What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produces?

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Peat56
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Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 7:06 pm

What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produces?

Post by Peat56 »

What I am asking is, what smells the best? What drives you and your neighbors crazy - in a good way. So its not so much about the final product or the best food but rather what smells best in the cooking process.

For me:

Whole turkey, cajun style injected with cajun spice - awesome, could smell it a block away

Port is always great, like a good pork but

Can't beat a brisket!

Finally, burgers on the grill are awesome because they cover a lot t area on the grill itself and that contact produces a great aroma
chef97
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by chef97 »

I like your Cajun spice and injection method and that flavor profile goes great w/ chicken, pork & seafood too... I like St Louis style spare ribs w/ this dry rub recipe and they smell awesome while cooking on your grill.... http://www.the13thround.com/phpBB2/view ... 73&t=80638
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CageyVeteran
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by CageyVeteran »

I like it when I cook spare ribs. I don't know why but the smell drives me crazy. I've done baby backs, and that doesn't get the same results.

Brisket, for some reason doesn't smell at all to me until I take it off the grill. My brother and sister say it smells good while I cook but for some reason I can't smell a thing.
Same with pork shoulder, I like picnic ham over boston butt because it's cheaper and tastes better to me, but I don't smell a thing until I start cutting.

But spare ribs, that's my jam. Also, chicken but I rarely do chicken.
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by CageyVeteran »

I saw an old episode of Good Eats and Alton Brown was going over grills. He said he preferred lump coal because charcoal had additives in it.

Does anyone do a long cook on a grill and feed their fire with unlit charcoal? I've done that many times, I've seen televised cooking shows and some "pit masters" do it, others do something called a minion method or snake method, I've seen plenty of videos on youtube about it.

Now, I'm paranoid. I switched to lump coal because the bag was cheaper than buying 2 bags of charcoal which I normally do. The lump coal lit faster, but it didn't really smell like it used to. Taste was a less smokey but I didn't drop in seasoned/cured wood I normally do.

I did a mini-web search to see if it's safe and so far a lot of people are saying it's ok.
chef97
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by chef97 »

CageyVeteran wrote:I saw an old episode of Good Eats and Alton Brown was going over grills. He said he preferred lump coal because charcoal had additives in it.

Does anyone do a long cook on a grill and feed their fire with unlit charcoal? I've done that many times, I've seen televised cooking shows and some "pit masters" do it, others do something called a minion method or snake method, I've seen plenty of videos on youtube about it.

Now, I'm paranoid. I switched to lump coal because the bag was cheaper than buying 2 bags of charcoal which I normally do. The lump coal lit faster, but it didn't really smell like it used to. Taste was a less smokey but I didn't drop in seasoned/cured wood I normally do.

I did a mini-web search to see if it's safe and so far a lot of people are saying it's ok.
Wow, that's some good info as I have a small smoker and I've been using charcoal... Anyways, I have a cook book by the American cancer society and it has a page on charcoal grill cooking. It says to be sure that your coals are completely white before cooking. Because if you cook on the coals before they are ready and you're cooking steak, the fat drips onto the coals and these flair ups can deposit these priolated hydro carbons onto your steak which have the equivalent of the carcinogens in 600 cigarettes...
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Primetyme199
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by Primetyme199 »

Never really used charcoal. I have a gas grill and wood for my smoker.
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chef97
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Re: What are the best smells that your charcoal grill produc

Post by chef97 »

Primetyme199 wrote:Never really used charcoal. I have a gas grill and wood for my smoker.
I have a gas grill too and one of the main reasons I like to grill on it is once you ignite it you're ready to cook in 5-10 minutes.... :D
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