Tips For Using Lump Charcoal In PBC ?

[ChrisD46]

Previously I have only tried Kingsford and Stubbs briquettes in my PBC ... Any tips or experiences you can share for using lump charcoal ? I happen to have a bag of Cowboys laying around and thought I would use it for doing up a whole chicken or pork butt with a digital thermometer & meat probe to monitor internal meat temps ... Your thoughts ?

[jpl62]

i am new to using this cooker but i am sold on using lump charcoal. I tried briquettes with the lighter fluid method and had inconsistent results. Once i switched to lump charcoal i am not going back. I am just  a copycat of 1Big_ER. i put about half a load of unlit lump charcoal in the basket and place in the cooker. i fill a small chimney of lump and make sure it gets nice and hot. It can take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. I don't go by time i go by how hot and red the coals look. Next i dump the hot coals in the cooker with the unlit coals for 10 minutes with the lid off. That is the critical part. You need those 10 minutes for the lit coals to properly light the unlit coals otherwise you run the chance of the fire going out. I made the most fantastic marinaded chicken last night. Even my sister who is a home economics teacher said the chicken was amazing. She asked. "What did you cook this thing in?...I said just a simple drum (pit barrel cooker). The hung chicken was done in about an hour so i decided to take out the grill and place the chicken half's on the grill with the skin side down to crisp the chicken....It took 2 minutes....I didn't use any flavored wood.....I decided that i needed to regulate the temperature in case the fire would get extinguished during the cook so i drilled a hole near the grill level and screwed in a thermometer. With lump i feel very confident because the smoke is cleaner and hotter and seems to even burn longer than briquettes in my experience I had the bottom vent completely open and took  out one re-bar during the cook....The temp ran steady at 350 degrees throughtout the cook.  Also i made some hamburgers last week that were great when cooked with lump. When i decided to cook some chicken pieces on the grill with briquettes I observed that it did not have the intensity to sear and crisp like the lump charcoal. This is just my opinion and i am not here to debate anyone on the merits of briguettes vs lump. Whatever you are using that gives you success than by all means stick with that. I hope this helps you in someway...john           

[ChrisD46]

Thanks jpl62 !! ...Feel free to chime in 1Big_ER !!

I believe first I will try a mix of briquettes & lump charcoal (first taking a hammer to any XL sizes of lump charcoal) and then in the future move too an all lump charcoal experiment staying with the standard recommended set up of 1/4th way vent opening (for my elevation) and both rebar rods inserted and then experiment from there ... There may be a preferance / patturn which develops depending on whether a long or slow cook is desirable . Your thoughts ?

[1Bigg_ER]

JP nailed it!! I use lump charcoal about 99.9% of the time in my PBC.
When I'm cooking chicken I use 1:1 ratio of lit and unlit coals. Dump the lit coals when they're blazing red hot, do not put the lid on. Let it go until some of the unlit coals have ignited then hang your chicken.

For ribs and such I go with 2 parts unlit coals to 1 part lit. Dump the lit coals when they're blazing red hot, leave the lid off. Once you feel that the unlit coals are good, put the lid on. I take an extra step here, I let it go for another 10 minutes or so with the lid on before hanging the food. This step gets me clean smoke once the food is hang. What happens is if you have poor fire, you will get bellowing smoke once the drippings hit the coals. But if you have well ignited coals, the drippings evaporate immediately and you get clean smoke.

My advice is experiment with different lump charcoal brands, pick and stick with one. That way you know how it behaves. I only use Ozarka Oak lump charcoal

[1Bigg_ER]

Oh and cooks longer than 6 hours you might want to go with briquettes, they burn longer than lump.
Yes you can use the kingsford competition briquettes. They burn cleaner, less ash than the original blue bag.

[ChrisD46]

Very useful information - makes sense !
How would you describe the flavor differences between your lump vs. briquette experiments ?
Do you ever add the a piece of fruit wood with lump charcoal to alter the flavor profile or just stay with lump charcoal alone ?? Lastly , if going through the planning of using lump charcoal I imagine using a chimney starter makes the best sense to prevent off flavors ?

[1Bigg_ER]

Very useful information - makes sense !
How would you describe the flavor differences between your lump vs. briquette experiments ?
Do you ever add the a piece of fruit wood with lump charcoal to alter the flavor profile or just stay with lump charcoal alone ?? Lastly , if going through the planning of using lump charcoal I imagine using a chimney starter makes the best sense to prevent off flavors ?

I stay away from lighter fluid.
I used to use wood chunks but I  stopped, I find it unnecessary. I like the slight smokiness from the lump charcoal alone. It's a very clean
smokey flavor. The blue briquettes have always got me an off taste. I use kingsford competition for that reason.

[ChrisD46]

I would think KBB briquettes flavor profile differences would be less noticeable  for hardy meats (beef / pork) but perhaps more noticeable for poultry ?

[jpl62]

I have been using cowboy lump charcoal but i hear that royal oak lump charcoal is highly recommeneded. It sells at home depot for $12.98 for 17 lbs. The price per pound is less than the blue kingsford briquettes. I havent used it yet but i will tonight when i barbeque some chicken tonight. The reviews are very positive on the internet. One thing i will say is that the last time i made chicken it had much better flavor than any previous cooks and i know that was a direct result of marinating the chicken for 6 hours and using fresh ingredients. The marinate had fresh orange juice, lime juice, roasted chili flakes, oregeno, cumin and other spices. I could tell the marinate partially penetrated the chicken whereas a rub that you sprinkle on the chicken only flavors the skin mostly. I think marinating or brining a chicken will give you far greater flavor than what type of briquettes or lump you use. I myself am brining a chicken in buttermilk and brown sugar and spices today so i will tell you how it turned out. One experiment i am going to run tonight is to use only half a lit chimney of lump with one half chimney of unlit charcoal tonight to save on lump charcoal. I will place all the charcoal on one side of the basket and hang the chicken on the same side as the charcoal. I bought the amaze-n tube smoker that uses pellets and i am going to try it out tonight with the pit barrel cooker so i can get some added wood smoke flavor. I will let you guys know what i think of this experiment.....john

[teesquare]

I have been using cowboy lump charcoal but i hear that royal oak lump charcoal is highly recommeneded. It sells at home depot for $12.98 for 17 lbs. The price per pound is less than the blue kingsford briquettes. I havent used it yet but i will tonight when i barbeque some chicken tonight. The reviews are very positive on the internet. One thing i will say is that the last time i made chicken it had much better flavor than any previous cooks and i know that was a direct result of marinating the chicken for 6 hours and using fresh ingredients. The marinate had fresh orange juice, lime juice, roasted chili flakes, oregeno, cumin and other spices. I could tell the marinate partially penetrated the chicken whereas a rub that you sprinkle on the chicken only flavors the skin mostly. I think marinating or brining a chicken will give you far greater flavor than what type of briquettes or lump you use. I myself am brining a chicken in buttermilk and brown sugar and spices today so i will tell you how it turned out. One experiment i am going to run tonight is to use only half a lit chimney of lump with one half chimney of unlit charcoal tonight to save on lump charcoal. I will place all the charcoal on one side of the basket and hang the chicken on the same side as the charcoal. I bought the amaze-n tube smoker that uses pellets and i am going to try it out tonight with the pit barrel cooker so i can get some added wood smoke flavor. I will let you guys know what i think of this experiment.....john

The process of brining - just for the sake of edification, requires salt, and brining is used to cause the meat to adsorb and hold moisture - thus resulting in a more moist cooked meat. If you are brining - it is an osmotic process whereby the muscle tissue and the surrounding brining liquid reaches an equilibrium. The same specific gravity/ salinity in the meat - as the fluid outside the meat.
There is a range of salt percentage that works for this process. Too little salt - the brine is not effective. Too much and the meat will be salty.
If you are using a natural buttermilk ( most buttermilks in grocery stores now days are merely milk that has had a small amount of vinegar or similar food acid added to cause the milk to "curdle". These are sold as "cultured") you are employing an enzymatic marinade - that can add tot he tenderness of the meat as it breaks down the muscle tissue. Done carefully - this is very effective. Done for too long - and you have "mushy" meat. If the buttermilk is cultured - it will moisturize the meat to some degree, and can help draw out blood and wild or gamey tastes.
All good options - depending on what you are trying to achieve. Food chemistry is a tool that most of us dismiss as difficult, but it can fun and interesting....and tasty!
Keep us posted on how the cook turns out. Sounds like it will be good.

[jpl62]

Just looked at Mr. Biggs method of starting the charcoal and am very impressed. I am going to start using duck fat for sure. My experiment did not turn out so well. The temperature reading was 350 starting but fell to about 250 with a half hour. I had the chicken  hanging for about an hour and it was completely done then. Inside temperature of bird was 145 to 150. The temperture of the cooker was around 200 degrees and i felt it wasnt really cooking the chicken at that temperature. I then proceeded to take out the basket while it was hot and have it sear the chicken. One chicken was cooked to temperature 155 degrees but the other was alittle raw....The amaz-n tube smoker worked great...i had the vent wide open and pushed the tube into the vent to get a constant light blue smoke...The meat was smoked well but was not overwhelming...I used pecan pellets....Next time i am going to use the 6 inch tube smoker and place it inside the drum next to the basket which will be next to the vent....I think by closing down the vent completelly i will have a longer cook necessary for the chicken....still love my cooker and this one is a keeper

[Bacala]

Just looked at Mr. Biggs method of starting the charcoal and am very impressed. I am going to start using duck fat for sure. My experiment did not turn out so well. The temperature reading was 350 starting but fell to about 250 with a half hour. I had the chicken  hanging for about an hour and it was completely done then. Inside temperature of bird was 145 to 150. The temperture of the cooker was around 200 degrees and i felt it wasnt really cooking the chicken at that temperature. I then proceeded to take out the basket while it was hot and have it sear the chicken. One chicken was cooked to temperature 155 degrees but the other was alittle raw....The amaz-n tube smoker worked great...i had the vent wide open and pushed the tube into the vent to get a constant light blue smoke...The meat was smoked well but was not overwhelming...I used pecan pellets....Next time i am going to use the 6 inch tube smoker and place it inside the drum next to the basket which will be next to the vent....I think by closing down the vent completelly i will have a longer cook necessary for the chicken....still love my cooker and this one is a keeper

I'm not familiar with the tube, but is it possible it was blocking the vent enough to disrupt the flow into the cooker? This may have been the reason it cooled and did not completely cook your birds.

Closing the vent completely will only add to your woes. Your chicken was undercooked because the PBC was not burning hot enough, not because it didn't burn long enough. Need airflow to burn the coals, so just set the vent for your elevation and make sure you get a good start on your coals before adding meat and closing.

[1Bigg_ER]

That smoker tube is seating on your coals?

[jpl62]

I made some chicken wings, sausage and some bacon wrapped shrimp as appetizers yesterday. I put the 6" tube next to the basket but it burned it up quite quickly and gave off very little smoke. I did not place the tube outside the smoker next to the vent because i wanted the vent to be closed during the cooking process. Next time i am going to hang the tube smoker on the rebar away from the center of the fire and see how that goes....everyone loved the appetizers. One thing i did after an hour of grilling was to place fiver or six more pieces of unlit lump charcoal in the basket and wait  five minutes for the lit charcoal to ignite the unlit pieces. That way i could  maintain a temp of 320 to 300 all night long using this system....