British BBQ Society Forums

Steve wrote:The cocoshell have been the best briquettes I've used. I guess I'm just not a briquette kind of guy.

Hey if we all used lumpwood there'd be none left for you . I Tried lumpwood years ago when I first got into "grilling" and found it very inconsistent and unsatisfactory. Went onto briquettes from supermarkets, then Big K, found out about Cocoshell from here and Robert became a close relative.

Maybe you could enlighten us as to what the binders are then. Given the remnants are a highly unnatural colour, what has the portion of the binder that has burned off contained?

Given that my memory only registers the smell as foul given that it was four years since I last put these things in my pit, I can only say that I suspect that whatever part of the binder burned, it was unpleasant. Most starches that are used as binders will produce a white ash so without detailed knowledge of the ingredients of said briquettes one can fairly draw the conclusion that there is something else in there.

Furthermore I found they produced a great deal of ash, much greater volume than with lump wood and greater still than other high quality briquettes. This in itself implies that there is a higher proportion of "other" ingredients to actual charcoal dust. Given their proported long burn times what are these ingredients, logically one would think they are something other than a binder that prolongs burn time.

Based on incomplete knowledge of the ingredients list one can only hypothesise about what the cause of the phantom yellow ash is. However, one can take other factors into account, such as the ash colour being unique when compared against reputable products and whilst there is nothing to say this is a bad thing, if one finds the smell unpleasant in comparison to other products and the burn time is longer than other products that use charcoal dust and starch then there is enough to draw a logical conclusion that these briquettes contain something different.

At this point logic becomes less important and it becomes more about personal taste. If they smell bad to an individual then it is perfectly reasonable to reject them. If one cannot find information about what may burn to produce yellow ash then their attitude to risk may dictate whether they choose to expose their food to said chemicals.

If memory serves the binders are corn starch

RobinC wrote:If memory serves the binders are corn starch

Corn? Yellow? Well I never!



Doubtless a number of people who previously criticised these briquettes for having yellow ash will now change their minds, and champion this as being a more 'natural' product.

Don't you agree?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?



Steve W

DELETED - sorry, another duplicate post

Steve wrote:Based on incomplete knowledge of the ingredients list one can only hypothesise about what the cause of the phantom yellow ash is.

I quite agree. If you don't know what's causing an ash to be yellow, or for that matter white, it's completely unfair to comment or judge either way.

Steve wrote:However, one can take other factors into account, such as the ash colour being unique when compared against reputable products and whilst there is nothing to say this is a bad thing, if one finds the smell unpleasant in comparison to other products and the burn time is longer than other products that use charcoal dust and starch then there is enough to draw a logical conclusion that these briquettes contain something different.

Again, I quite agree. If the ash is yellow and other ash is white, it's probably because the briquettes contain something different. But please note, as well as 'reputable' briquettes creating white ash, so do all of the 'unreputable' ones.

As I suspect that pretty much all briquettes are made up of different things this has absolutely no impact whatsoever.

What evidence do you have that the thing causing the yellow colour is any more or less dangerous than any other briquette additive?

Steve wrote:At this point logic becomes less important and it becomes more about personal taste. If they smell bad to an individual then it is perfectly reasonable to reject them.

Logic is never unimportant, but that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of sympathy with this view. Indeed,I agree. If yellow ash puts you off, then it puts you off. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Steve wrote:If one cannot find information about what may burn to produce yellow ash then their attitude to risk may dictate whether they choose to expose their food to said chemicals.

But all briquettes contain 'unnatural' ingredients (in other words something other than charcoal). Your point only holds up if you apply the same logic to white ash. I don't know if you know this, but mushy peas are naturally brown, They're only green because of food dye, put there because the manufacturers think that people will only think of peas being green. You know, in the same way they think of ash as white.

Maybe all briquettes should leave a yellow ash and they put a dodgy chemical in it to make it white for that reason - a chemical Weber leave out. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm just saying that not knowing what causes the ash to be yellow isn't a factor in buying this product, because you also have no idea what makes other briquette's ash white.

And by the way, why have you automatically assumed it was a chemical?

But of course, as we've just read, we now know why it's yellow. Because of a 'natural' ingredient.

But of course that's all rubbish anyway; there's absolutely nothing natural about any form of charcoal - lump or briquettes. It's produced in a completely artificial way which is almost impossible to replicate in nature. Dog poo is a more 'natural' ingredient than lump charcoal...but I know what I'd rather burn.

Great discussion by the way - best wishes.

Steve W

Many apologies Steve, I forgot these points:

Steve wrote:Given that my memory only registers the smell as foul given that it was four years since I last put these things in my pit, I can only say that I suspect that whatever part of the binder burned, it was unpleasant.

You know, I did a search to find your previous comments. I found them in the Lump Charcoal vs Briquettes thread. You only mentioned the amount of ash produced and the colour yellow - not a word about any smell at all.

Steve wrote:Furthermore I found they produced a great deal of ash, much greater volume than with lump wood and greater still than other high quality briquettes. This in itself implies that there is a higher proportion of "other" ingredients to actual charcoal dust.

Yes. But does that matter? What do we want charcoal for? We want it to cook. We want it to go hot. We want it to stay hot as long as possible. We don't want it to make our food smell bad. We don't want it to introduce a health risk.

So far, no one has said these briquettes make the food taste bad. No evidence it's bad for you. It burns hot. It burns long.

Anything else is fairly meaningless. Unless your cheese is vegetarian it probably contains rennet. That's from an animals stomach. If I think about that enough it's maybe off-putting, but ultimately it makes no difference. I only want to know my cheese tastes nice, that it's a nice texture and that it doesn't make me ill.

The only issue I can see is that there's a lot of ash. This may cause problems with cleaning, or clogging up the vents on some less well-manufactured barbecues, or if it's windy. That aside, ash really means nothing to worry about.

Hope you don't mind me disagreeing. I don't want admin to boot me off!

Steve W

There's only one way to find out: FIGHT!

RobinC wrote:There's only one way to find out: FIGHT!

I think it's great that people are so passionate about their barbecues to bother this much about the fuel they use.

Steve W

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. That's what the forum is for, but just one point Steve did mention it was four years ago that he used them, so the quote from a few months ago may not be entirely relevant. As to the cheese reference.....Well "Blessed are the cheesemakers" as a prophet once said.