Hardwood charcoal

[nwells]

I am spit roasting a pig next weekend and just realized that I will need to deal with charcoal. I will admit that my grilling is usually done on a gas Weber because I am lazy. But, I want this pig to be perfect. Do any of you have suggestions for type of charcoal--no lighter fluid and I would prefer hardwood to whatever is in the other stuff. A particular flavor? Does brand matter? I am in Portland, OR and see Lazzaro (sp?) in gourmet stores. Also, I would love to buy wholesale if anyone has a good source for me.

[Human Bean]

Do any of you have suggestions for type of charcoal--no lighter fluid and I would prefer hardwood to whatever is in the other stuff. A particular flavor? Does brand matter? I am in Portland, OR and see Lazzaro (sp?) in gourmet stores. Also, I would love to buy wholesale if anyone has a good source for me.

Dunno about wholesale at all; since the time is short, you'll have to buy locally, and your options are somewhat limited. Try your local home-improvement megastore (Home Depot almost certainly, or maybe Lowes). OTOH, I got a bag of lump mesquite charcoal from my local Thriftway once. I saw bags of house-brand lump charcoal at Natures (now Wild Oats) in Beaverton once; dunno if they regularly carry it, but I'm going there today and will take a look.

I don't think that the type of wood in lump charcoal really matters in terms of flavor; the wood has been turned into chunks of nearly pure carbon, and little or no volatile flavoring compounds are left. Buy a bag of wood chips for flavor; hickory is a bit strong but works with almost anything.

You probably already know about the no lighter fluid part - go to Home Depot and get one of those big-ass chimney starters; actually you might want to get two at least ($$, unfortunately) and/or borrow some to get the fire going, depending on the size of the pig and how long you're willing to wait to get a full-sized fire.

[Human Bean]

I just got back from Wild Oats (Natures) in Beaverton, and lump charcoal is all over the place - you can hardly walk 5 feet in the store without tripping over a bag of the stuff. It's made from an assortment of random hardwoods (oak, hickory and maple are listed), and at $6 per 4 kilo bag, it might be a bit expensive to roast a whole pig, but that's up to you. I'd expect that the other local Wild Oats stores would also have it.

I bought a bag of it to try, and it's interesting stuff - rather than rustic random chunks of carbonized tree carcass, these appear to be made from furniture/woodworking scraps. The pieces are not all the same size and shape, but an abundance of straight edges and flat surfaces seem to suggest the wood's origin. Rather a clever idea actually, to turn what might otherwise be thrown away into a useful product.

Although I suggested buying a bag of wood chips for flavor, a moment later, it was obvious that you want chunks, not chips, considering the size of your project. I usually buy mine at Home Depot. They usually have mesquite and hickory; of the two, hickory is probably the better choice for pig; maple or apple might be better, but I don't know of a local source. If you could find it, alder might be an interesting, if eccentric (but Northwest) choice.

Finally, you might want to post a link to this thread in the PNW forum; someone else locally may have better suggestions.

[col klink]

They usually have mesquite and hickory; of the two, hickory is probably the better choice for pig; maple or apple might be better, but I don't know of a local source. If you could find it, alder might be an interesting, if eccentric (but Northwest) choice.

Actually, if you're doing a whole hog, hickory would probably be a little too much. Whole hog takes a long, long time and hickory is a very powerful wood. Maple would be better and more than likely alder would be too weak.

[Jim Dixon]

I'd heard this and repeated it, but finally confirmed it for myself a couple of weeks ago: Any True Value hardware store will either have lump briquet (aka real wood charcoal) or be able to to get it for you. I picked up a 20 lb (or so) bag at Hankins on MLK for about $20.

Jim

[trillium]

We buy the 365 stuff at Whole Foods. It's a mix of oak, maple and hickory, by-products of flooring and furniture making. I think it's $5 for 9 lbs.

Something to keep in mind, it burns hotter (and goes faster) then the other stuff, when we did the switch a few years ago it took us a little while to get used to that.

regards,

trillium

[BaconFat]

I usually go Sutter Home & Hearth in Ballard and get the Royal Oak/BGE lump. If you have a Big Green Egg dealer in your area, I bet they have natural charcoal as well. Its all natural wood chunks and the size varies, but I like the quality. I fall back on the Whole Foods brand when I'm in a pinch.

I'm splitting a pallet of the new Kamado natural lump and extruded coconut charcoal. The eta is around 8/18, I'll post with my opinions after I've played around a bit.

Now back to my normally scheduled lurking.

[Human Bean]

We buy the 365 stuff at Whole Foods.  It's a mix of oak, maple and hickory, by-products of flooring and furniture making.  I think it's $5 for 9 lbs. 

Interesting; this seems identical to the charcoal I described above, at Wild Oats, carrying the Wild Oats brand. Same price too; maybe I was too clever as describing it as $6 for 4 kilos; 8.8 pounds just seemed weird.

A quick search suggests that Whole Foods and Wild Oats are not related in a corporate sense; maybe they both buy the charcoal from the same supplier(s).

And yes, it starts VERY quickly, and burns hot and fast. After a few small trials, I like the stuff - it doesn't seem to impart any flavor at all, which is good and what I expected - chips/chunks add the flavor.

[trillium]

I thought Wild Oats was bought out by Whole Foods a couple of years ago... anyway, it sounds like the same stuff. Cheap and easy, what's not to like?

regards,

trillium

[MatthewB]

BBQ FAQ on lump (hardwood) charcoal

[=Mark]

Actually for traditionally spit roasting a hog you may want to consider burning hardwood down to coals and shoveling these under mr piggie. Hardwood coals burn much longer and tend to impart more flavor than plain charcoal (hardwood is usually cheaper and easier to find, also). Generally a burn barrel is set up with a coarse grate of rebar punched thru at 3 or 4 inch intervals. A fire is started and hardwood pieces/logs are added to the top of the barrel. As the logs burn to coals they drop through the grate and are shovelled into the pit.

Generally a separate fire is started in the pit and allowed to burn to coals, then the coals are spread out before the pig goes on. From then on coals from the burn barrel are shoveled into the pit to maintain temps. You'd be surprised how few of the coals are needed to maintain, and preventing the pit from getting too hot is often more of an issue than not having enough fuel (Too hot a pit can cause too much fat to render too quickly into the coals resulting in a possible conflagration).