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The bag has pieces of all sizes from whole charred tree branch to tiny fragments. I pour some into the starter chimney. The small pieces and dust fall through the grate at the bottom. I light the charcoal, sweep the ash from last time through the firebox grate, and dump the lighted charcoal in. There's a mixture of large and tiny pieces there. I pour on some unlighted charcoal, dust swirls through the grill, and the new charcoal starts smoking.
I'm thinking this probably gives high heat at first as the small pieces with large surface area burn, then lower heat until the large pieces burn out. Do you use a particular way of arranging large and small pieces of charcoal?
I'm thinking this probably gives high heat at first as the small pieces with large surface area burn, then lower heat until the large pieces burn out. Do you use a particular way of arranging large and small pieces of charcoal?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Lump charcoal
Mon, December 12, 2005 - 10:17 AMYeah, I put a single layer of charcoal in my smoker, and sit my chimney on that layer and fill it and light it up. When it's real hot, about 15 minutes I dump it out on the layer in my smoker and make it as even as possible (so you don't have extra hot zones) and then add another layer of lump charcoal on top of the hot coals. I let that burn until it's flaming pretty good and then shut the lid.
I then adjust my vents to keep the tempatures constant until I've got it sitting about 50 degrees higher than I want to cook at. Then when I put in whatever I'm smoking, the temp will usually drop 30-50 degrees because of the cool meat, poultry or fish going in the smoker.
Too much info, I am sure, but I tend to do that sometimes... ;-)
