCC Rancher charcoal (and some Kingsford Charwood lump that I'll never purchase again) and pecan wood mini-logs from Academy. I cooked a whole pork loin (I split into two halves), a whole chicken, then a sirloin steak after I took the pork & chicken off right where the food grate was hot enought to sizzle the meat by the firebox window. The flavors came out great, but the chicken white meat came out a little dry, and I'll address that in my next cook (I didn't like using the wife's oven chicken roasting rack with integral drip pan - too tall in the smoker - top part got a bit too warm of a smoke). But no blackness or bitterness. I put aluminum disposable roasting pans under the meats, and put water in all 3 pans, but next time I'll just put water in the one closest to the firebox window.

For tomorrow, I have a brisket that has been sitting in a wet rub that incorporates some of the Stubb's Steakhouse marinade, a set of boneless country style ribs that have been basking in home made jerk paste, and this time two chickens using one of the stainless steel double beer-can chicken racks from Academy. One chicken has been bathing in Stubb's chicken marinade, the other is my Tex-Tusc creation, using fresh rosemary that was bruised then immersed in Steen's cane vinegar for a week before being placed both under and on top of the skin. The one marinating in the Stubb's mix will get a Dr. Pepper can internal baste, the Tex-Tusc will get the remaining rosemary vinegar with some water. I'll be using Rancher briquettes and some 10 year old seasoned, that I recently split and are now barkless, mesquite logs that have traveled around with us since we left Texas. I'll be ready to add some pecan periodically from the bag I bought at Academy since the mesquite's been aged a while - I'll smell the smoke and judge what I do next from there. I'll also be using a dual probe wireless thermomemetr for the brisket and one of the two chickens, and a pocket digital quick-read thermometer for the pork. Last cook, I just used the pocket digital thermometer and since then bought the wireless dual probe unit.

FYI, the stainless double chicken rack is tagged at $14.49, but scanned at under $6 at Academy during Louisiana sales tax free weekend.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[necron 99]

OK, today's cookout is finished. I used a 50 / 50 mix of mesquite and pecan because my mesquite is well seasoned (10 years since it was cut green), it didn't produce much smoke. The pecan I bought at Academy is more moist and produces more smoke.

For my BBC, I started with a double layer of Rancher briquettes in a 6 X 6 square, closer to the cooking chamber end than the firebox door (by a little bit). I set and kept the stack damper at 100% open all day. I started a chimney full of Rancher briquettes off to the side, then lit and stuck my propane log lighter under the Rancher on the grate in the firebox. Once the chimneyful was ashed over well, I turned off and removed the log lighter. I poured the hot coals from the chimney in on top, and heaped them a bit. I opened the firebox door vent 100%, closed the lids, and let the cooking chamber thermometer get to 225 F.

Then, I set the food on the cooking grates. Once that was done, I added the first wood to the fire. I lay the wood on the pile close to the firebox door vent to start with, so it gets first shot at the oxygen in the incoming air. Also, I removed the bark if it's the thick, dark bark. If it's the thin, grey bark, and doesn't want to peel easily when I split it, I leave it on. I lay the wood pieces with the side where the bark used to be (or still is if thin and gray) down on the hot coals. My thoughts on this is it allows anything from that layer to burn quickly, rather than smolder if it's facing up. I have no idea if this makes a difference, it's just what I do.

The mesquite went into flames quickly and easily, so I throttled the incoming air a bit, and noted the smoke was very thin and didn't have much spice / smell to it when the flames died down, then out. Once the flames died out, now I use tongs to move these now well-flamed mesquite wood pieces closer to the cooking chamber entrance. I then set a piece of barkless pecan where I had first set the mesquite, and got some good thin white smoke that had some definite smell to it.

Later, when adding fuel, I'd add one mesquite and one pecan piece together first, on the coals close to the firebox vent door. Then I'd pile on more Rancher briquettes one at a time to a level I deemed appropriate. I repeated as necessary throughout the cook, usually every 60 to 90 minutes.

The food went into the cooking chamber at 10 AM. The jerk pork was done by 2 PM, being sliced up and boneless, and I should have spritzed more, but we were also assembling new patio furniture today. They came out fine, just a tad dry. Both chickens got a half can of Dr. Pepper to sit on, I was afraid I might overdo the rosemary. The chickens were done at 3:30, and were very moist. Much better than my last cook with the wife's oven chicken roaster rack. The brisket reached 165 F internal about 4:30 PM, so I foiled it, then only added mesquite if I added wood, since the foiled brisket was the only thing in the cooker, and only added wood as needed for fuel, along with the Rancher. I decided I'd let the foiled brisket stay on the grill until I'd added the last of the 20 pound bag of Rancher and the cooking chamber temperature dropped to 210 F. That happened around 7 PM. The brisket had reached an internal temp of 210 F when I took it off. In the mean time, we ate chicken and pork and vegetable kabobs my wife cooked on the gas grill between 4 and 7 PM.

We set the brisket covered with a couple of towels in the indoor oven to rest, took it out at 8:00 PM, removed the fat cap, and sliced it. It was tender, not oversmoked (in fact, the smoke ring wasn't very deep), but it is flavorful. We shredded the burnt ends and sauced with Stubbs Original for lunch tomorrow. Tomorrow night, we try out our new freezer vacuum bag sealer to put stuff away. We'd invited the neighbors but school has started and the husband next door is the football coach, so they were busy this evening.

Anyway, I hope that helps Mista D. The wife took some pics I'll post tomorrow. I'm just a backyard cook, not anyone on a competition circuit, so I'm no expert (my day job isn't cooking). For the BBC, fiddling with the fire every 60 to 90 minutes and checking the temperature gauge every 20 to 30 minutes to see if the firebox door vent needs adjustment is what I do on my all day cooks. The remote wireless meat thermometer gizmo didn't work out (first time I used it) so I was back to my pocket model instant read, which did fine. I'll need to try the potato thing on the thermocouples next time. I did have to pull the BBC and me into the garage, shut the main door, and hang out at the threshold of the wide open side door for about 30 minutes during a brief but pounding rainstorm between when I took the pork off and when I took the chicken off. Just part of life in the bayou boonies. Thankfully, this wasn't right after I'd added wood to the firebox! The cooking chamber thermometer never read above 255 F, and dipped just below 200 F a few times but not often. Most of the cook was spent in the 225 F to 240 F band.

I also learned a 20 pound bag of Rancher and split wood equivalent to 3 or 4 mini-logs is about the limit of the ash-handling capacity for a single cook on my BBC. For my next cook, I'll try a 9 pound bag of Natures Hardwood briquettes and a 6.6 pound bag of Natures Mesquite lump, with split mini-logs. My first cook, with about a half a bag of Rancher and a 10 pound bag of Kingsford Charwood and split mini-logs, I didn't accumulate quite so much ash. It wasn't a problem, but now I know where the limit is for my brickette charcoal grate feet.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[necron 99]

Ok, here's the pics. This was my second cook on my Bar-B-Chef.

The loaded Bar-B-Chef, with the Tex-Tusc chicken outboard, brisket closest to firebox for initial searing, and jerk pork by the vent.



After the first 90 minutes I went to baste the chicken skin and I swapped the brisket and pork positions, putting the brisket by the vent. I also rotated the chicken rack at this point.

The wife missed getting pics of the finished pork and chicken, that's what we ate after assembling the patio furniture yesterday (with plenty of leftovers now). We were too hungry to wait for pics! She grilled some marinated vegetable kabobs on the gas grill to accompany the meat.

Here's the finished brisket with the fat cap still on. This piece had no tip, just the trapezoidal cut you see, from the local Winn-Dixie meat case.



Here's the sliced brisket sans fat cap.



Total cook time of 9 hours, about three of those in foil. The smoke ring isn't as deep as I would have expected, and I think either my wet rub or the early searing maybe inhibited that. It came out plenty juicy and tender though. The jerk pork which spent a much shorter time on the grill had a deeper smoke ring, so I think it was my wet rub that inhibited the brisket smoke ring.

Next time, the brisket gets to try a Dr. Pepper bath with spices for a couple of days before the cook!
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!