PrintGrilling Smackdown: Lump Charcoal vs. Briquettes
In the world of charcoal grilling, there's no more fundamental and fiercely debated topic than lump charcoal vs. briquettes. Being the building block for everything you grill, it's no wonder that grill masters around the world will defend their choice with extreme passion. So, you might ask, "Which is the reigning champ?" Well, there really is no easy answer, but there are some charcoal essentials you should know that will help you make the right choice.
Lump Charcoal
Charcoal is made by burning wood in the absence of oxygen, and lump charcoal is the product of that. Since lump is charcoal in its most natural form, it's no wonder purists will almost always prefer it. Beyond that, lump charcoal has a lot of attractive qualities; it lights faster, burns hotter, and leaves very little ash compared to briquettes. Lump charcoal is also more responsive to oxygen, making it easier to control the fire's temperature if your grill has adjustable air vents.
Pros: Lights quickly, burns hotter, little ash production, easier temperature adjustment, all natural
Cons: Burns faster, more expensive, less consistent (bags can contain unusably small pieces of charcoal)
Briquettes
Briquettes are kind of like the fast food of charcoal; they're cheap, reliable, can be found on almost every corner, but you really don't want to know what's in them. Unlike the pure lump charcoal, briquettes are manufactured wood by-products compressed with additives that help them light and burn consistently. These additives do give off a chemical smell when lit, but allowing them to burn until covered with white ash before starting to cook should avoid any off-putting smells transferring to your food. Although they may not sound attractive, there are some good advantages to briquettes. They provide a more stable burn, maintaining a steady temperature for a longer period of time with less hand holding then lump charcoal.
Pros: Burns longer, easier to maintain consistent temperature, cheaper
Cons: Longer to light, chemical smell, large ash production
This is all just the tip of the iceberg. There are excellent resources out there to further fuel us charcoal nerds, but after many years manning the grill, I still can't pick a clear side in this epic battle. I've found lump charcoal superior when grilling, getting me cooking faster and letting me control the heat more easily, not to mention barely leaving any ashy mess to deal with at the end of the day. Briquettes have been my saving grace when smoking, allowing me to set it and forget it, burning for hours on end at the same temperature during the long cooks required for barbecue. If I find myself with one on hand and not the other, I don't sweat it, because at the end of the day they will both lead to great grilling or barbecue. So the ultimate champion is relative, but I'm betting a lot of you have your own two cents to throw into the ring, so by all means, go at it!
About the author: Joshua Bousel blogs about grilling on his blog, The Meatwave, and appears weekly here on Serious Eats during grilling season.
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25 Comments:
I will never use briquettes again since seeing the light with hardwood charcoal. Briquettes taste and smell like a pile of burning tires. And I don't need any fossil fuel chemical additives in my food or in my air.
simon at 1:27PM on 05/21/08
I agree 100% with simon's comment. Hardwood is the way to go - for both flavor and heat. I've had my weber fired up since March here in NY (heh).
HumbleRecipes at 1:41PM on 05/21/08
I'm done with briquettes. Kingsford used to make an honest product but the current formulation is crap.
I've always used lump charcoal in the smoker, and now I'm using it for grilling too. A charcoal chimney is an inexpensive way to get a fire going fast without lighter fuel or nasty additives.
Cathy at 2:24PM on 05/21/08
I like royal oak briquettes, lump has a tendecy to spit at you to many sparks and sounds like the fouth of July, I don't ever start a fire with lighter fluid, its either a weed burner or a chimney, minon style.....
Markbb at 2:31PM on 05/21/08
I find briquettes work much better for smoking. They don't burn as hot (good for smoking) and they burn longer (also good for smoking). I also have never gotten the minion method to work correctly with lump.
arbeck at 3:08PM on 05/21/08
@arbeck: I've found the minion method works great for me. I can set up my smoker at night, go to bed once it's holding steady, and wake up with some cue almost ready to eat. Are you using a Weber Bullet with Kingsford?
Also, have you ever tasted any of the chemical smell on your food when smoking? I personally have not, but I've read about others who say the do...maybe my palette's not refined enough...
Joshua Bousel at 3:30PM on 05/21/08
I just did a little searching and found this:
"Hickory Specialties, in Tennessee, makes "Nature Glo", "Wildfire", "Holland", and "Kroger" brands of charcoal briquettes. They are pure hickory charcoal briquettes with corn starch being the only additive. I would not compare it to "Royal Oak". To me Royal Oak falls in the category of Kingsford, it also leaves a bad after-smell when burning.
We (Tower Rock BBQ Team) use the Nature Glo and the Kroger brands. We used to use the Holland brand until we called the company and found out that Kroger and Nature Glo were the same."
Sounds like a good option for applications that demand briquette use.
simon at 3:34PM on 05/21/08
Lump charcoal most of the time. 1.) Because of all the reasons stated above. 2.) It's pretty much all that is readily available in my area. However, when it is available, I'll use a brand that offers a blended mix of briqs and lump for meats that take a while.
Two lump peeves: Can't stand opening a bag only to find a few larges chunks while everything else is pea-sized and useless. The fireworks problem. (Not fun when you're refueling a fire and the bits rain down on the food--or toward your face.)
Pure grain alcohol for starting.
Asado at 3:45PM on 05/21/08
I have to speak up for briquettes -- I have found lump to be a pain in the butt. Half the bag falls right through the chimney because the pieces are tiny. It burns out MUCH faster. And it is extremely inconsistent.
Briquettes are hot enough (and you can always pile them up if you need more heat) and provide much more consistent results.
I've never noticed any chemical smell or taste on my food cooked over briquettes. I must have one of them unrefined palates, too. *cough cough*
jb_dc at 4:32PM on 05/21/08
I am all for briquettes, but mainly because the last time we had lump charcoal it firecraked, and little bits came out and landed right inbetween my toes, not fun.
Sarahrm at 4:48PM on 05/21/08
Josh!,
The minion method works great for me with Kingsford, were I have problems is using it with lump. When I try it with lump the stuff ignites too fast, the temp of the smoker jumps way up, but then collapses as the stuff all goes out.
I've never noticed a chemical taste to my food. Even after 14+ hours smokes using the minion method.
arbeck at 5:05PM on 05/21/08
Nice rundown. I have to admit, I've never had the chance to use lump charcoal, but I'm kind of in love with the aesthetic.
And I agree with many posters above. No lighter fluid. It's needlessly expensive and gross. My dad always used a chimney he'd made from a bottomless coffee can with holes drilled/nailed into the bottom third. Packed the bottom loosely with crushed newsprint before stacking briquettes on top and lighting from the bottom. Worked fine every time.
missginsu at 6:02PM on 05/21/08
I used to use lump, and had the same issues everyone else mentions. I recently switched to kroger briquettes and have been very happy with them. I use a chimney starter without issue and haven't had any bad flavors. Typically cheaper store brand briquettes have no chemical additives like kingsford does.
The worst charcoal I've ever used was the "grill bag" lump charcoal from whole foods. It's all coated with paraffin so you can simply light the bag and get it to start. It was a horrible nasty affair which took 45 minutes to get all the wax to burn off.
8ptstars at 6:19PM on 05/21/08
From my experience, there is no difference in flavor between the two (if it is a high quality briquette, Kingsford does a good job). There is a smell from briquettes, but for some reason, this smell does not impact the flavor of the food. Also, it tends to be more predictable when cooking.
aperrylang at 5:14PM on 05/23/08
Amen to you aperrylang. What he said. I bought a new chimney and some Kingsford for the holiday, and my mind is at peace. I will cook monkfish, chicken thighs, NY strip steaks, potatoe wedges, eggplant slices, peppers, bratwurst, onions, burgers, mushrooms, and little foil boats of beets, and not worry about a thing.
In my experience, the lump mesquite from Australia is more uniform in its size, but it too tends to explode. And I always flavor my smoke with moist fruit woods. Grill smoke that is.
alljack at 2:32AM on 05/24/08
Once I went lump, I could never again return to that other crap again.
jonfoxx at 12:26PM on 05/24/08
I use only natural hardwood charcoal and have for years. Briquettes really turn me off.
schnitzel at 8:54PM on 05/24/08
let's see, there are people who like briquettes casue they " don't burn as hot"... not quite sure what scientific evidence there is to that , but I do know that if an ember is coated with ash, the heat will be diminished, maybe that is why it "don't burn as hot"
... AND they, the briquettes, burn longer, another legend I'd like to se proven..
Facts are facts.. if you do any smoking that last more than a few hours, that briquette stuff will produce so much ash that the fire gets choked....
try smoking a brisket using them chemically pressed briquettes, and see how much ash is produced.. if you learned how to use lump charcoal, or all wood, you wouldnt have that problem
as well, some of the proponents of briquettes are grilling, not smoking... have it man, but once you've tried grilling with lump, you'll never go back
just my humble opinion
bbqchef53 at 7:56AM on 05/28/08
I dislike briquettes, but wonder, if you guys are serious, why don't you just make your own charcoal or simply use wood?
beano at 9:49AM on 05/29/08
Let me clear up one myth- lump does not burn hotter. Cooks Illustrated Magazine investigated this a few years ago and found that the temps of both were about the same. I think the idea that lump burns hotter comes from the fact that lump burns faster. I think it was a guesstimate that if it burns faster it must burn hotter. But, per Cooks Illustrated, this was not proven true.
All of that said, I prefer lump because it has a cleaner flavor. If you are cooking steaks or burgers it probably does not make a flavor difference. However, when I crank up my Weber for an overnight smoke of a pork butt, the difference is readily noticable. If I smoke for say 12 hours using Kingsford, the coal taste from the charcoal is easy to taste. The lump is a pure BBQ smoke flavor which I prefer.
Maybe Kroger brand charcoal contains no coal but I know that Kingsford does (see www.virtualweberbullet.com). To each his own. Some may like the coal flavoring. I know of a pizza restuarant in Florida that bakes its pizzas using a coal fired oven and the pizza crust does pick up the coal flavor. Hower for pork BBQ I don't want the coal flavor.
I think that the issue of lump burning faster can be an issue if you are open top grilling because the lump can burn out faster. That said, for smoking, I have never had a issue with lump or charcoal running for say 12 hours with only one reload.
Mr Magoo at 10:08PM on 05/30/08
@bbqchef53: I have smoked a brisket using briquettes on more than one occasion. Turned out perfectly every time.
jb_dc at 7:03PM on 06/01/08
I use lump in my WSM using the Minion method, and never have to refill, even on long, 8+ hour pork butt cooks. One other benefit to using lump is, you can throw the ash right in the compost pile. You can't do that with briquette ash.
launate at 4:29PM on 07/31/08
There was a legendary post on the Big Green Egg forum years ago by Elder Ward (archived at http://www.nakedwhiz.com/elder.htm) in which Ward brilliantly explains how to achieve a long burning, low temperature fire using lump charcoal for a long, low smoke. He opens an entire bag of lump and sorts the coal by size. Clean all of the ash out of the bottom of your grill (especially important for the Big Green Egg where airflow can be controlled precisely if ash isn't clogging the airway). Place the largest pieces evenly in the bottom like a jigsaw puzzle. Use smaller pieces to fill in the gaps. Light with a little square of wax/sawdust firestarter. Following Ward's method in my Egg, I can keep a steady 200 degree fire going for twelve straight hours or longer. Because the fire can't be set off center, I use a ceramic deflector to create an indirect kind of heat.
Joel Silverman at 11:37AM on 08/05/08
i've found with the lump that density of the chunck has a real effect on the speed at which the coals burn and being a natural product its impractical for them to produce a consistancy that the briquette has when it comes to density/burn time, i really love the flavor of the lump [ as long as its not cabinet shop scrap ( real trash ) ] but i really like the control i get useing briquettes, but the chemical flavor is terrible on the finished meat or whatever, a sure way to ruin a great ribeye or any other meat, veggie, fruit etc. so i'll look into the kroger, nature glo, wildfie,holland brands or any other natural briquettes, anyone know of sources for retail hands-on purchases. royal oak claims to be natural but i read a breakdown of ingredents and they included coal, anthricite, and the other usual suspects and to top it off royal oak claims it is necessary to put these ingredents in to manufacture a briquette and all mgf's use the additives. who do you believe NOT a salesman thats for sure do we have to analyse all brands or what
shipwreck at 4:00PM on 08/18/08
Briquettes or lump? I think it boils down to what you are cooking and for whom? If I want to grill up some hots dogs and burger meat, a few briquettes are fine. Briqs are cheaper, for me, cleaner and easier. If I am smoking brisket, sausages, tri-tip, or anything else that requires lots of love and perfection, I will use quality wood. I have found cheaper off-brand or store brand briqus require a lot of lighter fluid and don't give good flavor.
Juckpulvers at 8:55PM on 09/07/09