Fire…the tender ballet of the flames and wisps of smoke, set
only to the musical snap, crackle and popping of the air pockets in the
wood. Give me a fireplace, pellet stove,
fire-pit, chimney starter but mostly, my smokers…any of them will do.
The quality of the charcoal and wood doesn’t just affect
heat and length of burn…it’s the base flavor profile. When you’re “smoking”, not only are you
cooking with the heat, but also flavoring with the smoke wafting around the
meat. As is obvious, you need quality
charcoal to satisfy these various elements.
To that end, I am constantly searching for the “perfect” charcoal.
There are several types of charcoal on the market, and
hundreds of manufacturers. There’s the
common briquette, Kingsford, both standard and “blue bag”, which is a more
natural, and meant for “professional” grillers or smokers. Competing in this realm is a variety of
natural, hardwood briquettes, without chemical fillers: Weber, Royal Oak,
Stubbs and store-branded bags from Trader Joes, to name a few. These briquettes are consistent, as they are
all shaped the same. Using Weber, Stubbs
and Trader Joe’s, you’ll discover that they are made strictly from natural
hardwood, and have a natural, “campfire” odor.
This type of charcoal, the briquette, is my preferred and recommended
type when using a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker, or my Assassin 28. For my eggs, I prefer natural lump, which is
just pieces of hardwood burnt down into coal.
But in the quest to find just the right fuel source for the gravity fed,
Assassin 28, I am pleased that I stumbled into Original Natural Charcoal.
I am not the type of person to click on Facebook ads…because
if you do, the next thing you know, your feed and targeted ads are loaded with
ad for similar products. But something
caught my eye and compelled me to click on the link…it’s charcoal click
bait! Facebook knows me too well… The next thing you know, I’m buying a few
bags of the natural lump hardwood charcoal and some charcoal logs. After a few emails with the owner, I also was
getting a couple of bags of the natural hardwood briquettes…could it live up to
the hype? Would I be stuck with bags of
useless coal? At least some of my
non-Jewish friends could use it next holiday season if their kids are bad…nothing
like a stocking stuffed with natural hardwood lump charcoal!
Well, I am pleased to tell you that the charcoal did not
disappoint. Just as advertised, it lit
fast, moved from white/gray smoke to a sweet smelling light blue smoke quickly,
and burned for a long time (14 pounds burned at 275F for about 20 hours in the
draft-controlled Assassin 28 cabinet smoker!!!)
The temperature was consistent the entire time, and after smoking
chicken breast, cabbage and some meatballs, I was delighted with the sublime
essence of smoke flavor imparted on the food.
No harsh taste, low ash production and a long, stable burn make this charcoal
a winner n my book.
Caveat-while fantastic, it is really not available for local
purchase (I ordered through their website, and had it the next day, with free
shipping (!!), and it is expensive: ~$3 a pound, which is 3x as expensive as
Weber Natural briquettes, which until now, had been the gold standard of
briquettes for me). I can’t say I’ll use
this all the time, but for a long-term smoke for a special occasion, it is
definitely worth the investment.
Check out Original Natural Charcoal.
