Using Lump for Smoking in Kettle


 
A

Allen U

New member
What about using lump for smoking in a 26" kettle? Has anyone ever tried this. I'm living in the country of Panama and Kingsford is available, but it's very expensive. Lump is much more common and cheaper. I do have one brand of lump I really like for grilling. Also have a 22" SNS that I can use in the 26. Love to hear your thoughts.
 
Everyone will probably agree that this is not a mistake.

Generally briquettes are cheaper for the most part, and a nice steady burn is easy to maintain.
I use an SNS as well for a few low n slow cooks......and have used both charcoals....lump mostly.
My main concerns are....
Make sure you get it all in there good so it stays lit......the quality of the lump may play a part, not sure, it's been a while since I used the cheaper crap around here. If you have the deluxe SNS watch the water, it will need to be topped up about every 3 to 4 hours....mine now has a pretty good warp in it from just not paying attention. You should get 5 - 6 hours easy on low before you need to top up the fuel.
You may find it harder to maintain a real low n slow.....temps like 230 are going to be harder to achieve without playing with it constantly...
Mine likes to hold at 250 - 265 if I want to just sort of forget about it and let it do it's thing......smoking wood increases the temps more than I want it to.

Most of my smoking is done with the E6 because it does a great job and gives me more area to work with.
 
I use lump almost solely, be it a quick hotter cook or low and slow. I rarely buy briquettes and the ones I do, sit for up to a year.

You’ll have zero issues
 
TimA said:
I use lump almost solely, be it a quick hotter cook or low and slow. I rarely buy briquettes and the ones I do, sit for up to a year.

You’ll have zero issues
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Agreed I have 3 year old Weber bricks still.....bought 4 bags still have one.
 
Lump works great for smoking but you have to break up the bigger longer pieces. Briquettes are great for smoking because of their uniform size, which leads to more even/predictable fuel ignition. Breaking up the pieces of lump that are bigger than softball size/over 5" long, is a good way to make sure the larger pieces don't make the fire spread too fast.
 
C Denham said:
Are you referring to the Weber charcoal briquettes? I wish they still made those. I really like em
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They were great! The one briquette that I would buy and use as much as lump, sometimes more so. Just something different about them.
 
TimA said:
They were great! The one briquette that I would buy and use as much as lump, sometimes more so. Just something different about them.
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One Briquette that I use occasionally that reminds of the Weber bricks are the Jealous Devil Briquettes. Not quite the same but similar.
Using them today for a long smoke in the WSM.
 
C Denham said:
Are you referring to the Weber charcoal briquettes? I wish they still made those. I really like em
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Yes.
We can still get them locally but I don't use them too often.
That price might look expensive for most anyways at $23 for 20 pounds, I see people looking for sales with prices under .50 per pound for Kingsford ect.


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I use B&B lump.
For my long low n slow, I prefer B&B briquettes. I recently found it at Walmart for 10.00 a bag. stocked up.

Lump is more desirable in most cases. It burns cleaner and hotter, also produces less ash.
 
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Hidden in my stash of charcoal I still have an unopened bag of Weber briquettes and one of Weber pellets. Don't know why I'm saving them. Even have the unopened sample box of Weber Briquettes that Weber sent out.
 
Use what you can find cheaply and locally. You can make it work.

For low/slow and a Minion-type burn, most would advise briqs over lump. Because briqs burn cooler. And the consistent size/shape of briqs works very well for a long slow burn.

If using lump, try to get the pieces into a more uniform size. And pack it tightly so that it will spread slowly across the charcoal pile without gaps.
 
Brett-EDH said:
That’s like $1m CAD!
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No jokes though, it's close!
I can buy charcoal I don't like very much for many reasons.........for about $30 a bag....maybe some even less..........Or, buy what I like for a little bit more.
I wish we had better prices, the JD here is $40 before the government adds their share. ( 20LB bag ) I don't know what everyone pays in taxes but we have to add another 13%....it's practically theft to be honest.
That's 24 bags of JD there plus about 50 pounds of briquettes.......
The other 4 bags of very low quality lump I had for about 3 years is all hiding in the cupboard in the garage.....I should use it but it's hard to.
The MRS keeps asking me if I really need anymore, I just tell her I can't do the math......:cool:
 
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I GREATLY prefer to cook with lump vs briquettes. I stock up on lump charcoal when I can find it on sale...which is rarely here. Unfortunately, both lump and briquettes are both expensive here compared to the US.
 
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