@@Yakitoriguy Have you tested Jealous Devil Hex charcoal to see how it compares to binchotan? Their lump charcoal burns really clean and I've always had good results with BBQ and other grilling.
Totally get it, as the charcoal in this case just not controllable, but the price ratio is just unbeatable, 8 dollar bag compare to 250. I think I stick with the electric one, less flavor than the binchotan but save a lot of money there
Ogatan which ( I've talked about in other videos like the Thaan video) can be found through Japanese food distributors are about 20-30 dollars for a 20 lbs box is a really great pricepoint alternative to Binchotan. Similar heat, smoke, flavor characteristics. Hopefully I can do a dedicated video on that soon.
Many thanks for an excellent teaching moment. What do you think about a ribbed grill pan on the stove top? Dry pan with no oil to avoid "fried chicken" result.
While those ribbed features can add the dark char marks to make it look like meat is "grilled" its technically the same heating method as cooking meat on a pan/skillet which means heat is directly transferred by conduction. For Yakitori ideally you want that radiation heat which the outdoor charcoal or gas grill can provide, along with the electric coil grills like the Livart one I use in my other tutorials. However if that's all you have access to for now, definitely practice all the cutting, skewering and cooking on that as you will still be able to learn lots and transfer those skills once you get a grill. Hope that helps.
Haven't seen it/tried it but sounds like it'll be the same/similar characteristics you will see when cooking with lump where it's closer to cooking with wood on fire so you get all the wood smoke flavors you want to avoid with Yakitori. Definitely recommend the charcoals that's marketed as "smokeless/odorless".
There isn't a right temp for Yakitori. Mine can range from 500 degrees to 1200 depending on the type of grill I'm using or the cycle of the charcoal and shops all have different preference for cooking temps but will generally be at the higher range. The cooking technique/method and flipping timings all can change with the temp. In terms of burning skewers. No soaking skewers for Yakitori. Assuming you're talking about the handles burning off in a large grill like the Webber, just put a sheet of foil under where the handles are to block the heat. Also like I show in the other vids, do everything you can to avoid flareups, it's the usually the flames that burns through the skewers.
When you use the butane burner to light your charcoal do you leave it on there on high for the whole time? For example would you leave your binchotan on there for 30 minutes? Have you had any problems with the heat and the butane canister being right next to the chimney like that?
With my stove I have it at medium to hot but every stove can be different. You also need to be careful about lighting up binchotan too fast or it may explode. Check out my other charcoal videos on timing for each charcoal, but yes it does get hot so it's I'd say always be extra alert/careful when working with charcoal and equipment. Hard to say more than that because every charcoal or stove/equipment can be different.
no reason to do that. you only need a few minutes of live flames under the chimney to light the bottom briquettes. once those are done, they'll progressively light the upper layers. adding continuous heat below doesnt do much more.
@@mothaybabonnam5632 Just for clarification to this thread. That's correct for briquettes and lump as they light up easier. But OP did mention Binchotan where you do need it heated over the flame source for longer until it can get to that self sustained heated point.
I gave it a shot tonight with some thaan charcoal and just using a chimney with some fire starters underneath. Charcoal lit fine but I had lots of issues with flame ups. Looking at some of your other videos you mention that you need to layer your charcoal to minimize flare ups, I didn't. So maybe that was why I was having problems. Hopefully I'll have better luck next time! :)
@@vanjames1984 This is just through pure observation but I found that the more white "ash" i have at the bottom and on the charcoal, the more flare ups, so I usually keep fanning the charcoal to keep it free of ash
Hi Yakitoriguy, I noticed that you cooked on the briquettes an hour after the heat died down. It’s a shame you didn’t try normal meats at that stage. Here is my thought: As you mentioned at the start of the video, briquettes contain saw dust, binders and other additives. I suspect these additives would be high in "non-carbon" material. Could it be possible that this non-carbon material be absorbing this near Infrared heat we desire. Conversely pure carbon is as close to a "black body" as possible would radiate infrared heat well. The same way binchotan is made by heating the raw material to high temperatures and burning off impurities, could it be possible that we use briquettes in the same way and cook only once the briquettes have burned off the impurities? While there may be less heat, the “quality” of the heat might be better. However more briquettes could be added at the start to compensate. I could be wrong in my assumptions though and that the additives doesn’t really combust or go away like ash, or that when the binders burn up the fuel disintegrates.
Still learning through experiments but I would assume with the small sawdust burning within, it's essentially cooking more via fire so convection heat cooking the meat from outside in like when cooking on a gas grill. Where as with concentrated charcoal like binchotan, you're getting less flames and more infrared heat from the orange glowing coal cooking it inside out.
@@Yakitoriguy Infrared heat cooks outside in from the surface, but convection could be the issue. As your meat cooks at high heat, there are several processes that work to produce water. This water in larger pieces of meat can result in what is called a "stall", where the water transferring from within and then evaporating off the meat helps to keep it cool internally (as converting water to steam absorbs a lot of heat). With yakitori, the cuts are too small to observe a stall, but it's not immune to the consequences of convection cooking, so the greater the amount of convection, the greater the moisture loss. Less moisture, the firmer the muscle fibers are going to be when cooked.
@@CH-eb2ny Thanks for the observation and input! I'm definitely still learning but from what I can tell, convection based heat whether from fire burning gas or fire burning charcoal (lump, kingsford) VS electric coils or the orange glowing charcoal is definitely the cause of more dry feeling Yakitori. And at this point I'm pretty convinced Binchotan/Ogatan and Electric provides the best textures and juiciness for Yakitori. Will continue on with my research and experimentations.
@@Yakitoriguy It makes sense, but how to test it and make interesting content? Here's my proposal for the potato proxy method should you wish to try it: - Idea #1: Potato isn't meat, so it's not going to cook like meat, but it does cook differently under convective vs. radiant cooking. Assuming moisture loss is greater with convective cooking, cut identical cubes or bars of potatoes, weigh them before and after cooking, and the difference in weight should primarily be a measure of moisture loss. More moisture loss, more convective cooking presumably. The key difficulties with this is probably finding the right sample size and ensuring similar heat transfer / cooking times between different setups. Obviously, initial and target temp should be the same across all samples for a meaningful comparison. - Idea #2: Potato again, cubed or bars, but this time wrapped in foil. Foil will prevent moisture loss, but also it reflects radiant heat while being a conductor of convective heat. As such cooking time may give a reflection of whether there is more convective or radiant heat. Not sure if either method will work (let's face it, I'm proposing ad hoc kitchen science at best), but if one does work cool, and if not well... add salt and pepper and enjoy some tasty failures.;) On a sidenote, lump charcoal can really vary in consistency between different brands, so some may perform much better than others, if not exactly Binchotan-level performance: ua-cam.com/video/XsxSckW7_wY/v-deo.html
have you ever tried using a base of binchotan but adding some other types of hard wood on top such as apple wood for example, just a few pieces to maybe add a different dimension of flavour?
I actually like to do based Ogatan as it lays down evenly and stays lit evenly and put Binchotan on top. In regards to wood flavors, I would say it's not traditionally favored for Yakitori as it hides the flavors of chicken and the smoke made from the vaporized chicken drippings. Some shops may play around with quick hay/straw smoke to flavor one particular skewer. Unlike burning wood/lump charcoal the hay burns off quickly in the grill so it won't cause the whole grill/meal to have that taste.
It definitely is. Check out this video on a portable but similar cooking surface for tips on how to do it on the Weber grill: ua-cam.com/video/x58NppM6xS8/v-deo.html
Yea this goes with even non yakitori grilling, but lighter fluid definitely adds noticeable taste/smell to your food so don't use that for Yakitori. Just use a chimney to light up your charcoal.
How can I tell if it is genuine binchotan because when I look on amazon uk it advertises it as binchotan but I don't know how to tell if its real or not.
Kingsford burns more than well enough if grill is suitably vented. Because of the briquette size its my preferred (Weber Go-Anywhere) BBQ charcoal coz it always burns long enough without me having to extinquish the charcoal once cooking is done. If you ain't gettin' the heat wanted - improve airflow.
Jealous devil Onyx puts out some good heat, but the chunks that come in the box are very inconsistent. Some are huge pieces and others are quite small. I think overall though, it's better than standard lump charcoal and far better than standard briquette.
@@Chanko2397 I tried both. Onyx does not last as long as other BinchoTan products, very inconsistent, I give up on it and wont be buying anymore. JD Briquets I actually loved though. less foul initial burnoff to go thru, long lasting, consistent, only knock is they are quite expensive compared to other briquettes.
@@boohoohoohoo Interesting. I haven't tried JD briquets yet. I'll have to do that. JD Onyx, for the price, outperformed the Ogatan I was using before, so it's been my go to so far for daily grill sessions, but I'll get a box of JD briquets and compare.
The one advantage to briquettes is that they are cheap and easy to light, which means that you can use a few of them as base in your chimney starter to get more difficult charcoal going, then ditch them in your fire pit.
That's definitely a way to get it going. However I have found that you still get slightly woodsy smoke notes leftover. Not as strong as let's say using lighter fluid to start it up, but still noticeable if you're using binchotan/ogatan and wanting to avoid wood smoke flavors or smell. Still testing out new things so will definitely be making updated videos.
@@Yakitoriguy Good point. I haven't used this method with binchotan, but rather some good quality lump charcoal being a PITA to light on a windy day. I'd wonder though if you'd have the same problems with using lump charcoal as a base, provided it isn't windy of course.
I wonder what 'tier' yakitori skewer it will be using briquettes. I heard coconut briquettes are the best kind of all briquettes. Low tier: skewers on electric grill Mid tier: skewers on lump charcoal High tier: skewers on binchotan/thaan charcoal + cooking with steel rods(God tier)
@@chuk90 coconut is a good source of low ash material and is the predominate source material for activated charcoal. So far as briquettes go, I'd expect it to perform similar to ogatan, but not as good as binchotan. Binchotan can reach higher levels of carbon purity than ogatan, which might reflect a need to preserve some of the binding agent (e.g., lignin) in the briquette. I don't recall Yakitoryguy doing a review of Japanese ogatan briquettes, but he does have a review of thaan charcoal, which is a Thai ogatan-style charcoal made from hardwood: ua-cam.com/video/c-8ismTIudU/v-deo.html
@@CH-eb2ny I wonder if this coconut briquettes brand 'Ecobrasa' is as close as the binchotan. It's much cheaper than binchotan, Odorless, produces almost no smoke, longer durable heat compare to most brands, and no unexpected flames will come up even if fat drips on. ua-cam.com/video/_QzCYYJP0FU/v-deo.html
I will try out binchotan charcoal one day, after I mastered the other skills. For now I will go for coconut briquettes as the price of binchotan is too ridiculously high. hmm, might be even higher in the future as supply can't compete with the demand anymore :(
Thanks for taking one for the team haha, Ill stick with my natural lump for now until binchotan becomes more available around me
Here for the Yakigang team!
@@Yakitoriguy Have you tested Jealous Devil Hex charcoal to see how it compares to binchotan? Their lump charcoal burns really clean and I've always had good results with BBQ and other grilling.
Totally get it, as the charcoal in this case just not controllable, but the price ratio is just unbeatable, 8 dollar bag compare to 250. I think I stick with the electric one, less flavor than the binchotan but save a lot of money there
Ogatan which ( I've talked about in other videos like the Thaan video) can be found through Japanese food distributors are about 20-30 dollars for a 20 lbs box is a really great pricepoint alternative to Binchotan. Similar heat, smoke, flavor characteristics. Hopefully I can do a dedicated video on that soon.
Many thanks for an excellent teaching moment. What do you think about a ribbed grill pan on the stove top? Dry pan with no oil to avoid "fried chicken" result.
While those ribbed features can add the dark char marks to make it look like meat is "grilled" its technically the same heating method as cooking meat on a pan/skillet which means heat is directly transferred by conduction. For Yakitori ideally you want that radiation heat which the outdoor charcoal or gas grill can provide, along with the electric coil grills like the Livart one I use in my other tutorials. However if that's all you have access to for now, definitely practice all the cutting, skewering and cooking on that as you will still be able to learn lots and transfer those skills once you get a grill. Hope that helps.
Is it good to pre boil your protein before grilling to cut yakitori time?
Wondering if you can use the Kingsford "wood" charcoal? great job with the videos!
Haven't seen it/tried it but sounds like it'll be the same/similar characteristics you will see when cooking with lump where it's closer to cooking with wood on fire so you get all the wood smoke flavors you want to avoid with Yakitori. Definitely recommend the charcoals that's marketed as "smokeless/odorless".
What temperature do you add the skewers on? I soak my bamboo skewers for hours but some will still burn and break Love your videos!
There isn't a right temp for Yakitori. Mine can range from 500 degrees to 1200 depending on the type of grill I'm using or the cycle of the charcoal and shops all have different preference for cooking temps but will generally be at the higher range. The cooking technique/method and flipping timings all can change with the temp. In terms of burning skewers. No soaking skewers for Yakitori. Assuming you're talking about the handles burning off in a large grill like the Webber, just put a sheet of foil under where the handles are to block the heat. Also like I show in the other vids, do everything you can to avoid flareups, it's the usually the flames that burns through the skewers.
@@Yakitoriguy I’ve got a Yak Grill with the rods but I understand what you’re saying with the temperature. 👍
Thank you for sharing your experiment with us!
When you use the butane burner to light your charcoal do you leave it on there on high for the whole time? For example would you leave your binchotan on there for 30 minutes? Have you had any problems with the heat and the butane canister being right next to the chimney like that?
With my stove I have it at medium to hot but every stove can be different. You also need to be careful about lighting up binchotan too fast or it may explode. Check out my other charcoal videos on timing for each charcoal, but yes it does get hot so it's I'd say always be extra alert/careful when working with charcoal and equipment. Hard to say more than that because every charcoal or stove/equipment can be different.
no reason to do that. you only need a few minutes of live flames under the chimney to light the bottom briquettes. once those are done, they'll progressively light the upper layers. adding continuous heat below doesnt do much more.
@@mothaybabonnam5632 Just for clarification to this thread. That's correct for briquettes and lump as they light up easier. But OP did mention Binchotan where you do need it heated over the flame source for longer until it can get to that self sustained heated point.
I gave it a shot tonight with some thaan charcoal and just using a chimney with some fire starters underneath. Charcoal lit fine but I had lots of issues with flame ups. Looking at some of your other videos you mention that you need to layer your charcoal to minimize flare ups, I didn't. So maybe that was why I was having problems. Hopefully I'll have better luck next time! :)
@@vanjames1984 This is just through pure observation but I found that the more white "ash" i have at the bottom and on the charcoal, the more flare ups, so I usually keep fanning the charcoal to keep it free of ash
I had some left over nagima. What are the way to reheat it but not drying out the meat?
The oven works, but can dry it out. Microwave with a wet paper towel over is another alternative.
Hi Yakitoriguy, I noticed that you cooked on the briquettes an hour after the heat died down. It’s a shame you didn’t try normal meats at that stage. Here is my thought:
As you mentioned at the start of the video, briquettes contain saw dust, binders and other additives. I suspect these additives would be high in "non-carbon" material. Could it be possible that this non-carbon material be absorbing this near Infrared heat we desire. Conversely pure carbon is as close to a "black body" as possible would radiate infrared heat well.
The same way binchotan is made by heating the raw material to high temperatures and burning off impurities, could it be possible that we use briquettes in the same way and cook only once the briquettes have burned off the impurities? While there may be less heat, the “quality” of the heat might be better. However more briquettes could be added at the start to compensate. I could be wrong in my assumptions though and that the additives doesn’t really combust or go away like ash, or that when the binders burn up the fuel disintegrates.
Do you have any insight as to why the briquettes don't produce a fluffy texture?
Still learning through experiments but I would assume with the small sawdust burning within, it's essentially cooking more via fire so convection heat cooking the meat from outside in like when cooking on a gas grill. Where as with concentrated charcoal like binchotan, you're getting less flames and more infrared heat from the orange glowing coal cooking it inside out.
@@Yakitoriguy Infrared heat cooks outside in from the surface, but convection could be the issue. As your meat cooks at high heat, there are several processes that work to produce water. This water in larger pieces of meat can result in what is called a "stall", where the water transferring from within and then evaporating off the meat helps to keep it cool internally (as converting water to steam absorbs a lot of heat). With yakitori, the cuts are too small to observe a stall, but it's not immune to the consequences of convection cooking, so the greater the amount of convection, the greater the moisture loss. Less moisture, the firmer the muscle fibers are going to be when cooked.
@@CH-eb2ny you are brilliant!♡ this is a fabulous explanation
@@CH-eb2ny Thanks for the observation and input! I'm definitely still learning but from what I can tell, convection based heat whether from fire burning gas or fire burning charcoal (lump, kingsford) VS electric coils or the orange glowing charcoal is definitely the cause of more dry feeling Yakitori. And at this point I'm pretty convinced Binchotan/Ogatan and Electric provides the best textures and juiciness for Yakitori. Will continue on with my research and experimentations.
@@Yakitoriguy It makes sense, but how to test it and make interesting content? Here's my proposal for the potato proxy method should you wish to try it:
- Idea #1: Potato isn't meat, so it's not going to cook like meat, but it does cook differently under convective vs. radiant cooking. Assuming moisture loss is greater with convective cooking, cut identical cubes or bars of potatoes, weigh them before and after cooking, and the difference in weight should primarily be a measure of moisture loss. More moisture loss, more convective cooking presumably. The key difficulties with this is probably finding the right sample size and ensuring similar heat transfer / cooking times between different setups. Obviously, initial and target temp should be the same across all samples for a meaningful comparison.
- Idea #2: Potato again, cubed or bars, but this time wrapped in foil. Foil will prevent moisture loss, but also it reflects radiant heat while being a conductor of convective heat. As such cooking time may give a reflection of whether there is more convective or radiant heat.
Not sure if either method will work (let's face it, I'm proposing ad hoc kitchen science at best), but if one does work cool, and if not well... add salt and pepper and enjoy some tasty failures.;)
On a sidenote, lump charcoal can really vary in consistency between different brands, so some may perform much better than others, if not exactly Binchotan-level performance:
ua-cam.com/video/XsxSckW7_wY/v-deo.html
have you ever tried using a base of binchotan but adding some other types of hard wood on top such as apple wood for example, just a few pieces to maybe add a different dimension of flavour?
I actually like to do based Ogatan as it lays down evenly and stays lit evenly and put Binchotan on top. In regards to wood flavors, I would say it's not traditionally favored for Yakitori as it hides the flavors of chicken and the smoke made from the vaporized chicken drippings. Some shops may play around with quick hay/straw smoke to flavor one particular skewer. Unlike burning wood/lump charcoal the hay burns off quickly in the grill so it won't cause the whole grill/meal to have that taste.
what do u do with the charcoal ashes? can you use it for like fertilizer or something?
Yea, not sure how good or bad it'll do for soil but I throw it in the garden. Same with the water I use to cool down my binchotan.
Hello! Is it possible to make yakitori using a Weber charcoal grill?
It definitely is. Check out this video on a portable but similar cooking surface for tips on how to do it on the Weber grill: ua-cam.com/video/x58NppM6xS8/v-deo.html
@@Yakitoriguy thank you so much for getting back to me and letting me know! I'm going to check out that video :)
I've noticed that you don't use lighter fluid on your charcoal. Does this change the taste?
Yea this goes with even non yakitori grilling, but lighter fluid definitely adds noticeable taste/smell to your food so don't use that for Yakitori. Just use a chimney to light up your charcoal.
Kingsford is a champ with Weber grills. Especially the snake method for slow and low.
What spice shaker are you using?
It's a standard metal shaker from restaurant supply shops but can find similar online.
Try Royal Oak, available in various forms and available everywhere in the US. Far superior to Kingsford.
How can I tell if it is genuine binchotan because when I look on amazon uk it advertises it as binchotan but I don't know how to tell if its real or not.
Just posted a new video about Kishu Binchotan, should help a bit in what to look for visually! ua-cam.com/video/r2TCmQolAAg/v-deo.html
Kingsford burns more than well enough if grill is suitably vented. Because of the briquette size its my preferred (Weber Go-Anywhere) BBQ charcoal coz it always burns long enough without me having to extinquish the charcoal once cooking is done. If you ain't gettin' the heat wanted - improve airflow.
You can reduce the flair ups by having a spray bottle of water. This will help keep the flames down.
Try using Jealous Devil Briquets. Still insanely cheaper than BinchoTan. Also, try Jealous Devil Onyx. Would love to see both of these video ideas.
Jealous devil Onyx puts out some good heat, but the chunks that come in the box are very inconsistent. Some are huge pieces and others are quite small. I think overall though, it's better than standard lump charcoal and far better than standard briquette.
@@Chanko2397 I tried both. Onyx does not last as long as other BinchoTan products, very inconsistent, I give up on it and wont be buying anymore. JD Briquets I actually loved though. less foul initial burnoff to go thru, long lasting, consistent, only knock is they are quite expensive compared to other briquettes.
@@boohoohoohoo Interesting. I haven't tried JD briquets yet. I'll have to do that. JD Onyx, for the price, outperformed the Ogatan I was using before, so it's been my go to so far for daily grill sessions, but I'll get a box of JD briquets and compare.
Thank you, sensei
🤜🏻👍🤛🏻🔥🔥🔥
Tbh u can get higher end briquettes for like a few bucks more that Cook much better and don't catch fire. They are like the 3x the size of kingsford.
Thanks for the info!
Hi chef . What’s miso kosho on that breast skewer ?
The Yuzu Kosho? It's a fermented chili citrus paste. Got it linked in my Amazon shop.
The one advantage to briquettes is that they are cheap and easy to light, which means that you can use a few of them as base in your chimney starter to get more difficult charcoal going, then ditch them in your fire pit.
That's definitely a way to get it going. However I have found that you still get slightly woodsy smoke notes leftover. Not as strong as let's say using lighter fluid to start it up, but still noticeable if you're using binchotan/ogatan and wanting to avoid wood smoke flavors or smell. Still testing out new things so will definitely be making updated videos.
@@Yakitoriguy Good point. I haven't used this method with binchotan, but rather some good quality lump charcoal being a PITA to light on a windy day. I'd wonder though if you'd have the same problems with using lump charcoal as a base, provided it isn't windy of course.
I wonder what 'tier' yakitori skewer it will be using briquettes. I heard coconut briquettes are the best kind of all briquettes.
Low tier: skewers on electric grill
Mid tier: skewers on lump charcoal
High tier: skewers on binchotan/thaan charcoal + cooking with steel rods(God tier)
@@chuk90 coconut is a good source of low ash material and is the predominate source material for activated charcoal. So far as briquettes go, I'd expect it to perform similar to ogatan, but not as good as binchotan. Binchotan can reach higher levels of carbon purity than ogatan, which might reflect a need to preserve some of the binding agent (e.g., lignin) in the briquette. I don't recall Yakitoryguy doing a review of Japanese ogatan briquettes, but he does have a review of thaan charcoal, which is a Thai ogatan-style charcoal made from hardwood:
ua-cam.com/video/c-8ismTIudU/v-deo.html
@@CH-eb2ny I wonder if this coconut briquettes brand 'Ecobrasa' is as close as the binchotan. It's much cheaper than binchotan, Odorless, produces almost no smoke, longer durable heat compare to most brands, and no unexpected flames will come up even if fat drips on. ua-cam.com/video/_QzCYYJP0FU/v-deo.html
I feel like I just got a PHD in chickenology.
those coals are gonna die quickly with no airflow in that box. just not made for grilling in that style like bichotan is
I will try out binchotan charcoal one day, after I mastered the other skills. For now I will go for coconut briquettes as the price of binchotan is too ridiculously high. hmm, might be even higher in the future as supply can't compete with the demand anymore :(
Yea I'll continue to experiment with binchotan alternatives on this channel so stay tuned!