Charcoal Lumps - ProQ Frontier

[Scotty]

Afternoon, I'm using the Blue Restaurant grade charcoal in my ProQ Frontier and was wondering if people break up the larger pieces or keep them as they are ? Just wondering if it effects smoking times and temps ? Many thanks

[Smokin Monkey]

Hi Scotty, welcome to the Forum.

unless they are huge chunks, I would leave them as they are.

[Scotty]

Thanks, just making sure I wasn't wasting space in the fuel grate 

 

[rawce]

I would recommend the ProQ coco briquettes they do. They can stack neatly so you can Minion it. As they take ages to kick off, I use blue bag charcoal in the chimney starter to get the cubes going. Last cook of 2020 and I did a double ring, 2 high stack lit in the centre and didn’t need to top up in a 6 hour cook, plus there was enough left for a couple of hours of fire pit to social distancely invite the neighbours round in the garden.

[Wade]

Great photos 

I see that you are only using them one block deep. If you are finding it difficult to get the smoker up to temperature add a second layer in the inner ring. This will give the smoker an extra heat boost at the beginning. Don't worry about wasting briquettes as when you finish the cook just close both the top and bottom vents and that will extinguish the briquettes. When cold, shake off any excess ash and re-use them for the next cook.

[rawce]

Pretty sure they are two high, just the photo doesn’t show it clearly. I have done one shorter ribs cook with a double high inner and single high outer ring which seemed to last fine for the 6 hours of a 3-2-1.