Charcoal Question for the WSK E6

[ChuckO]

I have Cowboy Lump, Kingsford Original and Kingsford Professional, I'm going to smoke a few Rib Eyes this weekend, I'm assuming with the charcoal I have available, the Cowboy Lump would be the best bet? If so, this will be my first time using Lump in a long, long, long time. I liked it in my mini ceramic, but I didn't/don't like it in my Kettles nor my WSM. Also, when I used Lump, it was always fully lit. I'm assuming I don't fully light the Lump? Sorry for the newb questions, I have a friend coming for the weekend that I haven's seen in 45 years but have known for 60+ years. I'd like to get it right

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Feasting with a friend of long-standing (never old friends) should be nice for both of you! Asking questions is better assurance of good results! Sorry I can’t be of any more help I don’t speak WSK.

 

[DanHoo]

@ChuckO when I'm smoking in the WSK, I don't use a chimney.

I over fill the WSK with coal on the lower rack. I don't worry about having too much coal because I'll shut it down and save the coal for the next cook when done.

I light a small spot using paper towels soaked in used cooking oil or bacon fat etc. I crumple up 3-4 oil soaked paper towels and bury them in the coal and light it.

I'll watch it for a bit then close the lid and let the temp start to come up. When it is getting close to my target smoking temp I'll open the lid, add chunks of smoking wood here and there, add the diffuser (wrapped in HD foil) add the cooking rack and then again close the lid and let the temp creep up to my smoking target temp.

I throttle heat from the bottom and close of part of the top vent.

Early on using the WSK it took some work to get to the target temp without overshooting, but with practice I got better.

I'll see if I can find a few pics as pics are worth more than words some times.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Chuck, I used jealous devil lump for the first time ever in the E6...it was a couple weeks ago and I smoked 2 butts.
I put 1 weber basket in the bottom upside down to block off some space.
I had the hardest time with temp management to date.
I usually go for briquettes, be it Weber brand or jealous devil bricks....and never do I have to touch anything for adjustment.
I went to clean it out and I always have left over bricks.....when I cleaned out the JD lump I had 2 small handfulls of tiny lump left.
It surprised me to be honest.....my next smoke will be going back to bricks.....that cook was about 8 hours and I have used bricks for well over 12 before on a brisket.

Just my .02 and I know the smoke on the rib eyes will be much much shorter.

When I want a hint of smoke on my steak I like to use JD lump and start a very low temp offset fire and keep the steak very far away.....when the time is right I add a handful of the very fine JD lump ( it can be hard to find sometimes ). The flavour is great and you only have so much time with a steak on any grill. Once my steak hits about 90 I just take the lid off for 5 minutes or so until I get lots of flames and then I sear nice and hard on one side.....flip and sear again which is a minimal sear......move back to indirect and take a reading usually its about 110. I let it sit with the lid on again for a minute or 2 then take off and rest......the point where I make most of my mistakes is the part between taking it off the sear and trying to find the final temp of about 118 to 120..it over shoots fast.

 

[DanHoo]

Here's one approach. I use upside down char baskets to hold the coal in the center. The baskets are there just to keep the coals clumped together. Fuel was K-pro. I lit one end, and had a mix of smoking chips spread along the way.



note the four briquettes on the upper rack. These were to raise the deflector a little since the coal was piled up pretty high. These spacer briq's never light they are just spacers.

 

[timothy]

Here's one approach. I use upside down char baskets to hold the coal in the center. The baskets are there just to keep the coals clumped together. Fuel was K-pro. I lit one end, and had a mix of smoking chips spread along the way.



note the four briquettes on the upper rack. These were to raise the deflector a little since the coal was piled up pretty high. These spacer briq's never light they are just spacers.


View attachment 111881

Like using reverse charcoal rails.

 

[DanHoo]

@ChuckO another option I wanted to share.

If I have coals going on the lower level for smoking and then need to do a reverse sear, then I'll light a half chimney of coal and dump it on top of the coal or briqs left from the smoking phase, and leave the coal grate at the bottom. A challenge is the distance from the food grate to the coals is too far. To get around this I'll put a smaller grate at the second level and its right on top of the coals and works great for a high temp sear.

Again, a pic is better. The food grate is 18 inch from my BGE, and it is resting on the outer ring coal grate at the middle level.





The other way to get searing coals closer to the main food grate is to put some in CBs on the middle grate. I do this when I'm doing indirect higher heat.

 

[Todd K Wisc]

Here's one approach. I use upside down char baskets to hold the coal in the center. The baskets are there just to keep the coals clumped together. Fuel was K-pro. I lit one end, and had a mix of smoking chips spread along the way.



note the four briquettes on the upper rack. These were to raise the deflector a little since the coal was piled up pretty high. These spacer briq's never light they are just spacers.


View attachment 111881

great idea to build some extra coal height room!

 

[ChuckO]

Thanks guys, a lot of good information. Because this is a cook I want to get right, I think I'm going to go with what I know and either use the Kingsford Original or the Kingsford Professional charcoals. (Darry's temp frustrations with Lump talked me into it) It looks like the weather calls for rain Saturday, originally I planned to smoke the steaks to 90/100 and then sear them on the Blackstone. But because of the rain and my Blackstone is tethered to my house propane, thus no way to operate it in the rain, it looks like I need to do the sear on the E6. My old brain can understand Dan's method to doing this (quote below) and this will be the plan for the cook.

If I have coals going on the lower level for smoking and then need to do a reverse sear, then I'll light a half chimney of coal and dump it on top of the coal or briqs left from the smoking phase, and leave the coal grate at the bottom. A challenge is the distance from the food grate to the coals is too far. To get around this I'll put a smaller grate at the second level and its right on top of the coals and works great for a high temp sear.

Thanks again everyone, very helpful