Adding Briquets


 
R

R Cain

TVWBB Fan
I have a question for all the experts. Yesterday I grilled some stuffed shells and green beans on the 22.5 OTG. I put the shells in an aluminum pan with red sauce and mozza cheese. The green beans were olive oiled and salt/peppered and placed in a smaller aluminum pan that I poked holes in to make a veggie pan. I added the green beans 1/2 way through and three unlit Kingsford briquettes to each side at the same time.

Here's the question, the shells were great, but the green beans were very, very bitter and frankly tasted like the charcoal trying to light. My mom said they tasted like burning tires. What did I do wrong? I thought you were supposed to be able to add charcoal for long cooks? How do you avoid the bitter taste of unlit charcoal?

My wife loves grilled green beans but I have always done them on the 670 in a Webber grill pan and they are great.

Any ideas what I did wrong?

-rog
 
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I've added charcoal to my 22.5 on longer cooks and haven't had a problem with off taste. I'm wondering how long you cooked the beans and were they on direct or indirect. Beans cook fast. My other thought is the olive oil from the pan with holes poked it it dripped onto the coals and made a lot of smoke. When I do beans on the OTG I usuall just throw them on the grate and turn them once ot twice until they look good. You loose a few falling through the grate, but what's left tastes good.

This past weekend I did some ribs on the OTG. I brushed some olive oil, salt and pepper on some brussel sprouts and put them on indirect for about 20-25 minutes. When I took them off they looked good, but they tasted awful. They were tough and had that burnt taste you described. All the coals were going when they went on, so lighting charcoal wasn't the culprit. On the pluse side the ribs were perfect.
 
R Cain said:
...Here's the question, the shells were great, but the green beans were very, very bitter and frankly tasted like the charcoal trying to light. My mom said they tasted like burning tires. What did I do wrong? I thought you were supposed to be able to add charcoal for long cooks? How do you avoid the bitter taste of unlit charcoal?...-rog
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You've already answered your own question, haven't you? Just because we hear that some things work, it might not work for you. My unlit briquettes go in the chimney, not the grill.
 
Mark,

The beans were indirect. Oddly enough I was going to do a meatloaf and sprouts this evening. Now I don't know wether to go gas or charcoal. :confused:

-rog
 
No self-respecting Georgian uses Match Light, so that couldn't have been the problem. ;)
Regular K, IMO, does have a distinct smell when lighting. Some say they can detect it on their food, others can't. From a heat standpoint, unlit briquettes take 15-20 minutes to get going so if you're adding fuel during a cook try adding a few pieces of lump. Otherwise, heed Dave Russell's advice and light briquettes in the chimney first.
Maybe you had bad beans. :)
 
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R Cain said:
Mark,

The beans were indirect. Oddly enough I was going to do a meatloaf and sprouts this evening. Now I don't know wether to go gas or charcoal. :confused:

-rog
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If drippings on coals aren't an issue and you have the start of good vittles on the grill to begin with, then any undesired taste is gonna be from SOMETHING that's producing an off-flavored smoke, whether you call it bad smoke, Kingsford flavor, or whatever. (Get a whiff of what's coming out the vent.) I personally don't care for the Kingsford flavor and make sure that they're ashed over like the bag says, but honestly, I prefer lump for how clean it burns.

Guess I should've pointed out in my op that lots of folks add unlit briquettes NEXT to lit coals. However, not on TOP of lit. NEXT to lit coals is much better because the briquettes light very slowly and don't put off much in nasty smoke....sort of like a Minion burn with lit over unlit. For me though, I still prefer what Dave/G said, either ashed-over briqs or unlit lump for adding during a cook.
 
Dave Russell said:
Guess I should've pointed out in my op that lots of folks add unlit briquettes NEXT to lit coals. However, not on TOP of lit. NEXT to lit coals is much better because the briquettes light very slowly and don't put off much in nasty smoke....sort of like a Minion burn with lit over unlit. For me though, I still prefer what Dave/G said, either ashed-over briqs or unlit lump for adding during a cook.
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I put them on top. Lots to learn. Oh yeah what dave/G said! It was plan ole Kingsford. Bad beans? They tasted fine raw.

I will try again.

What's everyones thoughts on laying some unlit in the baskets, then lit on top sort of like a minion?
 
Sure, lit on top of unlit is the typical way to go if cooking indirect for very long, but I rarely use the baskets as they are. Since I usually prefer all my coals to one side of the grill when cooking indirect, I take the baskets apart and put the bottoms next to each other to form sort of an adjustable fence. It's not needed if the cook isn't long, but you can pile the coals up as high as the top of the basket bottom "fence" and make the charcoal take up as much or little of the grill space as you want. Like I said though, I personally prefer lump for any Minion-type burns, although I often start the cook off with lit briquettes on top of the unlit lump.
 
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