The Texas BBQ Forum

im practicing cooking with roaring lump for the ultimate clean smoke and surprisingly enough my wife tells me she liked the food better.

has anyone else experimented with just lump charcoal?

Coopers BBQ in Llano smokes their meat exactly how you describe, using Mesquite. It's on my bucket list. I've tried using lump charcoal from the store but I didn't get much flavor at all. Coopers burns their wood to coals and uses the hot coals. I don't know but maybe that method provides better smoke than using the lump charcoal from the store. Interested to hear what others have to say....

I've never tried in in my offset, but I do it all the time in my ceramic. I use Royal Oak lump, and it produces some really great Q. Low and slow, grilling, pizza, all with great results.

tri3forme wrote:Coopers BBQ in Llano smokes their meat exactly how you describe, using Mesquite.

Ah YES, Cooper's BBQ - one of my favorite stops when I Deer hunted in the Hill Country. For some reason my PU would NOT PASS IT without pulling in for some Reebz and Beans I've sold that PU and stopped Bambi bustin but I'm wondering if my RAV 4 could even drive by it now? I know for certain that I'd have to wear a gas mask from a mile on both sides of Llano.

That Cooper method is the old fashioned "normal" way to make real barbecue. I think most serious barbecue sellers do it that way, with the meat directly over the coals. It takes a good bit more tending, but sure turns out some good eating.

Been a few years since I’ve been but Ronnie’s in Johnson City cooked that way and it was good stuff.


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Depends on the cooker, you can probably get a way with it on a ceramic like stated above, but on a cooker with more airflow you may be missing a bit of smoke flavor IMO. Try it.. you never know.

I am still considering building a stone fire box near my smoker, so I can load straight coals in my smoker.

I typically have success with the wood I use, but recently ruined a 20 pound batch of jerky with bad smoke.

Swamp Donkeyz BBQ wrote:I've never tried in in my offset, but I do it all the time in my ceramic. I use Royal Oak lump, and it produces some really great Q. Low and slow, grilling, pizza, all with great results.

Truth written in stone ^^^^

I can't add anything here.