How many of you have these stupid crazy nutcase passions for things? Raise your hands, excellent. How many of you kinda loose rational thought when even remotely near them? Raise your hands, excellent. Apart from the obivious, I have a few of those quirks myself. One of which being real wood charcoal.
Wanna come see what I did this time?
A few weeks ago Chilebrown sent me a url to some place up in Northern California by the name of Custom Charcoal. I’ve always wanted a pallet load of cooking wood or charcoal, looked in to it a few times. I mean, damned man. You wouldn’t have to buy charcoal for mumfs! It’d always be there for you, day or night. Even when you’ve burned through a hundred pounds, there’s more to go.
What struck me right off was the selection of wood. They have Oak, Maple and Apple lump charcoal. While you can surely find smoking chips most anywhere of these woods, they come in tiny packages and go away very quickly. This is real wood charcoal in 20 pound boxes, just what the good doctor ordered. The thought of grilling pork over apple wood makes the hair on my legs stand up, FOING.
Ahem, yes well anyway. The time was right, I emailed David and asked for a quote on 320 pounds of his finest. I spent the morning wrapped tighter than last week’s newspapers. I had visions of succulent pork roasts wrapped with bacon, whole golden red smoky chickens perched high and winy beef roasts with herbs all crazy juicy. This deal was going to have to happen soon because I was going to come unglued at the seams at any moment.
Hey, did anyone know that when you have something shipped that’s really heavy by motor freight it isn’t exactly inexpensive? Considering it’s part of what I do (just a little mind you, not a lot) you’d think I’d put 2 and 2 together. The cost of shipping was more than the product. Boy, this sucks. Anyone got a nice solution?
Good ol’ CB did. His brother lives near and he was on his way up for a visit. He was also taking Black Bart (a full sized 3/4 ton black Dodge 4 by sportin a nice shell). Problem solved!
Time to leave came and went, our charcoal would have to wait. It turns out Custom Charcoal isn’t a huge wood charcoal corporation and didn’t have enough wood on hand to fill our order. Tee hee. I WIN !!! I have to say, while we did end up having to wait a week, it was pretty cool to order a product from someone who had to run out back and start up some contraption to get the job done. And that’s just what he had to do, thank you sir!
Don’t that look pretty? Well, okay it’s just a stack of boxes, but what’s in them is pretty.
I got a box of Black Oak lump charcoal and opened that first. I was hoping for larger pieces, but one really needs to run some food through to see what the scoop is. I needs to test it, white lab coats and all.
I use a handful of different kinds and sizes of cooking woods. I usually use mesquite charcoal as my base heat producing material, it’s in the far upper left hand side. Click on the image and you can barely see it’s a little larger than most. I like it that way because I can either start it like that and it’ll last longer and not produce as much searing heat as the smaller stuff does. It’s got less sides to emit heat, that’s why it’s that way. Or, if I require smaller chunks of mesquite, I use my hammer that I keep close by, WHAP. Don’t break it up in your smoker or grill though. After a few years, those beasts can get weakened steel by all the heat and you can snap and or damage them. How do I know? I gots carnal knowledge baby.
I’m also a huge fan of the larger raw chunks of cooking wood, it’s the one directly below the large hunks of mesquite, for long term heat and awesome smoky flavors. See, I use this in the grill when I’ll do up some indirect food for hours. Or the same procedure for the smoker. This way you don’t need to continually add those tedious little chips. Everyone says you absolutely must soak them. Crab nuts on that. I don’t think that far in advance, do what you can. Directly below the raw chunks are hickory chips and I would think everyone is familiar with those. While they can be tedious, they are amazingly effective. They pretty much go in to every fire at any time. Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle. For the smoker I’ll make a volcano at the edge of the mesquite fire and just let it slowly burn in to the hill of chips. As you can see, you really should have all kinds of woods on hand at all time, it’s necessary.
With all that in mind, a few looks through the black oak lump told me this would be great for direct grilling with plenty of heat. But I wasn’t sure how much flavor it would impart when used indirectly in a smoker. I’ve run 2 meals out of the grill with this wood, one direct and one indirect. I’ll get to the smoker this coming Friday and get back to you on this post with a notation. The direct grilling session was fabulous, damned if those little pieces of wood don’t put out some serious-ass heat. Perfect for putting a severe sear on anything, even watery vegetables. What surprised me though was the fact a stove full of Custom Charcoal’s coals, lasted between 3 and 4 hours of indirect grilling. I would note though, you may want to use a little less than I did or let the fire burn down. The fire was a little spicy and I had to cover the pork with bacon to continue on. Sure I should have pulled the meat, but I was on a fast track buddy and needed it at a certain time. Thank goodness for bacon.
To sum it all up, I like Custom Charcoal’s product just fine. I was hoping for larger pieces, but you get what you get when you’re dealing with a natural product. The cost of the charcoal is a little on the high side. But you’re paying for someone to watch each and every piece to make sure you get a quality product. Plus you’re not getting 20% + wood dust at the bottom of each box.
Thank you Custom Charcoal for a fine product.
Biggles
Doc,
When I was growing up we always grilled on raw (seasoned) wood — and no newspaper allowed either. You start with a twig tepee and build from there. Only takes one match if you’re good.
Hey Kevin,
I ain’t got that kind of time baby!
Better living through barbecue technology.
Ya know, there’s one thing I neglected to mention in my post. Last year I went on a BBQ Crawl with some local friends and found out that a few barbecue joints use green (unseasoned) white oak for cooking their meat. It sure does lend a different flavor to the smoked goods. It was months later when I took command of that 2100 pound rig that I realized that burning green wood is actually in the damned instructions!
How do you like them apples?
Biggles
Henge-Love,
I am so overjoyed to know that you are truly becoming “Dr. Science” of the outdoor cooking genre!
In reading your detailed report and follow through, even “I” could cook with those genuine bits of real wood! I bet I could, I could, I could!
Having personally tasted many of your deliciously smoked affairs that are juicy through and through, I would in any case defer to your procedures, rather than mine!
What are you planning for Thanksgiving????????
I think a blind taste test, is in order. Three like meat products, grilled by Oak,Apple,or Maple. I volunteer to be a judge.
Hey BB,
Uh, Thanksgiving is a bit far off for me. I do things one week at a time. Sorry!
Biggles
Hey Brown,
Gee, I never expected you to stand up and volunteer like that. Cheers to you!
Biggles
“What are you planning for Thanksgiving?”
OOH OOH!!!
I know the answer to that one.
Whiskey!
Other than the visual I have of the hair on your legs standing up..Yikes! A most excellent post.
Beautiful, mang. Lots of woody, smokey goodness.
Apple is a favorite wood of mine too, but I have a next door neighbor with a big pecan tree, and man does it rock with ribs and chicken. Bad ass stuff.
So Dr. B, What do you like, green wood-smoked or lump?
Dearest Dr B.
I just wanted to stop by and thank you publicly for ALL THE FANTASTIC HARD WORK YOU DID ON SATURDAY for the food bloggers picnic. And thanks for keeping my boy in Scotch. You are a star shining brighter than all other stars. I don’t think anyone quite apreciates all of the work you put in. The fact you made it all look so effortless hasn’t done much for your cause, everyone must imagine it was a breeze. But I know that it was tough, so please let me say thank you again and agian, thank you.
We all owe you – next time we’ll put a young person in charge. And we will bring the Scothch.
Cheers!
Love to your family – please thank them for letting you out of their site for the day, too.
sam
ps – you know i dont have anything to say about the BBQ stuff. I’ll leave that to the people who know what they are talking about,
Sam
Hey Sam,
Thank you so much for the kind words. You and Fred and everyone are most certainly welcome.
You bet it ws a lot of work, but I have to say the damned day came out so well.
I suppose I should have done a post about it, give people a place to talk about the day. I didn’t take any pictures and have been at home since last Friday. RELAXING. I don’t have a real computer here at home where I can sit down and compile my thoughts. So, I didn’t post. I’m such a naughty boy.
xo
Hey Dave,
Sorry for the delay in responding, it’s been insane around here and haven’t had the stremf to respond.
I know you’re going to hate me, but they’re both great when done correctly. But I think you’d need a commercial rig to get the green wood to combust correctly. That being those hugeass rigs like what I have at work, the J&R Manufacturing Little Red Smokehouse.
I think you and I are on the seasoned wood side.
Biggles
Hi there,
I’m looking to purchase some charcoal made by Wood. Could you please forward me the contact number so I can contact them.
Thanks in advance
Tammy