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Charcoal Briquettes or Lump Charcoal?
All of the original testing was done with Kingsford Char-
coal. Kingsford is a very consistent product from bag to bag and is
available in most places. It’s a decent product that is formulated to
start fast and provide enough heat for one decent grilling session.
It works well for low and slow cooking. The biggest complaint
about it is the issue of purity. Kingsford is an admixture of carbon
made from wood and processed mineral char to form nearly pure
charcoal, sawdust, sodium nitrate (for easy ignition) and some
starch to hold it all together.
Lump charcoal is used by many experienced BBQ Chefs
for the simple reason that it is pure wood charcoal derived from
hardwood. We have found the best way to burn lump in a con-
trolled manner is to break it up. The goal is to make as many
pieces close to the size of a briquette, or 2” x 2” x 1.5”. These
pieces are laid down on the coal support grill, with smaller chips
and wood chunks layered on top of this first layer. In our personal
experiments, breaking up the lump in this manner makes for plenty
of surface area to ignite, creating the environment for an even and
consistent burn rate. When using lump charcoal with the Minion
method, expect burns to last 5 to 6 hours.
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