Lump vs.100% All Natural Hardwood briquette


 
Steve Whiting

Steve Whiting

TVWBB All-Star
I primarily use my Big Drum Smoker (BDS) when smoking and enjoy it very much. The problem is that I am torn between using Lump vs. 100% All Natural Hardwood Briquettes. When using a Drum Smoker you must load it with enough fuel to get thru the entire cook because it is not designed for adding fuel mid-cook. And because the charcoal basket had to be tipped to get past the grate bolts and thermometer probe I find it easier to first insert the basket before loading it with coal. This way I don’t lose coal when tipping it. Now to load enough lump charcoal to give me a 10-12 hour cook I would have to pack it pretty tight with no serious gaps. This would mean I would have to load the basket before I place it down into the BDS. With Briquettes I can pour the coal into the basket after it has been placed in the drum and still get a good tight load. For these reasons I have been using mostly Rancher Charcoal. For those who do not know, Rancher is a 100% All Natural Hardwood Briquette. I am happy with it but often wonder if I am missing some real smoke flavor by not using Lump? So I am asking those of you who are familiar with Lump and Rancher, or any 100% All Natural Hardwood Briquette-am I missing anything by using the briquette? This is not a comparison of lump vs. Kingsford or any standard briquette; I am referring only to 100% All Natural Hardwood Briquettes. The ones made only with hardwood and a natural binder.
 
Steve, I have used Lazzari lump for many years, almost exclusively. I recently , last week drove to Lazzari and bought 240lbs of harwood briquets. To me I never tried to get smoke flavor from my fuel. I rely on the smoke wood that I add to the fuel. I think that the coal should not impart any real taste, hence the reason some folks don't use biquets with fillers that impart a taste. One of the reasons I am going to try the briquets is reliability and reproduceability in temp control. Secondarily the ability to align the briquets without a gap/spacing hole. This is mostly a Smoke EZ issue but non-the less.I have also on occasion used trader joes hardwood briquets. Price becomes a factor to me. Another consideration is waste. In a 40 lb bag of Lazzari Mesquite there is about 3-4 lbs of unusable waste. I know, I sift before using. The other consideration is trim, Since I like more uniform coal sizes that requires me to trim the lump with my hatchet. So all in all, taste not being an issue I think that you should use whichever hardwood coal that makes your life easier.

Keep On Smokin'

Mark
 
Good points Mark. I do like the uniformity of the Rancher. It fits well in my BDS and I can get 15 hours from a full basket. Hey, I have often thought of taking a drive to the Lazarri plant and loading up the car with their wood chunks. The prices seem much better then buying wood from Walmart or Lowes or Home Depot. I tried a bag of the Lazarri Hardwood Briquettes about a month ago. I found it at BevMo. It smelled good and burned hot and pretty long. The only thing I didnt like about it was that it did produce a lot of ash. Much more then Rancher. Let me know what you think.
 
With lump, you GENERALLY know what you're getting. (Afterall, there's some guys that rate it all online!) It's just up to you to take what's in the bag and pack/shake it in with your wood. Knowing that it will burn faster than briquettes, you better know your cooker.

Regarding smoke flavor, I've never had two UDS's or two wsms to do a side by side taste comparison of different fuels, but in my experience at least, I'd guess that 90% of the flavor comes from the wood.

but the biggest thing is that when we go for the convenience and consistancy of briquettes, the binders of even supposedly "100% All Natural Hardwood" briquettes are gonna produce varying levels of ash, will produce subpar leftover fuel (compared to leftover lump), and you might even get a bag of Stubbs or similiar that leaves you stumped.
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..so I reitterate: With lump, you generally know what you're getting, out of the bag, and what's leftover for another cook. All that's left is to keep it dry and don't use too much of the little bitty pieces.
 
Simply, don't overthink it. I've used various specialty charcoal along with K briqs and RO lump. I can't say I've seen an appreciable difference other than my bank account.

Maybe that's just me. Maybe my taste buds are dead.
 
I've used lump and stubbs hardwood briquettes and haven't really noticed a flavor difference between the two. I prefer the briquettes because it burns a little more predictably/evenly.

I've always used some amount of wood with the two, so I didn't rely on them for flavor.
 
I have both RO lump and Stubbs briquettes that I stocked up for the winter (can only really get those in the spring and summer here). I mostly concentrate the lump on higher heat direct and indirect cooks, and the briquettes on long, low smokes.

I'm with Scott in that I usually always use some wood with both as I don't use them for flavor.

Barret
 
I understand that wood chunks are used for smoke flavor I just thought I have read in past posts that lump brings a more woodsy aroma hence maybe a more smoke flavor to the meat. I sometimes over think things.
 
...wonder if I am missing some real smoke flavor by not using Lump?
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Since taste and flavor can be subjective, why not do a test?

Do a short cook with Rancher's and another with Lump. You'll need to forgo any added wood to eliminate that flavor variable.
 
I tried to go to lump for all my cooks. I think it does have a slightly better taste than briquettes. However I found it much more difficult to maintain study temps with lump. The lump never burned as long for me either. There are some techniques that helped (like packing the ring very tightly with the lump), but in the end the very slight taste difference was not worth the effort. I went back to K for all of my long cooks and never looked back! I keep lump around for grilling, and I will use it for ribs (short cooks) because I am awake for the entire cook, and I can catch the kettle if temps start to spike. Cheers.
 
I have always used K in the blue bag, and I feel it adds a weird taste to whatever I cook. Maybe I'm doing something wrong as I would still consider myself a newbie when it comes to cooking low and slow.

I had a good friend and his wife over in December, and wanted to WOW them, so I picked up some Wicked Good Weekend Warrior lump, and 2 racks of Baby Backs, and one rack of spares (That I cut St. Louis style). The food was Great, and I more than likely won't be Q'ing unless I have a little extra cash to spend on the Wicked Good. Lets face it we all want the food we cook to have that WoW factor, and I feel quality lump makes a difference. I think to off set the cost of Wicked Good. I won't need to buy any wood to add for that smoke flavor.

So my short answer is that I think the lump gave the food a much better taste with out any off taste...
 
Originally posted by Dennis Stilwell:
I have always used K in the blue bag, and I feel it adds a weird taste to whatever I cook. Maybe I'm doing something wrong as I would still consider myself a newbie when it comes to cooking low and slow.

I had a good friend and his wife over in December, and wanted to WOW them, so I picked up some Wicked Good Weekend Warrior lump, and 2 racks of Baby Backs, and one rack of spares (That I cut St. Louis style). The food was Great, and I more than likely won't be Q'ing unless I have a little extra cash to spend on the Wicked Good. Lets face it we all want the food we cook to have that WoW factor, and I feel quality lump makes a difference. I think to off set the cost of Wicked Good. I won't need to buy any wood to add for that smoke flavor.

So my short answer is that I think the lump gave the food a much better taste with out any off taste...
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Dennis, smoke some pork butt for as long as you want with nothing but some lump and let us know if it has much smoke flavor. Ok?

Really.....I'd like to believe that lump makes all the difference, cause I think that K blue STINKS, and I'm not too fond of all the ash either. However, I think that most of what we percieve in taste is all in our head, and kind of affected by what we smelled earlier. Afterall, lots of bbq competitors smoke with K blue, even Harry Soo, of Slap yo Daddy bbq.

Know what's interesting? If I fire my offset up with bradford pear, I think the smoke kind of stinks. If I fire it up with apple though, it's HEAVENLY. Guess what. Both woods will give me awesome bbq if I burn a clean fire.
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Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Dennis, smoke some pork butt for as long as you want with nothing but some lump and let us know if it has much smoke flavor. Ok?

Really.....I'd like to believe that lump makes all the difference, cause I think that K blue STINKS, and I'm not too fond of all the ash either. However, I think that most of what we percieve in taste is all in our head, and kind of affected by what we smelled earlier. Afterall, lots of bbq competitors smoke with K blue, even Harry Soo, of Slap yo Daddy bbq.

Know what's interesting? If I fire my offset up with bradford pear, I think the smoke kind of stinks. If I fire it up with apple though, it's HEAVENLY. Guess what. Both woods will give me awesome bbq if I burn a clean fire.
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Dave, I think you missed the second sentence of my first paragraph, and in my short answer I used "I think" not I promise or I guarantee.
 
On Labor Day and Memorial Day, I usually buy 160 lbs or so of K at the sales. Yes, it smells and produces a lot of ash, but it's cheap and I can't taste any difference in the finished product. I prefer all natural briquettes, usually Stubbs, and that's what I use when the K runs out. I don't like to use lump in the WSM because I get more predictable temps with briquettes; I use the lump for grilling. They all work in the WSM though.
 
Originally posted by Lew:
On Labor Day and Memorial Day, I usually buy 160 lbs or so of K at the sales. Yes, it smells and produces a lot of ash, but it's cheap and I can't taste any difference in the finished product.... I don't like to use lump in the WSM because I get more predictable temps with briquettes; I use the lump for grilling. They all work in the WSM though.
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Ditto & Agreed.

Would love to do a side by side comparison with about 10 people for tasting. However, I really love the consistency of blue bag K, so I am not sure I would want lump to when that competition.

On a side note, does anyone know when Kingsford doesn't sell lump ? You would think they would get into that market.
 
Originally posted by Dennis Stilwell:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Dennis, smoke some pork butt for as long as you want with nothing but some lump and let us know if it has much smoke flavor. Ok?

Really.....I'd like to believe that lump makes all the difference, cause I think that K blue STINKS, and I'm not too fond of all the ash either. However, I think that most of what we percieve in taste is all in our head, and kind of affected by what we smelled earlier. Afterall, lots of bbq competitors smoke with K blue, even Harry Soo, of Slap yo Daddy bbq.

Know what's interesting? If I fire my offset up with bradford pear, I think the smoke kind of stinks. If I fire it up with apple though, it's HEAVENLY. Guess what. Both woods will give me awesome bbq if I burn a clean fire.
icon_confused.gif
Click to expand...


Dave, I think you missed the second sentence of my first paragraph, and in my short answer I used "I think" not I promise or I guarantee. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dennis, didn't miss it at all. I think you maybe mistook the spirit of my post, rather, and I'm sorry as I'm also responsible. Hopefully, although bbq isn't rocket science, we're all still learning, and I think the best way to learn is to try new things for ourselves, not just to take somebody else's word for it, so yeah, why not smoke a pork butt with no wood and just lump? Leonard's bbq in Memphis "smokes" pork shoulders with no wood over charcoal (or lump?) from from I understand, and they've been in businesss forever. The only thing different would be that I believe their pits are the old direct style where the fat gets in the fire, but I'm not sure on that. Regardless, that flavor can be easily replicated in the wsm by throwing a few chunks of the fat cap on the coals during the cook, and it doesn't take much.
 
Originally posted by Rick Kramer:
For reasons I've forgotten, I thought bradford pear was one of those no-no woods?
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Here's my guess as to why you might have heard that. For one, it's an ornamental, not a fruit-bearing tree. Secondly, it has a bad rap because of so many folks in suburban and rural areas having experienced the "not so pleasant" smell of the smoke. It's not "terrible", but it's certainly not like the sweet smell of apple or other fruitwood. Of course, when folks are burning storm damage and prunings, they're not typically burning seasoned wood or getting a clean fire, either.

If you come across a broken bradford pear limb after a storm, just snag it and try it yourself. I take advantage of what's available at the orchard and from neighbors, and thankfully, all the sassafrass, apple, peach, and bradford pear on my woodpiles was free. I just need to find a good source for my oak and hickory, and I really need to check into making some lump since we have so much wood right now.
 
Originally posted by mk evenson:
Steve, I have used Lazzari lump for many years, almost exclusively. I recently , last week drove to Lazzari and bought 240lbs of harwood briquets. To me I never tried to get smoke flavor from my fuel. I rely on the smoke wood that I add to the fuel. I think that the coal should not impart any real taste, hence the reason some folks don't use biquets with fillers that impart a taste. One of the reasons I am going to try the briquets is reliability and reproduceability in temp control. Secondarily the ability to align the briquets without a gap/spacing hole. This is mostly a Smoke EZ issue but non-the less.I have also on occasion used trader joes hardwood briquets. Price becomes a factor to me. Another consideration is waste. In a 40 lb bag of Lazzari Mesquite there is about 3-4 lbs of unusable waste. I know, I sift before using. The other consideration is trim, Since I like more uniform coal sizes that requires me to trim the lump with my hatchet. So all in all, taste not being an issue I think that you should use whichever hardwood coal that makes your life easier.

Keep On Smokin'

Mark
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Mark, how much was the lazzari briquettes? I go up every march to get my lump supply. might want to get a bag and check out the briquettes first though
 
John, I bought 12- 20lb bags it ran a little over $100 including tax. They will drop ship at no charch to your house if you spend $200.

Mark
 
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