Charcoal Pellets


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
I am curious. Correct me if I am wrong but charcoal (true charcoal not the petrochemical concoctions) is used for it's hot and clean (ie low or no smoke) fire. So I am seeing some of our fellow pellet cookers talking about charcoal pellets. So, lets assume they're made with real charcoal. Doesn't charcoal produce hotter fire than plain wood? Because of it's more pure carbon content? And also lets discuss flavor. Wouldn't there be little to no flavor?
Maybe I am just over thinking it?
 
I've used the Royal Oak 100% Charcoal pellets, mixed 1 part charcoal to 3 parts Lumberjack Oak, a couple or 3 times, and my experience is that they do run hotter with the OEM controller. Being a PID controller, the type of pellets should not matter, so I think my MM OEM controller is not "dialed in" to my grill very well. I have the PID in the PiFire adjusted pretty well but have not tried the RO with it yet. Very little in the way of flavor enhancement that I noticed...the best flavor to date has been cold smoking with a pellet tube prior to cooking but again, have not tried RO in that scenario.
 
Charcoal pellets, I believe, do burn hotter in a pellet grill. If you are at a set temperature, as Ed says the controller will just compensate. If your grill has a wide open setting - Recteq calls it “Riot Mode” in their kettle model - then I think they possibly could generate a somewhat higher grilling temperature.

I have used Lumberjack Char Hickory that blends in charcoal pellets. I can’t really say there is a strong charcoal flavor, but they are good pellets. I have an unopened bag of the Royal Oak charcoal pellets and one day want to try 100% of them to see what results I get.
 
Yeah, after I wrote that and later I was laying in bed and I thought about it and figured the only thing that might happen is fewer pellets used to produce the same level of heat. So other than that advantage if you buy a pellet grill partially for the smoke why use something that really does not produce smoke?
 
I've used charcoal pellets quite a bit, why, because they were on sale for $2.00 a bag. Using them 100% I've noticed a moderate charcoal flavor.
The controller on my Camp Chef keeps the temps inline basically like any other pellets.
My other observation is that the grill consumes charcoal pellets at a slower rate than other pellets which helps in a long cook. I haven't tried a mix with charcoal and other pellets yet.
 
I mixed Pit Boss charcoal pellets 50/50 with B&B Championship blend and didn't notice a difference in taste. I have read reports, from reliable sources, that some charcoal pellets leave residue in the Smokefire burn pot and it interfered with start up. I did not experience that.
 
I use to run the LJ charcoal pellets but the local supplier has since stopped carrying LJ branded , I like to use them to do steaks or mix with hickory to give a little xtra flavor, not been doing much smoking lately with deer season going on.
 
That is where I get confusion. Typically "real" charcoal has no true flavor/aroma. Though I can smell stuff like Kingsford a block away because of it's distinct "chemical" aroma. Which is what led me to the questions of why charcoal and or what is it made of if it's supposedly imparting "flavor"
 
Thats a mystery to me also. I do know having gas, charcoal and pellet grills I can taste the difference between gas and charcoal using KBB or lump.
The pellet grill is a little less pronounced, but I can tell if the food was cooked using charcoal pellets or wood.
 
54th wedding anniversary, steak and lobster. I cleaned out the hopper with a shop vac and loaded it with the RO 100% charcoal. The auger still had the Lumberjack oak in it. We had some Omaha Steak medallions that our daughter had gifted us, so I started the small smoke tube with the RO charcoal and cold smoked it for 30m right out of the fridge. Ambient here was upper 40s, grill got up to around 82F with the RO so it does add some heat. After 30m I cranked the heat up to 425F and pulled the medallions at 119F, transferred it to the preheated gasser for a quick sear. Came out great, good smoke flavor, and not so much smoke that the wife couldn't eat it. I ate all mine, but she had some left over that she gave me a bite of the next day...to me, I get more smoke flavor the day after, and this was delicious! I hesitate to give it a thumbs up after only 1 cook, but this definitely has possibilities. Next time, I'm not going to cold smoke and see what happens. But my opinion so far is that the 100% charcoal does add flavor that I have not been able to achieve otherwise.

In the graph, the dips are the lid open.

Screenshot_20221215_235013_Chrome.jpg
 
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