RAMBUTAN CHARCOAL

Extruded charcoal from the the Rambutan fruit tree is in the cooker today. Thaan brand, Thai style charcoal,  are small, tightly compressed logs, about four inches long that promises to burn consistently and persistently with little smoke and ash. These charcoals are sold out of Portland Oregon by the "Pok Pok" restaurant group.This sounded like a fun little experiment for the Mad Meat Genius test kitchen. I think it is time to fire up the grill.

The Thaan brand charcoal arrived in a neat and tidy five pound box. We will cook a 40 ounce aged USDA Choice rib-eye steak for testing purposes. Eight small charcoal logs (aprox 2 pds) were placed in a chimney starter. The charcoal logs have a hollow core that may or may not help in ignition. It turns out these little logs needed an exercise in patience to light. I had to use triple the amount of newspaper to start the logs. I even used a bellows to speed the process. It took a good half hour to light the charcoals. Once they were lit, we had a good consistent heat. The steak cooked as normal. When our steak was done we still had plenty of charcoal left with heat to spare.

Our steak was done to perfection. The Thaan charcoal did burn with little smoke and ash. Flare ups from dripping steak love were minimal. It took a good effort to light these charcoals. Once they were lit they performed decent enough. This was a fun and tasty experiment. Will Thaan brand Rambuten extruded charcoal be my new cooking fuel? I doubt it. The expense with shipping and handling plus the effort of lighting this charcoal just outweighed the benefit. The benefit being of little smoke, ash, longer cooking times and the Rambuten fruit tree are a renewable resource. Bring on the lighter fluid and cheap blue bag briquettes. (The last sentence was; "That's a joke son.")

COMPACT RAPIDFIRE CHIMNEY STARTER

It is not 'So Cute" according to Ms. Goofy. The 'Compact Rapidfire Chimney Starter is an important tool to quickly start charcoal briquettes. The smaller size makes it perfect for starting up the smoker. The image above compares it to its big brother the full size Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter. When using a smoker we burn the charcoals by the 'Minion Method". This tool holds the perfect amount of charcoal and is very efficient in its design. Click this sentence to learn all about the Minion Method. Now it is time to light the bbq.

CHARCOAL BONANZA

It is that time of year to stock up on charcoal briquettes for the BBQ season. Our local large chain home supply store always discounts charcoal for the Memorial Weekend. We take advantage of this charcoal bonanza. A double bag of Kingsford brand briquettes, 13.9 pounds, set us back $ 5.88. Last year the double bag was two 20 pound bags. It is still the best price of the year and we purchased 278 pounds of these compressed fuel rounds. Does that sound like a lot? Not really, because we love to barbeque. I hope it lasts to 2013.

LOOFTLIGHTER

Loofflighter, what is it? Is it a hair dryer on steroids or a great tool to start a barbeque fire? The Looftlighter is a product from Sweden that every barbeque freak must have. Well at least I wanted. This device is basically a hair dryer on steroids. Flip the switch and a super heated stream of air, 1256 degrees to be exact, will flow and ignite your fuel.No more waiting around for that old fashion chimney starter. This product is good for the planet because it will replace that stinky foul lighter fluid. (Mad Meat Genius has been lighter fluid free for years). Instant fire for the barbeque pit will be a joy. Let’s turn on the Looftlighter and get our fire on.


A small stack of charcoals briquettes will be our test fuel for today. Plug the Looftlighter in and hold the Looftlighter against the charcoal. Hold the switch on and within 30 seconds you will begin to see sparks. Back the device slightly away from the charcoals and the fire will spread. The image you see was taken 90 seconds from the start. For instant fire move to another spot and within minutes your charcoals will be lit. It was fast and clean. No more ashes blowing around from a chimney starter.

What a great new barbeque tool. We are still doing tests. We want to try this with mesquite charcoal and a wood fire in our fire place. This device is not portable unless you are near an electrical outlet. So far, we are very pleased. “He with the most barbeque tools wins”

Looftlighter

KINGSFORD CHALLENGE

Today we will have a taste test using two different Kingsford charcoal briquettes. We are comparing the Competition versus the Original brand charcoal. Two chickens seasoned only with salt and pepper will be baked in a kettle grill. They will be cooked exactly the same amount of time and with equal amounts of charcoal. Some maple cranberry bacon corn bread will be cooked in a Dutch oven using the Competition brand charcoal. Let’s recap the burn test and start cooking.

The Competition charcoal ignited very fast and spiked with heat. The Original charcoal took longer to light but eventually surpassed the Competition in heat and longevity. How will this play out in a controlled kettle cooker environment? Seventy five Original charcoals were lit in a chimney starter. It took approximately 20 minutes to achieve an ash over the coals. They were spread evenly over the floor of a Weber kettle. The chicken was sitting on a throne of a ‘Weber Poultry Roaster”. {The Weber Poultry Roaster is a must have item. You will never buy a store bought rotisserie chicken ever again after using one of these. It is so easy. Season the chicken; build a fire, one hour later you have one killer roasted bird.}. One hour later the chicken was cooked. The kettle was cooled and we repeated the process with the Competition charcoals. The Competition charcoals were ready to cook in only 13 minutes.

After one hour both chickens were properly cooked. The chicken cooked with the Original charcoal had a nice brown skin. The Competition bird was properly cooked but did not have the crisp brown skin that we crave. A thermometer showed that the Original charcoal held a pretty even heat of 375 degrees for the hour. The Competition spiked at 400 degrees but dropped fairly fast to about 360 degrees.

Original

Competition

Some corn bread was cooked in the Dutch Oven using the Competition charcoal I was a little concerned because towards the end the charcoal looked pretty spent. The cornbread only has a 40 minute cooking time. The cornbread was cooked properly but once again it did not have the browning effect that we crave.

Both the chickens and the cornbread were tasty. The Competition charcoal was an under achiever in my opinion. It lit fast and spiked in heat but did not come through in the home stretch. We would have had to use more Competition charcoal to achieve the same effect as the Original. I do not really see any advantage to using this charcoal. If I was using this in a Dutch oven competition I would have to adjust my fuel usage. One important question that was not addressed was price. I am not sure if this charcoal is priced higher than the original. If I have a choice, I will stick to the old faithful Kingsford Original Charcoal Briquets.

KINGSFORD COMPETITION BRIQUETS

‘Kingsford Competition’ charcoal briquets are a new companion product to the 'Kingsford Original', ‘Blue bag’ “K” charcoal. It is not really a new product. It has been out for over a year but this is the first time I have seen it offered in the Bay Area. We picked up a couple of bags at our local warehouse store. We are going to conduct an unscientific comparison of ‘Kingsford Competition’ v ‘Kingsford Original’. We will have a burn test to see how fast, hot and long they will burn. Next weekend we will conduct a taste test. Does one burn faster or hotter? Will we notice a difference in flavor? This should be interesting.

What is so different about the ‘Competition’ charcoal? The regular briquettes have had the same profile since 2006. This was supposed to be an improvement from the old Kingsford charcoal. These new charcoal had grooves stamped on the surface to improve air flow for lighting and burning. This year the regular briquettes have been changed slightly again. The grooves are deeper and longer. The ‘Competition’ briquettes are not supposed to replace the regular but are meant to be a companion. What does that mean? What is so different about the Competition? This is what ‘Kingsford has released about the ‘Competition’

Kinsford Competition Briquets

• "...high heat that's ready to cook on fast for grilling, searing or slow cooking."
• "Lasts The Same As A 15 lb Kingsford Original Bag"
• "...Kingsford's latest innovation."
• "These new briquets offer a unique combination of the high heat associated with lump charcoal and the consistent burn of briquets..."
• "100% All Natural"
• "High Heat"
• "Ready to Cook on Fast"
• "Kingsford Competition Briquets do burn hotter than Kingsford Original charcoal."
• "The Competition Briquets will be ready to cook on faster, so be ready to place your food on a little earlier than with Kingsford Original."

We weighed 8 briquettes of both brands. The Competition weighed out at 6 ounces. The Original was 2 ounces heavier at 8 ounces. The Competition briquettes were smooth and consistently shaped. The Original was rough and some briquettes were missing little chunks of material. The next step in our observation would be ignition of these 16 pillows of charcoal. We decided to soak a paper towel in lighter fluid and place at the bottom of the briquette stack. The only problem is I do not use lighter fluid. Luckily my neighbor loaned me some of his mesquite flavored lighter fluid. Every 15 minutes, I would point a laser thermometer at the middle of the stack and take a reading. Let’s step into the Ring of Fire, the Ring of Fire.



COMPETITION- TIME- REGULAR

800 degrees, 00:15 minutes, 512 degrees
910 degrees, 00 :30 minutes, 850 degrees
880 degrees, 00 :45 minutes, 820 degrees
690 degrees, 1:00 minutes, 780 degrees
606 degrees, 1:15 minutes, 650 degrees
510 degrees, 1:30 minutes, 550 degrees
400 degrees, 1:45 minutes, 500 degrees

Fifteen minutes passed and the Competition had a nice layer of ash and was already at 800 degrees while the Original was still igniting and only registered 512 degrees. The Regular caught up in the next 15 minutes. It then held and beat the competition for heat and longevity. One hour and forty five minutes I stopped taking measurements. The Competition looked pretty spent but was still putting off some heat. The Original looked like it had a way to go.



The Competition charcoal was ready to cook faster and had an initial higher heat. This might be good if you need to cook a steak fast. There are so many other questions that need to be answered. Do these charcoals give a different flavor to your protein? We will examine that in the next post. Will the competition charcoal give a consistent heat in a controlled air environment? (smoker or any cooker with air control). How about using them with a Dutch Oven? This weekend we will try to answer some of these questions. We are looking forward to the taste test. See y'all later!

Grill on the Go

Impulse shopping, we are all guilty as charged. The candy bars and celebrity gossip rags at the checkout counter are temptations hard to pass by. I usually control myself and resist the latest news about Britney Asparagus Spears. The chocolate bars are a little more difficult to pass by. Our local Mega-Food-Barn had a stack of "Grill On The Go's" stacked right next to the wall of chocolate treats. It is not fair to dangle the carrot in front of the Mad Meat Genius. I was driven/lead to part with my 6 dollars for you dear readers. This purchase is in the name of barbeque research.

Grill on the Go is packed in a neat and tidy food decorated box.The food that is pictured happens to be all vegetables. Where is the beef? There are three grills included in each box. That actually sounds like a good deal. Less than two dollars for a portable disposable source of charcoal heat. The box claims one hour of cooking time. They also say it is easy to use and will be ready to cook in just five minutes. There are a couple of other instruction, like do not pick up grill when lit and do not use indoors. That sounds like sound advise to me.

More packaging was removed to reveal a grill that had some lighter fluid drenched diaper on top of the coals.A match was lit and instantaneous human combustion occurred. Well actually it was just the grill. The box claimed 5 minutes until ready to use. I waited 10 minutes to be sure all the lighter fluid was burned off. Grill on the Go actually performed very well. We cooked some corn first and then followed with some burgers. The heat was hot and consistent. A wok lid was used to melt some cheese on our burgers. We had plenty of fuel left over after our meal were done.

Grill On the Go is an inexpensive, portable and disposable charcoal source. This would work great at a tailgate. I am even thinking of bringing it to work and cooking some burgers in the parking lot. That might not go over to well with the Salt Mine managers. I was not to keen on the lighter fluid soaked diaper. We did not taste any chemical flavor with these charcoal. If you happen to see a box at your local store, Go-for-it. The Mad Meat Genius gives Grill on The Go a thumbs up. Happy BBQ!

CHARCOAL (TRADER JOE'S)

Trader Joe's had a pallet of charcoal out in front of their store. It is a known fact that they place candy at the checkout lines to trigger impulse buying. Well I was driving buy and saw that pallet. The brakes were applied and an illegal U-turn steered me in the right direction. There was no impulse buying here. This purchase was in the interest of meat cooking science. This was my only purchase. An eighteen pound bag set me back 6.99 and 70 cents for our govenator.(Bastard, My wife, Ms. Goofy has taken a 15 percent pay cut to pay for Arnold's folly) Sorry!. Back on track to the barbeque.

We are going to conduct a similar unscientific experiment similar to the green heart charcoal experiment. We are going to light up 4 charcoals in a chimney starter at the same time. We will monitor the temperatures at thirty minute intervals.

The bag of charcoal has some vital information for the consumer. It is made of hard woods and cornstarch. The charcoal is made in Argentina and is a 100 percent natural product. I am feeling good already. The bag claims that the 18 pounds will last as long as a 30 pound bag of other charcoal. Wow that is a big claim. We shall see.

KINGSFORD & TRADER JOE'S

The first 30 minutes, the Kingsford has lit up faster. The Trader Joe's has not fully ignited. They were both started at the same time with a chimney starter and two wadded up newspapers. The initial reading by a fancy laser thermometer read 550 degrees for the Kingsford and 560 degrees for the not fully ignited Trader Joe's. Pretty darn close if you ask Mr. Green Jeans. After one hour the temperatures dropped to 420 for the Kingsford and 376 for the Trader Joe's. The Kingsford looked a little spent. I have 30 minutes to kill, so I think I will ask Ms. Goofy to go by the Beer Booth and bring me a cold one. That works at your house, does it not?

Fast forward an hour. I had to get my cold one by myself. The Kingsford is 3oo and exhausted. The Trader Joe's is 384 and going strong. What does this mean. Trader Joe's took a little longer to get started. It seems to be a good and long heat source. I will reserve my opinion till tomorrow when I do a taste test with barbequed pot roast.

COWBOY CHARCOAL

Cowboy Charcoal is a 100% natural product. 'Natural Product' is a buzz phrase that has marked countless number of products these days. Mesquite charcoal is the fuel of choice for most of my grilling. It is a natural product also. Kingsford charcoal has specific uses in the Chilebrown barbeque arsenal. Is this an unnatural product? I wonder. Today, 'Natural Product' is the hook that caught my eye in this charcoal purchase.

Cowboy Charcoal is manufactured in Albany Kentucky. They claim to be a state-of-the-art, environmentally compatible, wood retort plant. This company is run by the two Crace brothers; Sam and Don. The Crace family has made charcoal for over a 100 years. (Kingsford was not around till after 1920). Enough of the history lesson. Let's fire it up.

A chimney starter is always used at our house. A couple of newspapers is all it takes to get it started. This charcoal ignited fairly quickly. It took about 15 minutes to get the fire to temperature. Some broccoli and fresh shrimp was thrown together. This was the Chilebrown version of a recipe that was borrowed from Zoomie Station . This was a great recipe to get a taste of our charcoal.

The fire burned hot and fast. It behaved like natural charcoal should. It perfumed our food with a wonderful smoky flavor. I could not pinpoint any unique smoke flavors.(Example:Apple sweet). The broccoli and shrimp was done to perfection quickly with this fire. Cowboy Charcoal will work well when you need a hot fire for steaks and items that do not need long cooking times. The fire burned down at a brisk pace. The price of this charcoal was 7 dollars for a 8.8 pound bag at Trader Joe's. Will Cowboy Charcoal be purchased again? Possibly, if it was sold at a heavily discounted price. I am going to stick to my Mesquite and the unnatural Kingsford.

GREEN HEARTS

Today we are going to try to reduce my carbon foot print. This will be accomplished by trying a ‘Green’ charcoal. Green Hearts just so happens to make a charcoal that uses no fossil fuels. It is made from eucalyptus trees, a renewable resource. The first step is to procure the charcoal. The only place in the Bay Area that carries Green Heart

is Whole Foods. The closest one is 13 miles away in Berkeley.

It is time to fire up Black Bart. Black Bart is a very large truck. It stands 7 ½ feet tall and 21 feet long. Black Bart has special mufflers. These mufflers are very loud to warn all wildlife to not cross the road. Bart gets good gas mileage, down hill with the engine off. I can only do this late at night, because, when the engine is off the power steering locks up.

It is off to Berkeley, but first a stop at Starbucks. I bring a commuter cup to cut down on paper consumption. You have to remember to bring the cup into the store. No worries, I recycled the paper cup in the compost pile. At least it looked like a compost pile. There were a lot of cups and wrappers lying in a flower bed. Bart was doing well in the bumper to bumper traffic. We traveled the 12 miles in less than an hour. We went into Whole Foods and bought the charcoal. The trip home was a lot shorter. Thankfully I only had to stop for gas once.

Green hearts is made by the Soler Co. The eucalyptus for this charcoal is grown in Brazil on a plantation. They claim :{ When you grill on your barbecue with “Green Hearts” Briquettes, you generate carbon which is captured by the growing tree. The amount of Co2 emitted when you barbecue is equal to the Co2 absorbed by the planted trees that are used to produce “Green Hearts” BBQ Charcoal Briquettes. This is what we call the carbon neutral cycle.} They also say that their charcoal will burn hotter and longer than normal briquettes. We are going to attempt an unscientific experiment to back up this claim.
We are going to compare the heat level of 4 lit Green Heart charcoals versus the heat of 4 lit Kingsford charcoals. Both charcoals will be lit in separate chimney charcoal starters. The temperatures will be taken in 30 minute intervals with a laser thermometer. Finally some rib eye steaks will be grilled to see if there is a flavor profile. Gentlemen start your charcoals.

The first thing you notice about Green Hearts is its cute heart shape. I weighed 4 charcoals of each brand. They weighed 4 ounces each. We are on an equal playing field. The charcoals were pretty well lit around 930 am. The Kingsford was at 862 degrees versus the Green charcoal at 800 degrees. I do have to say that the Green charcoal was not fully lit. One half an hour later the Green charcoal had shot up to 850 degrees while the Kingsford had dropped to 775 degrees. Fast forward an hour 1100 am and the Green charcoal had dropped to 610 degrees and the Kingsford to 525 degrees. The Kingsford has a spike of heat. The Green Hearts definitely burns hotter and longer. I am not sure if this is such a victory. We will move on to the taste teste.

Eucalyptus wood is a hard wood. It burns hot and fast. If you have ever smelled a Eucalyptus tree it smells like cough syrup.. It has a property of not letting anything grow under its canopy of leaves. I am a little hesitant in trying this charcoal. I do not want to alter any taste of my premium steak.Here we go. We are using two Rib Eye Steaks with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. That is all the seasoning we need. The charcoal has burned down and we are cooking. 4 to 5 minutes on each side. We are looking for medium rare.

Beehive Mac & Cheese

The steaks turned out stellar. There was no eucalyptus hint of smoke What do I think of Green Hearts charcoal?

There was no hint of eucalyptus at all. I was a little worried. This charcoal burned hotter and longer than the National brand.. The cost was 9 dollars for 5 pounds of this special charcoal. Oh Wow, oh Wow!!!!!!.

Of course I want to save the planet. According to this bag of charcoal, I can slow down 'Global Warming" . I do not think I will be buying anymore bags of Green Hearts. There must be a better way to stop Global Warming.