Now that I have a kamado grill. Time to look for a good source of hardwood lump coal. Never really used lump coal before so it is going to be trial and error for dialing in how much to use.
I guess I should use less expensive brand like royal oak, ratings look good but inconsistent on size of coal, for trial and error
Kamada Joe looks to be a great product with consistantly big coal burns long and supposedly reusable up to 3 times.
Any insight using hardwood lump coal be appreciated.
I didn’t get any for Christmas…this year. 
I typically use Cowboy Lump without issue both for smoking and grilling. When you read about charcoal you will get purists who say “i only use coal made from trees in the red wood forest that are certified 100+ years old….”, and then there are those who say it doesn’t make much of a difference what you use. Ive done quite a few smokes on my weber and i don’t notice much of a difference between brands myself. Typically i smoke with briquettes though and only use lump when im looking to get high heat on something
I have a CharGriller grill/smoker, have mostly used Royal Oak and like it. It’s very consistent to use, puts out good heat/low smoke, and it’s cheap and easy to find. The size of the pieces mostly doesn’t bother me but it does have a fair amount of dust at the bottom of each bag, so be aware of that.
I typically don’t buy the fancy/pricey brands just because I haven’t seen the cost/benefit difference over Royal Oak – the others do, I guess, perform better but not 200%-300% better for the price IMO so I stick with cheap and easy.
One I absolutely avoid is Cowboy brand, heat is inconsistent and it puts out a ton of unwanted smoke. Hope this helps, good luck.
I have had pretty good luck with black diamond charwood and kamado joe lump…end of the day, even in my kamado I usually stick with briquettes
I didn’t get any for Christmas…this year.
. You were a good last year! Keep it up. Ho Ho.
I have used the following:
Coyboy — can get from Mills. No complaints, seemed to be decent sized pieces and could cook low and slow or hot and fast with it. I did notice a bit more of an odor at first, but once the smoke settled down it was clean blue smoke as expected.
Royal Oak Regular — Bought at Walmart. No complaints very similar to Cowboy except I never noticed any foul smell at all.
Royal Oak XL — Walmart — Just bought it, havent done a cook yet, but I would expect larger pieces and otherwise similar cooking results to Regular Royal Oak.
Western – WalMart, cheapest over all the others. Good size pieces, not bad with small stuff, but there is a fair amount. I found a rock in the bag, not a major deal. No foul smell, when opening the lid this stuff likes to pop and spark unlike the others. Had great results with it.
FYI — Kamado Joe is made by Royal Oak, but I believe its the XL stuff from RO.
There are tons of designer stuff out there, but they get super spendy. Personally I dont think its worth it.
What you will learn is with a Kamado is do NOT under any circumstance blow past your desired temp. You will have a battle on your hands because of how they retain heat.
Light a small amount in the middle, some guys use an alcohol soaked cotton ball. My unit has an electric ignitor so I use that.
Have fun and make sure to share results of your cooks! I absolutely love my Kamado and I never even used a charcoal grill before. Now I havent lit the gas grill in nearly a year since getting the Kamado.
Thanks guys. After my digital smoker went down, loved it, I resorted to charcoal and the webber and had great results but a lot of tending for long smoking sessions.
With the kamado, hardwood lump coal is recomended as it has less ash than briquettes so not to plug up the coal grate.
$13 To $15 for 15 lbs compared to $25 for 20 lbs looks to be a no brainer for starting out. Though, if the kamada Joe big block at $25 gets at least 2 uses it maybe same or better. Some thing to try later down the line.
What you will learn is with a Kamado is do NOT under any circumstance blow past your desired temp
I have heard that. I plan to start small like you say then shut the airflow down before I get my desired tep.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Brian Klawitter wrote:</div>
I didn’t get any for Christmas…this year.
. You were a good last year! Keep it up. Ho Ho.
Yep keep it up BK your turning the corner 
Hopefully it wasn’t stashed for you to find it later 
I tried some Royal Oak this summer and was very disappointed to the point I will not be using it again. It’s extremely light in weight and looked like it started as pallet wood, it also didn’t get hot enough for grilling steaks/burgers without using half the bag (which might not be a problem for you if you’re only smoking with it).
Chuck roast is on sale so I think that maybe my first try. Sale is kind of funny after coming back from Missouri where chuck roast was .50 cents cheaper than sale price not on sale.
I make smoke “bombs” by wrapping my chunk wood in heavy aluminum foil, two layers, and place these on charcoal to make my smoke. When the packages stop smoking I let them cool and unwrap them. What’s left inside is some of the best natural charcoal one can find. I use this charcoal thru the winter months instead of buying more. Apple, hickory, cherry, pear, plum, hard maple and red oak charcoals add a lot to the meat I cook on the grill.
Tom, I was thinking about that from your earlier post. I brought some Osaage Orange aka. Hedge wood up from Missouri and thought about doing that with this wood. An extremely hardwood.
Here’s a picture showing a wrapped bomb and one that I unwrapped to show the charcoal that results from heating the bombs on a bed of charcoal. If I break open one of the pieces its black all the way thru, yet when lit as regular charcoal is it will burn hot for about 30 minutes and the smoke resulting from the second burn will reflect the flavor of the wood. I use regular Royal Oak to fire the smoker and lay two of the bombs on the small bed of live coals and they’ll start smoking within ten minutes and will smoke fairly hard for an hour and a half. I generally add more Royal Oak and two more bombs when the first two cease making smoke. You can make smoke in your super grill doing the same exact thing with the bombs and will end up with charcoal for future grilling.
Aromatic woods like cedar and pine should be avoided as they’ll make smoke with a lot of tar that can taint the taste of the meat. Find out if the Osage Orange is one that’s used locally before trying it.
I obtain logs of the woods I favor and season them in the garage for up to a year. Then I chainsaw the wood across the grain into 3″ pieces. Next I use an axe or hatchet to split the pieces into three or four chunks and those are what I foil wrap, shiny side in. If you look carefully at the foil where the chunks can be seen, its fairly clean even though the chunks are black. Then look at the bomb next to it that’s not unwrapped yet….its black with all sorts of tar and what not. That’s from the Royal Oak, not the wood or smoke made from inside the bombs. The smoke from the bombs is very clean smoke. The charcoal inside the spent bombs is about as pure as you can find and you can tell the difference when you’re grilling with it.
I’ve switched to buying Fogo whenever I can. Yes; you have to order it online, but the pieces are pretty large & for me it burns for a long time in my Green Egg.
@tomsawvell that is pretty dang creative! Thanks for the info. May have to try that some time.
You are basically doing the process the commercial companies do, but much smaller scale and control over the process and ingredients. Cool idea!
One thing I forgot to mention about the Western that alarmed me at first but I am not sure if it had any negative effect was that a lot of the lump actually had bark on it along with much of it not even being split, but rather whole limbs or whatever. Seemed to cook fine, but I have a feeling after prolonged use that bark may lead to excess soot buildup.
Also, since you are using a Kamado, depending on how often you use it, I would suggest doing a burn off every once in a while. Ive done it once in the time Ive owned mine (just under a year). My buddy down in Houston TX has a LOT of soot problems. I think its caused by the excess humidity so I told him to put his lump in a sealed container and then do a burnoff. He was getting a lot of black soot dripping onto his meat. Gross.
I havent heard how its been going lately for him now that its less humid, but this summer he was furious.
+1 on FOGO.
I seen an awesome video on you tube of a guy making his own by sealing up a pile of fire wood in a barel except for a tall chimney on the top and building a fire under it . Was pretty cool the first hour it was just steam out the chimney then it just lit up and for two hours there was giant flame coming out he said it was some kind of gasses I don’t remember. When the flames stopped out the chimney it was done. It was beautiful looking coal just like the picture of Tom’s only larger and he was able to break it up easily with his hands.
Looking into different methods of making my own with different woods.
Today I went cheap with a chuck roast on top. Note:dont go cheap still feeding the fire. Small stuff sucks. Its going to take longer.
It seems this grill is not holding temp very well.
It’s looking good at temp of internal 160 degrees.
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Note:dont go cheap still feeding the fire. Small stuff sucks. Its going to take longer.
It seems this grill is not holding temp very well.
Don’t recognize the brand of kamado but not following why you would have these problems ‘still feeding the fire’. I’m never feeding in the middle of a cook unless it’s more than 10 hours plus. Something looks off to me as well.
Did your grill come with some form of heat deflector? Typically something ceramic looking that is between your fire and your cooking rack? Green egg, Kamado Joe, and Primo all do something on the same themes just different terminology.
Here’s why. for a roast I would be set up for indirect heat. Basket aka firebox with a load of coals, heat deflector, and the rack higher up. Pick a target number in the general range of 225-275. Get grill to temp, slowly. Put roast on with temp probe, then wait for hours.
Looks like you have very few coals in the firebox and set up for direct heat.
for the original question I use Royal Oak 90%. Cheap and readily available. Got over 12 hours monday doing pork shoulders. 10% I go to https://www.quetopiabbq.com/ and buy one of the nicer brands. They’re better, last longer but a bit higher price per pound.
Yea! I have to get a defuser. I just had a roaster pan with water tied under the grill grate to get by. May order one or go get some quarry stone and make my own
The cheap stuff the average size was this. It burned up fast even after shutting the air flow way down.
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Yea! I have to get a defuser. I just had a roaster pan with water tied under the grill grate to get by. May order one or go get some quarry stone and make my own
Nice MacGyver work!
The cheap stuff the average size was this. It burned up fast even after shutting the air flow way down.
what type of temps were you trying to hit? Is there room for just more charcoal in the firebox? are you keeping the lid closed or peeking a lot?
Can’t put my finger on it but seems there is something else going on here.
For comparison mine is a Big Joe size from Kamado Joe. Easily get 12+ hours for temps in the mid 200s. Goes a bunch faster when doing pizzas around 500-600 though, maybe 2-3 hours. All on Royal Oak cheap stuff.
225 to 250 I was trying to sustain.
I’ll try more lump next time, I was a bit afraid to much lump I couldn’t control the temp so I stayed with small amounts. I will try the royal oak next time the stuff I got at the local grocery store.
Say one more thing, how much do you open the stack for low temps. I assume it’s like using the webber choke off air at the bottom half open at the top.
Friend of mine has soupstone from counter tops so he’s going make a diffuser for me.
Thanks for all your insight guys!
No damper at the top just a cap. I tip the cap slightly ranging from closed 1/2 inch to an inch experimenting.
Bottom has a clean out with a plug. I’ve experimenting cracking plug from 1/4″ 0pen to 1/2″.
Now this kamado is vintage and I dont expect it to perform to today’s standards but its pretty darn cool and fun.
I believe its inline/disign of the imperial Kamado. I feels like its made out of terracotta with a porciline insert.
I think the soapstone properties as a diffuser will complement heat deflection and enhance heat retention.
DID YOU KNOW? Soapstone can heat up to 1100 degrees and hold heat at certain temp for along time? I didn’t. From what I have read it’s also a great nonstick surface when after heated to temp. That temp I dont know but its intriguing.
The top cap will control your temp in a kamado. For low and slow it will be barely open like maybe 1/2″. Finetune adjustments for slight temp changes with the bottom vent.
Dont worry about too much lump. Fill it up above the vent holes in the firebox. When you are done and shut all the vents, it will choke out. Then just remove the ash before your next cook and add some new lump. You will be amazed at how little lump you actually use.
Bigger pieces is better for longer cooks, while smaller pieces will work better for hotter cooks like searing steaks, but you can do either with either size, it just is a bit easier one way or the other.
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