I'm cooking 3 slabs of Costco baby backs ribs this afternoon using Kingsford Competition Briquets. Cut into halves, sprinkled with Gates Original Recipe rub, and put into a rib rack.
Lit 30 briquettes Minion Method. I usually use a Weber Firestarter cube but wanted to eliminate that as a source of smell during the lighting process, so I just tore off the top part of the charcoal bag and used that to light the coals.
As with the burn comparison I did recently, the Competition Briquets light without the usual "blue bag" Kingsford smell. The 30 briquettes were ready to go in 10 minutes tops.
Poured about 1/2 chamber full of briquettes into the cooker, spread the hot coals on top, added some small, dry apple wood chunks to the coals, some hot water to the pan, put the ribs on the top cooking grate, and started cooking.
I'm about 70 minutes in, and the cooker is chugging along nicely at about 240*F with top vent wide open and with all 3 bottoms vents about half open.
This is my second time cooking ribs with Competition Briquets. The first time was on Jan. 2 when I cooked with the Kingsford guys at the Clorox Technical Center. One difference that day was that it rained and was a bit breezy, so we had to run the vents more open to keep the temp up. Today it's clear and calm and the air temp in about 60*F, so it's perfect cooking weather.
Another difference from Jan. 2 is that I had a hard time evaluating the smell of the product lighting that day because no matter where I stood around the cooker, the smoke followed me and I kept getting a full-on "smoke facial", which really ruined my nose. I am having a better experience today
and don't notice any of the characteristic K smell when lighting.
Chris
Lit 30 briquettes Minion Method. I usually use a Weber Firestarter cube but wanted to eliminate that as a source of smell during the lighting process, so I just tore off the top part of the charcoal bag and used that to light the coals.
As with the burn comparison I did recently, the Competition Briquets light without the usual "blue bag" Kingsford smell. The 30 briquettes were ready to go in 10 minutes tops.
Poured about 1/2 chamber full of briquettes into the cooker, spread the hot coals on top, added some small, dry apple wood chunks to the coals, some hot water to the pan, put the ribs on the top cooking grate, and started cooking.
I'm about 70 minutes in, and the cooker is chugging along nicely at about 240*F with top vent wide open and with all 3 bottoms vents about half open.
This is my second time cooking ribs with Competition Briquets. The first time was on Jan. 2 when I cooked with the Kingsford guys at the Clorox Technical Center. One difference that day was that it rained and was a bit breezy, so we had to run the vents more open to keep the temp up. Today it's clear and calm and the air temp in about 60*F, so it's perfect cooking weather.
Another difference from Jan. 2 is that I had a hard time evaluating the smell of the product lighting that day because no matter where I stood around the cooker, the smoke followed me and I kept getting a full-on "smoke facial", which really ruined my nose. I am having a better experience today
Chris
