Is reusing your old charcoal as good as new?

By now I’m sure that you know that you can reuse your used, unburned FOGO lump charcoal. If not, you can. The burning question (no pun intended) is to know if it is the same or are there any differences in the performance.  Is the lighting time the same? Does it light as easily? Does it burn as hot and long as new charcoal straight out of the bag. In our newest video here, we put it to the test. We filled ½ of a charcoal basket with new charcoal and the other side with some that had been previously burned. We lit both sides the same way and let them burn in a Big Green Egg. Let me tell you, the results utterly amazed me. I was really surprised with the results, and I think that you will be too. Head over to the link here and watch and see for yourself.


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4 comments

  • Fascinating results. I think that you should re-do the experiment with the old charcoal to the left ( closer to the bottom air vent )with the new on the right side.

    Mark Lueken
  • I’m also surprised but I typically add some new on top of old charcoal. I rarely have all new or all used. In 15-25 minutes my dome temp is typically pegged. It seems like it took yours over 30 min to get hot and 60 minutes to really get hot. So I am not sure this is reflective of cooking “effective heat”.

    Kevin
  • I really like your videos.

    Bob Gelb
  • How do you do a long cook @ say 350 degrees for say a turkey without running out of fuel?

    Chris

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