smoke from charcoal

[aris]

Bigk seem to have two grades of restaurant charcoal - best grade and restaurant grade. Which do you use?

I saw 15kg boxes of the best grade in Haringey for 13 pounds (from memory).

[UKEgger]

I went to food on fire at Covent Garden over the weekend, I had a snoop at the charcoal they were using (I got some funny looks) and all were using what Food Network provided.

When I looked it was all lovely pieces of lumpwood, all uniform in shape and speaking to the people there all were happy with it. I had a look on the box and it just said "Big K restaurant grade", looking at the website is looks like the "best grade" as that comes in a box rather than a bag which the normal restaurant grade comes in.

Not a clue on the difference, I have ordered 2 bags of the restaurant grade because it was the only one on the online store.

[cledus]

Got some Big K yesterday and have done 2 smokes on it and have the same acrid smoke from it. Disappointed. The B and Q stuff gave better flavour with hickory. Anything cooked with the Big K tastes like ash tray. Will not use again.

What are people's thoughts on briquettes and any recommended ones please.

Cheers.

[gazz_46]

Not entirely sure wot the prob is here.....

Been using Big K restraunt grade15 kg bags for a last 4 or 5 cooks and am mighty pleased, the only time I have had a similar issue is when I 1st got a chimney starter and used the local free newspaper to light, thick acrid smoke that didn't seem to clear..... Started to light with plumbers torch and problem went away? Not had that problem since which to be fair wasn't limited to Big K had similar issues with previous fuels, could be the type of ink or grade of paper don't know, there are lots of bleaches used in recycled paper

[Swindon_Ed]

I've used Big K lump wood charcoal for the last 2 years for all of our european comp's and never had a problem with unwanted flavour.

Are you using lump wood charcoal or briquetts?

Also are you using minion method? If so are you allowing the smoker to burn cleanly before adding your meat?

[aris]

I recall there may have been some reference to how the charcoal is stored before sale. If it gets wet or maybe stored in very damp conditions for a long time, it may well behave differently when lit.

[cledus]

I was using the minion method with lumpwood. I lit the chimney and after 20 minutes that was burning clean.

Poured the charcoal onto the unlit in the basket, and the stuffed smoked for about 1.5 hours. I'm thinking maybe light in the charcoal basket a large quantity and wait until it burns clean before building the smoker back up and putting food on rather than using the minion method as the chimney burnt clean. It seems to light OK so doesn't seem damp. Certainly the stockist is a nice and dry.

I'm upset because I've just found a stockist near to me and have read lots of good things about Big K. Its probably something im doing that needs to be corrected, but have used this method successfully with many different types of supermarket grade charcoal. Any ideas would be greatly received.

I'm using a ProQ Excel if that makes a difference.

Thanks.