Today I am testing some new Black Diamond lump charcoal that I ordered from Ace Hardware. It claims to be
organic, cleaner burning, less sparks and reusable. First thing I noticed when I opened the box was that the
charcoal was inside a heavy plastic bag. The manufacturer says that is to help keep any moisture out of the
charcoal. The chunks I pulled out of the bag were fairly even in size. When I lit the charcoal with a Weber cube
there were hardly any sparks and very light smoke.
I prepped the ribs with some CYM and seasoned them with Big Dick’s Rib rub. Put in the refrigerator for about
4 hours.
I put the ribs on when my temp hit 200 degrees. I am using the Slow n Sear today with the Black Diamond lump
charcoal. Bottom vent is set at ¼ open and top vent ½. I am burning peach wood today.
After 2 hours I wrapped the ribs with a mixture of brown sugar, wild blueberry sugar, honey and blue bottle
margarine. Here they are after 1:45 in the foil.
Another hour uncovered and the ribs are done. Total cook time was 4 hours, 45 minutes.
All sliced and ready to eat. Sorry no plated shots tonight. But I got to tell you that the ribs were great. We really
like that rib rub from Big Dick’s. This was also the first time that I used the wild blueberry sugar that my wife
bought at the Salt Table in Savannah. It took some of the sweetness away from the brown sugar and honey and
it added just a hint of tartness to the ribs. I will be buying some more of this.
On to the charcoal test. So far, and this was the first test, it performed remarkably better than I thought it would for
a low n slow 5 hour cook. Temperatures stayed fairly steady between 235 and 250 throughout the cook. I only used
one full Weber chimney for the cook. I still have probably enough charcoal left to fire it up again for a quick burger or
steak cook. It does burn a lot hotter than Kingsford Blue but I expected that. What I didn’t expect was the lack of
sparks and smoke from this charcoal. The only time it really smoked was when a chunk of the peach wood caught fire.
There was also a definite lack of smell that I normally get when I burn other brands of lump charcoal. I will be doing
some more tests in the next few weeks to see if I want to invest more money in this charcoal.
