Cheap Heat Beads?

[Pecker]

Thanks.

I'll just say one more thing on the 'smell' – it’s something I’ve just thought of. I think it would be rude and presumptuous of me to set myself up as some sort of 'golden nose', so I won't insult other forum members with such hubris.

I love to cook, and I loved good wine. I regularly cook (and provide wine) for a circle of friends, including professional chefs and foodies.

These people say what they think, and between them they have a very keen sense of smell. And they're honest - we all are with each other.

Not a one has ever said anything other than that they love the smell of the barbecue, to the point where they'll come outside when I light the barbecue, rather than when the food is up.

I believe one make of briquette may smell different to another, and that briquettes usually smell different to lump, and I fully accept this difference may be off-putting to lump purists. But aside from paraffin-covered jobs, I don't think too many briquettes smell empirically 'bad'. And the main smell, paraffin jobs aside, is always the charcoal.

Steve W

[Pecker]

Unless I'm directed otherwise I've always thought that provided a person's comments are pertinent, polite and succinct (and preferably in English ) debate away.

Sorry, I missed that.



De gustibus non est disputandum = There can be no disputes in matters of taste.



Steve W

[Steve]

Of course I don't mind you disagreeing with me. No one has ever been kicked off for having their own point of view

I must confess I've only skimmed over your response as it was fairly lengthy, I imagine you and I would have some quite enjoyable conversations/debates over a few beers particularly if we got on to religion/politics

From the points that jumped out at me while skimming, I've got to add that I never claimed logic is unimportant, just that the accuracy and thus relevance of its application can vary. If one doesn't have enough information to make a fully informed and logical decision then one must use experience, instinct and judgement to make a decision.

The reasons I don't like the idea of yellow ash when I don't know what causes it are:
1. Lump wood charcoal with no additives leaves white ash
2. Corn starch is used in pretty much every briquette and they leave white ash. It would not seem logical that ths would be due to an extra additive that Weber would leave out, although that scenario is possible.
3. I have never seen yellow ash from any other source nor have I been able to find information to tell me what does burn to leave yellow ash.

Further reasons for having reservations about the product include the smell. I may not have mentioned the smell in a previous post but I write a lot of posts and I'm only human, sometimes I guess I miss bits of information

At the competition where I used them and every other team was given them, the judges did in fact make wide ranging complaints of acrid aftertaste with much of the food. But I cannot claim to remember well enough to sate that this was the case, nor can I claim to have had a control sample to have done a side by side comparison. For this reason I have not been posting about them leaving a funny taste on food.

I remember issuing words of caution to a BBQ team a couple of years ago reading their use of a galvanised bin for a BBQ. Now in theory the temperature reached in said BBQ should not be enough to cause the breakdown of the galvanised coating but after consulting with a metallurgist I found anecdotal evidence to suggest that there may be some level of breakdown and thus mild contamination of the food inside. So pure logic says, no problem or that at least the probability is very low. However given the consequences of slow gradual poisoning from ingesting zinc and other nasties in Galv, would you take the risk in the absence of definitive evidence upon which to make a decision? Which one takes priority in this case logic or risk assessment especially if you're going to feed the food to your kids?

Just saying, if you don't have and can't find the information to make decisions then the best you can do is go with your judgement. When it comes to food I'm fairly risk averse (except when we're talking Fugu -yum) and I dont think there's anything wrong with that.

[RobinC]

I've used Weber briquettes quite a lot over the last few years (though not exclusively by any means). My observations are as follows:

- they do leave a lot of yellow ash. I don't really have any strong views about the colour but they do seem to leave more ash than other makes of briquette/charcoal that I've used. The ash is very fine in texture. It does make cleanup slightly more tiresome than using lump.
- they do emit a distinctive odour when lighting a chimney starter full. Note i've said distinctive personally I don't find this unpleasant or acrid but other peoples views may differ.
- I've not noticed said odour tainting food when I've cooked with them or when I've used them minion style. To my nose/taste it only seems to occur during the lighting phase. Others pallates may be more sensitive than mine. I've not had any complaints when using them but my guests maybe being polite. I do regularly bake on my grills and again I can't detect a taste difference between what I cook on the grill compared to anything I may bake on the oven indoors.
- I don't use them when cooking steak or anything that requires really high temps. When grilling I cannot get them to reach the same temps that I can with restaurant grade charcoal from the likes of Big K.
- they do have a long burn time. There is a proviso here when grilling that you are not opening the lid all the time. In my 18.5" WSM I can get a steady burn of circa 250 f for circa 16 - 18 hours off a single ring full with absolutely zero vent adjustment, all vents stay open for the full time (lit minion style with half a chimney).
- you do get a good yield per bag - ie there is relatively little in terms of crushed stuff at the bottom of the bag.
- they can be reused if you shutdown the cooker early. This works reasonably well on shorter low and slow cooks. I recently got 3 x 5 hours cooks from the same ring with new briquettes used to light. If you reload used ones into a chimney starter you need to be very delicate with them - they disintegrate easily.

In summary I find them a useful fuel but they do have their shortcomings and are not necessarily always my first choice.

[Steve]

Robin when you mentioned steaks it reminded me, I tried some compressed sawdust briquettes once, no binders or anything they get sold for Japanese style grills. Burn hotter than the fires of hell! Useless for smoking as they were uncontrollable but my word they were great for open grilling a steak.

Just in case you ever come across them..,

[Del A]

Has anyone noticed the metalic residue in most briquettes .might have to rethink my fuel.

[keith157]

Unless I'm directed otherwise I've always thought that provided a person's comments are pertinent, polite and succinct (and preferably in English ) debate away.

Sorry, I missed that.



De gustibus non est disputandum = There can be no disputes in matters of taste.



Steve W

Google translator works wonders (I had to give up Latin in my second year as I wasn't in the top maths group)

[Pecker]

I remember issuing words of caution to a BBQ team a couple of years ago reading their use of a galvanised bin for a BBQ. Now in theory the temperature reached in said BBQ should not be enough to cause the breakdown of the galvanised coating but after consulting with a metallurgist I found anecdotal evidence to suggest that there may be some level of breakdown and thus mild contamination of the food inside. So pure logic says, no problem or that at least the probability is very low. However given the consequences of slow gradual poisoning from ingesting zinc and other nasties in Galv, would you take the risk in the absence of definitive evidence upon which to make a decision? Which one takes priority in this case logic or risk assessment especially if you're going to feed the food to your kids?

Excellent post Steve, I'll just respond to this bit, as I think we've covered the rest.

Biggest health risk with barbecuing - other than heat/fire - is smoking. There are clear, well-documented health risks associated with processed foods in general and smoked foods in particular. These include cancer and general shortened life expectancy.

It doesn't quite square to not use a particular form of briquette because it may or may not contain something you don't know about, which in turn may or may not have health issues, whilst at the same time eating smoked food which has several definite health risks which we definitely know about.

It's like saying I won't go on holiday to Mali because I don't know whether or not there's a war going on there...I'll go to Afghanistan instead.

Steve W

[RobinC]

It doesn't quite square to not use a particular form of briquette because it may or may not contain something you don't know about, which in turn may or may not have health issues, whilst at the same time eating smoked food which has several definite health risks which we definitely know about.

Not answering for Steve but I think it does square. One is about accepting a known risk and deciding to proceed anyway, the other is about not accepting an unknown risk, there is a difference.

[KamadoSimon]

Useful little article which talks about the different components of briquettes & dispells some of the myths surrounding them.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/charcoal.html

Unfortunately it doesn't cover what makes Weber briquettes leave yellow ash rather than white ash.

For what it's worth, I prefer to use lumpwood charcoal. Why? It's been fiddled with less and has less additives. Same reason we don't tend to buy food which is pre-prepared / packaged. I like to know what I am eating or using to make my food. Can't eliminate everything artificial without going to extremes, but you can reduce your exposure. Hit home to us when we had children - we started to look at the number of chemicals etc that the majority of the major brands of children's products use. Quite scary.

So whilst I can't say that the yellow stuff that the Weber briquettes leaves behind is bad, I wouldn't use them if I didn't know what / why it is leaving that behind. It's not that it's yellow per se, just that it's different from lumpwood and most other briquettes and I don't know if it is good or bad different. Less about fear of the unknown, more about having a healthy skepticism.