Charcoal or Briquettes?

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Which do you prefer and why? I am worried about using the Minion method with briquettes due to the stuff used to hold them together. I was always told to let them burn white first because of this. I have heard there isn't much diference in the taste. However, I am concerned as to the safety of the meat absorbing the fumes from the newly lit briquettes. But, can you use charcoal and get a long burn like briquettes using the MM?
 
Here ya go, no worries now ya makin your own.
http://www.velvitoil.com/Charmake.htm

I trust the good folks in lab coats at Kingsford to take the binder taste out of the briquetts so when I use them all I taste is the food. Now my taste buds may be a little askew over the years from fast food, but do you taste anything "off" when you use briquetts?
 
Steven,
If you are that worried I'm sure a Google search will provide a months worth of reading on why you should not eat meat let alone smoked meat. Smoked food is not healthy many studies say so! Personally I feel Kingsford makes a great product and I cook with it and eat the product on a regular basis. I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.

As for my buddy Jim Minion, his method works just fine and the lit fuel acts as a combustion catalyst upstream of the unlit charcoal IMO.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steven Lesko:
[qb] Which do you prefer and why? I am worried about using the Minion method with briquettes due to the stuff used to hold them together. I was always told to let them burn white first because of this. I have heard there isn't much diference in the taste. However, I am concerned as to the safety of the meat absorbing the fumes from the newly lit briquettes. But, can you use charcoal and get a long burn like briquettes using the MM? [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I use oak lump charcoal. The first and last time I used Kingsford, the ribs came out with an "off" taste compared with those I had cooked over lump.

I don't know how long a full load of briquettes will last, but I got close to 16 hours on my last brisket cook using lump.

If you really want to use briquettes but not have all those additives, try "natural charcoal briquettes", made with charcoal plus vegetable binders.
 
I've had trouble with an off-taste only once with with Kingsford, and that was when grilling some steaks. I put 'em on just a bit too soon and they tasted like Kingsford smells when it's lighting up. Not good.

I have never had this problem with the MM. My theory is that the MM is igniting only a small number of new briqs at a time. Plus, the charcoal is exposed to heat beforehand which may help to drive off some of the odor-causing chemicals.
 
When you're talking about an "off taste" with Kingsford, I hope you're not using the match light type. This has an accelerant imbedded, and will certainly cause an off taste in your Bullet. There should be no aftertaste with regular Kingsford, as it has all natural bonding agents. It is interesting to note that 95% of all competition teams using a Bullet use Kingsford. That's about as good a recommendation as I think there is...
 
If you use quality ones, it should be fine.
I light mine with paper, that's it.
(Maple Leaf)

SS


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steven Lesko:
[qb] Which do you prefer and why? I am worried about using the Minion method with briquettes due to the stuff used to hold them together. I was always told to let them burn white first because of this. I have heard there isn't much diference in the taste. However, I am concerned as to the safety of the meat absorbing the fumes from the newly lit briquettes. But, can you use charcoal and get a long burn like briquettes using the MM? [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
Pat,

No, it wasn't Matchlight that gave me the off taste. The incident occurred when I cooked a whole beef t-loin and the briquettes weren't quite completely lit. The meat ended up tasting the way that a half-lit chimney of Kingsford smells. Not horrible, but not the effect I was looking for.
 
I'm still quite new to smoking, but I have used both lump and kingsford. The lump was harder to control temp with IMO. I have not tasted any off flavors either way.
 
I have done double blind tests with kinsford and Royal Oak charcoal. Nobody can tell the difference. I have a competition partner that is real fussy and it is not noticible to him.
 
I've been using Kingsford for a long time but the future may need a change. Kingsford is now being produced with a new recipe and is coming in from out of the country. If the the quality suffers then I maybe visiting SmokinSteve regularly.
Jim
 
For long overnight WSM cooks if the new Kingsford is as poor as reported I may have to go Maple Leaf from steve.

For short cooks Real Flavor Lump from Wally World and Lazzari works fine for me. According to the Naked dude of BGE fame Real Flavor is Royal Oak.

Is the new Kingsford a permanent thing or just because of the big fire?

I wish I had the trophy case of the guys that cook with B&B lump but it's hard to find up here.
 
Don't know where you all got your info, but I just e-mailed a question to the Kingsford website. Maybe we all should. I'll wait for them to respond and post accordingly.
 
That could be bad news about Kingsford, But for the consistency and best temprature control and not off taste from my experience I vote for the kingsford.

If that changes I will consider others.
 
While that comparison is interesting and yes kingsford does produce a lot of heavy ash the burn times are for a BGE which is a very different beast than a WSM. I've seen the toy BGE with a BBQGuru go if I remembert right 8 hours on 1.5 pieces of Kingsford. Capacity on the toyBGE is about 1 very small hamburger.
 
The problem with TNW's comparison was it was done at 400 to 450? I believe. I never use Kingsford in that manor.
Ceramanic cookers because of design don't handle ash very well at all, so they need to buy more expensive fuels. The amount of ash left behind in the Kingsford case is not much of a factor in WSM.
Jim
 
I sent an e-mail to Clorox (parent company of KINGSFORD) and I received the following reply this afternoon. Thought you might be interested.

Regarding a KINGSFORD formula change and relocation of manufacturing Clorox replied with:

"The ingredients of this product have not been changed. We did add a manufacturing site outside of the United States to our facilties in early
2003. I hope that this is helpful."
 
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