Posted by BBQ Doctor on May 14, 1996 at 04:51:45:
In Reply to: Re: Lump Charcoal - Home Made posted by Smoky on May 09, 1996 at 08:41:41:
: Doc,
: If you have a decent barbecue grill, you have the makin's of a good
: charcoal kiln. All you do is fill it up with white oak and a little
: hickory, start a small fire and almost shut down the exhaust vent. You
: have no doubt seen fo
lks try to control their temperature by shutting
: down the exhaust rather than the air intake and, thereby, generating
: monstrous amounts of soot (carbon) and creosote flavored meat. So,
: stoke up the grill, close the lid and take a trip.
: In an atmosphere deprived of adequate oxygen to consume the lignins,
: only the volatile gases are driven off and burned. Creosote, ie liquid
: smoke, is a by-product.
: Natural charcoal does burn more rapidly and, compared ounce for ounce, <
br>: with briquets delivers more heat. It burns more rapidly because it is
: less dense and has hundreds of square inches of surface area per cubic
: inch of volumn. This allows the oxygen intimate contact with carbon
: and when carbon and oxyg
en have a little heat, they love to combine
: (combust). It does not burn longer, however, since this would defy a
: couple laws of physics.
: Also, briquets all use some sort of binding (gluing) agent which does
: not deliver the same BTUs as
charcoal. Kingsford uses real mineral
: coal, which is that petroleum type smell you get; The last check that
: I made, Royal Oak was using clay/limestone as a binder. Some use flour.
: The best readily available briquet that I have ever tested
is made by
: Hickory Specialities in Brentwood,TN. One of their brands is Old Hickory.
: But - If you have the wood, why make charcoal? Charcoal was made to
: reduce the transportation cost. (Mass & Volumn) My favorite fuel is
: wood coals.
All you do is make a separate fire to reduce the wood to
: hot coals and add them to your grill as needed. Wood is cheaper, you
: know what species went into the mix,and you can cook beans, make coffee
: or heat water to scald the hog or run t
he still.
: Good luck,
: Smoky
Sounds like you have the physics figured out, I never really thought
it through like that. I was thinking that lump charcoal has more
heat value per unit of weight compared to brick charcoal, and therefore
could burn longer and/or hotter in a controlled combustion environment.
On a volumn basis, maybe brick charcoal has more heat value since it is
more dense, and the capacity of a cooker is determined by volumn rather
than weight.
When you burn
off the wood are you able to get a wood smoked flavor, or
does it come out the same as 100% charcoal cooking? Some folks get the
same result either way. How do you ensure a good smoke flavor with
the burn off method?
- BBQ Doc