Restaurant lump low and slow on the OTP?

[tuck1]

Hi guys

First off, I need to say what a dangerous place to be this is! Since I joined, I've acquired a OTP 57cm, charcoal baskets, a chimney starter, a thermapen and my shed is clogged up with bags of Rectella's finest! My wallet is considerably lighter, and I've had enormous pleasure into the deal. So thank you to you all, both for the inspiration, and for steering me towards products that work, as I don't have much money to spend on failures.

Anyway, having recently done my first pork shoulder, (rubbed, 3 hours on the weber with Apple chips then into the oven all day as I had to go to work) I felt like I was cheating. I'd really like to have done it all on the weber but wasn't confident I could keep it going without fairly regular attention.

Had anyone had any success using lump for slow overnight or extended cooks on the OTP? If so, could you give me a pointer towards your method, vent settings etc, just to give me a basic idea. Snake, minion, something else? All suggestions gratefully received. I'm hoping you're not going to tell me it can only be done with briquettes, or not done at all....

[robgunby]

I don't have experience cooking with restaurant lump on an OTP but on a cheapo kettle, yeah. Good restaurant lump lasts for hours. Just do a basic minion method, then adjust your vents til you get a steady temperature. Each cooker, and indeed each cook, is different. Different pieces of lump in different configurations in the basket will burn differently, so it's just a case of fiddling until you get it dialed in.

I hate briquettes (bitter smoke and usually made of poor quality materials) and always use lump. Decent restaurant grade is by far the best for low and slow imo. I get mine from http://directcharcoal.co.uk/ as it's so damn cheap.

[slatts]

Hi Robgundy

The web site doesn't say how much it is or anything, could you give some idea of prices

Cheers

[tuck1]

Thanks for that. I was hoping it would be the case, particularly as this lump has got some monstrous pieces in there. If I could get upwards of 4 hrs before a refill I'd be pretty happy I guess.

[slatts]

hi

I was using the restaurant grade lumpwood from bookers which had some giant chunks in it and got a few 4-5hr cooks out of it.
I ran out one day and as there was a crash on the M25 near Watford and the traffic was diverted down the A414, my route to Watford so I went to my local weber centre and grabbed a bag of their long burning briquettes(white bag), full basket with a full chimney starter on top and my PRO Q Frontier went all night at roughly 250f, very happy with it but leaves a yellow ash in the bottom. Had no complaints about my food though and ive not noticed any difference.

Worth a try for a long cook overnight and I also believe Toby sells the Aussie heatbeads but I have not experience of these, there is some good reviews on here about them somewhere.

[tuck1]

I wonder if I find some nice long pieces and lay them not in the snake style, it might do the trick. Worth a go I reckon. I don't really want to use briquettes at this point, although they are probably more suited, I just fancy mastering the lump if it can be done. Maybe cos I bought two bags...

[robgunby]

Hi Robgundy

The web site doesn't say how much it is or anything, could you give some idea of prices

Cheers

Sorry slatts I did mean to say in my post. I pay £7 for a 12 kg bag of restaurant but I'm not sure what their delivery charges are like. Presumably it is cheaper to buy in bulk, which would make sense if you are distance buying anyway.

I can testify that their restaurant grade is great stuff, longest hottest burn I've ever got. Sure, you get some little pieces, but many of them are about the size of a baby's head.

[robgunby]

Thanks for that. I was hoping it would be the case, particularly as this lump has got some monstrous pieces in there. If I could get upwards of 4 hrs before a refill I'd be pretty happy I guess.

I lit a half chimney of my restaurant lump to use as a slow burning brazier fire yesterday while I was cold smoking (just to keep me warm). It burnt for 8 hours.