Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal

Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal

Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal contains chunks of kiln-fired Pecan, Hickory and Oak trees harvested from Central Missouri hardwood forests.
 
Why cook with Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal?
 It's fast.

Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal lights in half the time of ordinary briquettes. It's only 10 minutes from lighting to 900-degree cooking.

 It tastes great.

Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal burns hotter and drier, caramelizing the natural sugars in food and sealing in flavor and moisture.

 It's healthful for you and the environment.

Compare the difference:
Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal Composition: 100% natural Pecan Hickory and Oak charcoal for pure wood-grilled flavor.
Briquettes Composition: semi-anthracite coal with sulfur, lignite, sodium nitrate, limestone, borax, charred sawdust, petroleum binder/starch binder.
Other brands - hardwood lump charcoal   Composition: pallets, slabwood, flooring, furniture remnants, softwoods, or construction material ... easily identified by flat or squared wood.

Good-One Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal burns cleaner with 250 times less sulphur dioxide and 3 times less nitrogen oxide than composition briquettes.

Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal

Frequently Asked Questions

1.  What is charcoal? -- In general, wood charcoal is a substance obtained by partial burning or destructive distillation of wood. It is largely pure carbon. Wood charcoal is prepared by heating wood in the absence of oxygen. In this process volatile compounds in the wood (e.g., water, hydrogen, methane and tars) pass off as vapors into the air, and the carbon is converted into charcoal. (Tar is a generic name for big, smoky, sticky molecules that form liquids when they're cool. The tars, in particular, can contain carcinogenic compounds, like benzo-A-pyrene.) With the volatile component driven off, you are left with wood charcoal that is about 20 to 25-percent of the original volume of the wood. It's chiefly carbon, with traces of volatile chemicals and ash. When it burns, it won't produce as much smoke as burning wood, and it will burn long, hot and steady. Charcoal, being almost pure carbon, yields a larger amount of heat in proportion to its volume than is obtained from a corresponding quantity of wood.
2. What forms does charcoal come in? -- As far as cooking is concerned, there are two main forms, lump charcoal and briquettes. Lump charcoal is charcoal which has not been formed into briquettes. Briquettes are the pillow shaped little pieces of compressed ground charcoal.
3. Which is better, lump or briquettes? -- Well, this FAQ is about lump charcoal, so we aren't going to wax eloquent about briquettes. But admit it. You really want to know what is in Kingsford briquettes, don't you? Well, according to Kingsford, here is what is in their briquettes and what each ingredient is used for: wood char (heat source), mineral char (heat source), mineral carbon (heat source), limestone (uniform visual ashing), starch (binder), borax (press release), sodium nitrate (ignition aid), sawdust (ignition aid). If you hang out on any of the barbecue forums on the internet, you will find lots of folks complaining about the borax and coal and limestone. You don't often hear of people complaining about the mineral char. What is mineral char? "A soft, brownish-black coal in which the alteration of vegetable matter has proceeded further than in peat but not as far as in bituminous coal.

Lump charcoal burns hotter and faster than briquettes, if given an unlimited air supply. If you can control the air flow through your cooker, lump will burn at whatever rate and temperature that you allow it to. If you can't control the air flow in your cooker, then you may need to use the slower-burning briquettes in order to keep temperature under control.

4. What types of lump charcoal are there? -- Basically, you will find three types of wood used to make lump charcoal: kiln dried lumber scraps, saw mill scraps, and pieces of wood not sawn or processed, such as limbs. I'll call this "natural" wood, for lack of a better term.
5. Which type of lump charcoal is best? -- I would place limbs/natural wood and saw mill scraps in the same category. They are both unprocessed wood. Flooring/molding scraps, of course, have the risk of having varnished scraps, but I've not found this. However, flooring scraps are made from kiln dried wood and seems to have less smokiness which some folks consider to be a plus. The flooring scrap tends to be less dense and thus doesn't last as long. Some have reported that it also tends to break up more easily and thus you end up with more chips/dust than with natural wood lumps. The decision to use flooring scrap or natural wood is probably one you have to make for yourself.
6. How do they make lump charcoal? -- Lump charcoal is made by taking wood, usually limbs, branches, slabs from lumber mills, scraps from milling operations, etc. and heating this wood in a closed container in the absence of oxygen.
7. What about funny stuff being found in lump charcoal? -- Since making lump charcoal is often done under somewhat crude conditions, it is normal to find a few rocks or pebbles in lump charcoal. However, a few other oddball items have been found like a mouse, human hair, a tootsie roll wrapper, varnished wood, and black shiny objects commonly referred to as moon rocks. Personally, in over two years and hundreds of pounds of lump charcoal, I've found 3 rocks and a tootsie roll wrapper. It shouldn't be a great concern.
8. How should I start lump charcoal? -- Don't use starter fluid. Why? It isn't cool. It pollutes the air and is banned in some localities. If you don't allow it all to burn off, it will flavor your food. And, because you don't have to. There are many other ways to start lump charcoal. You can use Chimney starters,  fireplace starter blocks. Weber starter cubes. The green gel  (an alcohol gel made from starch). Electric starters. Propane sticks. Weed burners. 
9. What is the shelf life of lump charcoal? -- If you keep it stored in a dry location, the shelf life of charcoal should be indefinite.
10. Why are some bags full of chips and dust? -- There are several theories regarding why some brands or even individual bags of lump charcoal contain a lot of chips and dust, while others do not. The most prevalent theory you will hear is the gorilla theory. Supposedly overly-muscled and underly-brained gorilla types  are the only persons allowed to handle charcoal  and they purposely toss the charcoal around at specified intervals, stomp on it with large hob-nailed boots at specified intervals, and just in general abuse the bags of charcoal. So, what left the manufacturer as pristine 100% whole pieces of lovely charcoal is pulverized into chips and dust by these goons. Well, ok, I sort of exaggerated the theory. But you get the idea, right?
11. Can I use lump charcoal that has gotten wet? -- We have never gotten any lump charcoal wet, so we don't speak from first hand experience, but we have read several sources that say if you lay it out in the sun in a thin layer, it will dry out and can be used.

the manufacturer bagged a lousy bag of charcoal. Either they fail to