Reusing Old Charcoal in Grill


 
M

Mark D. Anderson

TVWBB Member
OK, I'm still a newbie here, and I know you can reuse your old charcoal in the grill, but how long can you keep reusing charcoal?

I'm using Kingsford and often I have trouble getting old coal to relight and cook well in the grill.

Any hints?
 
I save the briqs from my WSM and reuse them for grilling in my Performer. I've actually reused them several times. They get smaller and smaller and...

The best way I've found to relite is to use a chimney and use new briqs to cover the bottom. I then use a Weber cube for lighting. Works fine. Be sure you've shaken the ashes off the used briqs.

Paul
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The best way I've found to relite is to use a chimney and use new briqs to cover the bottom. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I do the same thing, and come to think about it the old charcoal in my smokey joe is will be on it's fourth light the next time I fire it up. I only get two uses out of charcoal on the WSM, though.
 
I've noticed a deffinate difference in lighting old charcoal vs. new charcoal. I have absolutely no idea why this is true. My solution is to mix a little new charcoal in, usually on the bottom of the chimney starter. This seems to fix things just fine.

-Matt
 
I never reuse charcoal. I pick (what I think is) the appropriate amount of charcoal for each individual cook (grill or WSM). When you close everything down, you get that flaking of the walls & lid that gets onto the meat. I just don't want to deal with that.
 
I pull out the used charcoal, dump my lit chimney of charcoal in, then the used charcoal goes on top.
 
My method involves wiring the charcoal ring permamently to the charcoal grate, the idea is shown here.

As described, after everything's cooled down, I simply shake off the ash, scoop it out of the bowl, and refill the ring/grate "basket" assembly for the next cook. If the cook was short, there will be a lot left over, if long there will be less. I just keep using whatever's left until it's gone.

I should add that all of my smoke cooks are started using the Minion Method. I use a seperate grate for grilling purposes. Anything left over after grilling goes into the basket as well.
 
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