Coal BBQ

loxety · Post by **loxety** » Mon. Apr. 08, 2013 11:18 am

Seeing as summer is upon is shortly.. thinking about doing some Barbequing. Anyone here have experiences they can share about using coal in their BBQ'er? Thinking about getting on of those Big Green Eggs (Kamado). Think I could run hard coal in it?

NJJoe · Post by **NJJoe** » Mon. Apr. 08, 2013 11:27 am

I can't see this being a good idea. In a grill, the coal is directly under the food and imparts its flavors onto the food. Even anthracite has a distinct odor and would foul the food cooking over it. I'd use wood charcoal for this.

Its a different thing to use coal in an oven, ala coal fired pizza. You are using the heat from the coal to create a baking chamber and the combustion gases have a way to evacuate the oven without touching the food.

Post by **Lightning** » Mon. Apr. 08, 2013 1:13 pm

I watched a show about charcoal and found it interesting that they do use anthracite to make charcoal along with wood pulp and other things. Straight ant might not taste right lol

katman · Post by **katman** » Tue. Apr. 09, 2013 8:15 am

I have several big green eggs, webber grills & various other smokers. I use lump charcoal in the eggs and most of the other cookers if I am smoking at low temp. Lump also works great for hi heat grilling. I will occasionally use briquettes, but I would never use anthracite--don't think I would like the flavor! Anthracite (and maybe bit) is used in some pizza and bread ovens but I don't think the food is directly exposed to the smoke or flame.

waldo lemieux · Post by **waldo lemieux** » Tue. Apr. 09, 2013 8:23 am

I think it would work fine. Coal for fire and 90 weight for BBQ sauce.

sorry, cant help it , as Ron White says "you have the right to remain silent, but I don't have the ability"

Waldo

Flyer5 · Post by **Flyer5** » Sat. Apr. 13, 2013 10:01 pm

loxety · Post by **loxety** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 9:58 am

I've been using coal to BBQ, turns out good. The heat is more consistent then just using charcoal. I'll post some pictures soon.

loxety · Post by **loxety** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 10:03 am

Couple pictures of pork shoulders cooking over coal

rberq · Post by **rberq** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 2:08 pm

No sulfur smell in the meat?

loxety · Post by **loxety** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 5:54 pm

None, my wife says she was to busy eating to say. Tastes great! The heat seems more steady, imagine that.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 6:09 pm

Is that some sort of mix of anthracite and charcoal?

loxety · Post by **loxety** » Mon. May. 20, 2013 6:44 pm

yes enough charcoal to light the coal

Berlin · Post by **Berlin** » Tue. May. 21, 2013 1:54 pm

just like charcoal, if you give the coal enough time to ash over, any substantial sulfur odor will be gone. Charcoal briquettes contain a significant portion of anthracite and/or bit coke compacted w/ clay and hardwood charcoal.

VigIIPeaBurner · Post by **VigIIPeaBurner** » Tue. May. 21, 2013 5:40 pm

I'm interested! Loxety, how long did it take for how many Lbs of anthracite to ash over?

I usually do a modified Minion method. I just dump 20-30 all wood briquettes onto a full pan of briquettes and wood chunks. That's usually good for 16-20 hours when I'm bbq-ing butts and need the long burn @ ~ 230*F. I don't slice them but prefer to pull them and 195*F internal meet temp is perfect for that Anthracite might not be good for the Minion method but certainly would be good for chicken, ribs and anything else that could be cooked once the anthracite is ashed over.

NJJoe · Post by **NJJoe** » Wed. May. 22, 2013 11:24 am

Berlin wrote:just like charcoal, if you give the coal enough time to ash over, any substantial sulfur odor will be gone. Charcoal briquettes contain a significant portion of anthracite and/or bit coke compacted w/ clay and hardwood charcoal.

I always thought any coal used for charcoal briquette purposes was coked first. That should make it much more clean burning/smelling than using anthracite. At least as far as Kingsford briquettes, they supposedly bake the coal in an oxygen controlled environment leaving behind pure carbon.

Coal BBQ

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