Chuck-The-Used-Charcoal


 
My 26" OTG has been neglected for at least two years. Since it's just my wife and I most of the time I don't need it that much and typically use the Smokey Joe or the ES-310 I just picked up last year. Anyhow I uncovered it this weekend and found I'd cleaned out all the ash but left a bit of half spent charcoal in it, maybe a third of a chimney. I used that plus a couple more fresh chimneys to burn it out good for a few hours and then made burgers on it that night. If it weren't for all the fuel I'd use it more often, those were great burgers!
 
Robert McGee said:
I always, I mean ALWAYS, fill my smokers full of new charcoal. I can absolutely depend on the consistency when doing long cooks and that is important to me. Right after I take off the food, I immediately close all vents. The next day, I shake down the charcoal (my charcoal rings are wired to the charcoal grate with SS wire) and dump the left over coals in one of my grills. I re-use ALL left over charcoal on my grills.

Never had a problem using this leftover charcoal. Over a years time, it represents a good bit of change, too.



"Waste not, want not"...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
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Robert nailed it...........
 
I can see both sides, but I try to reuse mainly for everyday type cooks. I'll reuse in my wsm on short cooks like ribs but never for a long cook like butts or brisket. Used charcoal takes longer to get lit in my experience, probably because the pieces are smaller and crowd the chimney leaving less room for airflow. Sometimes in the wsm I'll have pieces left over that are almost completely fresh and you'd be flat out silly not to use those.

I do notice if I let my charcoal just burn out, there seems to be less crud built up on the lid for whatever reason. Also if you take advantage of the sale, kbb is really cheap so getting too miserly with it is maybe unnecessary.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
. Also if you take advantage of the sale, kbb is really cheap so getting too miserly with it is maybe unnecessary.
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Down here in Costa Rica a 7.7 lb bag of "Kingsford Blue" costs around $12.00 when on sale. I only use this brand of charcoal when I fire-up my WSM 18" "Classic" as I mainly use a variety of Costa Rican Brand Lump Charcoal when I cook on my Weber 22" Mastertouch and Weber Smoky Joe in which it does a pretty good job and is about half the price of the Kingsford Brand.

Since I recently bought a "Slow N Sear Plus" for my Weber Mastertouch Grill I will use the Kingsford Brand on these type of cooks as recommended by the seller, "ABC Barbecue".
 
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When reusing used coals in the JJ or performer if the coals are fairly small I put a layer of new coals in the bottom of the chimney to keep the small pieces from falling out. It also seems to get the used coals fired up a little faster with the new coals on the bottom.
 
Rich Dahl said:
When reusing used coals in the JJ or performer if the coals are fairly small I put a layer of new coals in the bottom of the chimney to keep the small pieces from falling out. It also seems to get the used coals fired up a little faster with the new coals on the bottom.
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Yep, that definitely helps getting them fired up faster. It took me a few tries to figure that out.
 
I'm in the reuse camp as well. Like many of the others said I always use fresh coals for my WSM and the remaining unspent or partially spent ones I use in my grill where temp control is not as pivotal.
 
I've always used,about a 1/3-2/3 fresh to used chimney with perfectly acceptable results, when a really fine cut has been procured, a full round of fresh is surely fitting! Just saw a spread of some ribeye caps that looked wonderful, wife's son and I will probably hurt ourselves with a handful of those over fresh coal and maybe a piece of olive wood. Or go "Caveman" we shall see! Damn, I'm hungry!
 
Same as most people on here I reuse on the grill and use fresh on the WSM . The grill is used a lot more than the WSM anyway. If there is any residue on the part used coals it soon gets burnt off when firing up the grill.
 
I'm a tightwad, so I reuse. I'll use all fresh if we have company and I'm cooking something a little more expensive, but I can't stand to waste. I'll always eventually get around to using unspent coals.
 
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