What kind of charcoal does everyone use

[fliptetlow]

Royal Oak Lump for everything.

 

[tom37]

Kingsford charwood Lump and K blue bag as well

I like the lump in the UDS, as stated above there is very little ash vs burn time.

 

[corn cob]

I use Ozard Oak that is made right here in Arkansas. I thing I pay 3.99 for 10lb sack. I use it for my green egg. On the big smoker back home I use good season oak with a burn barrel. Rick

I used Ozark Oak for years...Was buying 25-50 bags at a time from a friend through Affiliated Grocery..but they went belly up...and I can't find a local supplier, plus I think they have cut back on production due to the economy. It was/is a very uniform clean burning charcoal.....

 

[Bearcarver]

Propane out the white bottle.

LOL----Good one Mark!

I prefer the electric out of the front porch GFI outlet.

Bearcarver

 

[gtbrewer]

This is actually two questions wrapped up into one ... two variables, one problem.

When I bought my ECB last week, I bought a bag of the Kingsford charcoal briquettes with hickory in them.  I also bought a small bag of the regular Kingsford to use while curing the smoker.  For curing the smoker, I just filled the charcoal pan with the plain charcoal, added lighter fluid (yeah, I know...I'll be getting a chimney lighter when I get next month's disability deposit), and lit it, waiting 30 minutes before closing the vent and covering it with the lid.  The coals burned well, and looked like they were ready to burn on for many more hours.  I did not use the water pan, per the instructions.  The ECB's excuse for a thermometer was well into the HOT zone ... not good.

When I did my first (after a few years dealing with cancer, including chemo, triple brain surgery, and radiation wiped most of my smoker knowledge right out of my brain) barbecue (beef spareribs and a roasting chicken), I used a lot less charcoal, thinking that would help

with the temperature.  I DID get 225 deg. F on the first pass, but did not realize, at the time, that it was the water pan keeping the temps

down.  After the coals were nice and gray, I added more dry coals (fire looked TOO low) to bring it up to about half.  The fire kept it at

about 225F for about 4 hours, then the temps started to drop.  I added more charcoal, but there was no fire left to light it.

So here are the questions:

1) Does using more or less charcoal affect the temperature?  Or is it just the water pan keeping the temps down in the perfect 220--225F range?

2) Does using more or les charcoal affect how fast it burns down?  Or was that more related to the TYPE of charcoal (i.e., plain vs mix of charcoal and hickory)?

3) Should I even use the charcoal/hickory mix anymore?  Or should I just save that for the hamburgers?  :-)

Thanks,

   --jim