Temp Problems - bad charcoal???


 
R

Russ Hazzon

TVWBB Pro
I've had a real hard time maintaining temps over the past few cooks. Couldn't figure out what the problem was until this past weekend. I realized that all of the cooks were done using the same twin-pack of Kingsford.

I did some ribs this past weekend and it took about twice as long as normal to get up to temp (weather was perfect!). Once I put the meat on (4 racks of spares) the temp dropped and I couldn't get it up to 200 for almost 2 hours. After that the temps remained under 220 with all three vents wide open.

In all of my years cooking I've never experienced a problem like this and have to assume it was the briquettes. Anyone else ever run into this problem.
 
Russ -

that has happened to me once before as well. I had a big load of kingsford for minion method. After a few hours of decent burn around 230, the temp dropped, and with all three vents wide open, I couldn't get it much above 200. Never figured out why. I know it had never gotten wet...

Anyhow, I bought another twin pack, I had no problems at all. And since then, I've never had any problems. I guess, for some bizarre reason, kingsford sometimes has a bad bag... or somewhere in the shipping unbeknownst to us, it is subjected to moisture or something...

if your next bag works great, you know it's the charcoal. Sorry for the bum bag you got.
 
I tend to find this problem in the summers when its humid. The charcoal soaks up the moisture in the air and becomes finicky. Notice if the bag feels damp, this might be an indication. I keep mine in the basement which is suprisingly dry, otherwise you may want to consider some sort of an air tight container.
 
This has been my problem with before, too. I've always stored my charcoal in the garage.

Any thoughts on the possibility of drying out the charcoal? Would leaving it in the basement take care of it?
 
Always leave my charcoal in the basement. Unfortunately we got the left overs from Katrina a few weeks ago. Basement got some water and got to my charcoal which was on the floor. Dried it out the best I could. Used it on a short cook(7 hours)on ribs this past weekend. Had to tend to the temps much more than normal. If I wasn't so cheap I'd just throw the stuff out. Will probably use it just for my chimney starter from now on. Wife bought me a nice set of plastic shelves for my BBQ stuff. Now all my charcoal and equipment are off the floor :-).
 
I keep mine in the garage in the original bag after I open it, put that bag into a big garbage bag and tie it off 'til the next time it need it. Never had a problem with wet/damp fuel yet.
 
Russ,
You have to look at several factors: which charcoal you are using-i.e. a no name generic charcoal, the current conditions-i.e temperature, humidity, wind. All of these figure into the final result.
Come to think of it Bar B Cue is more complicated than brain surgery!
 
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