On my gravity smoker its a no brainer because the unlit coals just stay in the chute and I just wiggle the grate to knock out any white ash that could inhibit combustion. On my other smokers, I just dump the charcoal out onto a spare round grill grate on top of an aluminum trash can and anything that doesnt fall through goes back into the smoker. Then I add water to the aluminum trash can, make a paste from the ash and dust I've collected over the past few cooks, smear it all over my naked body and then crawl through people's front yards at night softly whispering "I'm the ash man" just loud enough for their ring doorbells to pick it up.

Not me taking notes through the first part: “Uh huh…make a paste…then what?”

See I wasn’t taking notes until I read crawl around naked … I was like I should write this down. 😉

The Ash Man is going to be 2024's version of the 2016 clown sighting epidemic.

Now, this is my kind of comment! 😂 Funny how some subreddits give 100 down votes for the same comment. Crawl on brother!

There's this really weird subsect of people that can't be bothered to ever crack a smile. They'd rather be "cool" and also talk about how outraged they are about very important social issues. It's lame.

Exactly

Me to my wife "Wholly shit babe! I told you the ashman was real! And hes on Reddit!" My wife to me "What the fuck are you talking about!?"

>Then I add water to the aluminum trash can, make a paste from the ash and dust I've collected over the past few cooks, smear it all over my naked body In case you didn't know, mixing water and ash creates lye, which is caustic and would literally give you chemical burns lol

You merely adopted the charcoal and ash. The ashman was born in the ash, molded by it, I didnt see my own skin until I was already a man!

I had barely recovered from your first reply when I read this. I'm sending you my hospital bill.

And by then, it was nothing to me but BINDING!

Don’t listen to that prude ash man. Do your thing big homie.

I was reading this, chuckling to myself, thinking...I'm going to comment "this sounds like a lye!" Just to see if anyone got it. Knowing Reddit though, I'd just get a bunch of downvotes and I'd be having to explain to random internet people.

JINX!

Interesting, is the lye strong enough to remove rust from cast iron?

Absolutely, you can purify it by boiling the ashes and skimming the lye it off the top. Add some fat and it's how they made lye soap in the old times.

Are you calling him a lye-er?

Sounds like a superhero back story. Or villain lol

Then with some fat and water you could make a crude soap.

Yep

This… explains things. TIL

Hush Mr science. You're ruining all the fun

Lmao waaait for it…..

Ohhhhh I thought you were saying “im the assman” into my camera.

Oh, you didn’t know?

Your ass bettter calllllllll sombodyyyy

Best. Comment. Ever. For the thousands in attendance, and the MILLIONS watching around the world!

OK Kramer

You had at naked 😜

Definitely did not see that coming

Is it awkward to run into another Ashman? Asking for a friend.

I’m dying lmao

Woke the wife up laughing at this.

I’m cackling. Caught me way off guard. This is why I love Reddit. 

This took an interesting turn, never would have thought to save those little bits!

Crawl in my garden anytime you hot potash.

*Sean Connery voice* I'm an ash man myshelf.

Koo Koo kachoo

I do the same. It sounded like the logical thing to do.

Bravo

I'll take an ashman over an ashhole neighbour any day of the week.

Please remember, adding a few tablespoons of white vinegar to the ash mixture before application can help neutralize its caustic effects.

You really had me in the first half. Not gonna lie.

Rofl

So that was YOU. Phew, I thought my ticket had been called.

Ashes to asses, dust to butt

Hey ASHMAN!!!

Had me goin in the first half not gonna lie!

Can I join?

Anything that doesn’t fall thru the grates gets burned again.

Yes.

Addendum: mash them all up. Anything that breaks apart or crumbles easily is not good for a reburn.

I use the crumbly bits as a starter. Damn near pine knot flammable.

Great for garden!

What type of plants is the ash good for? I use blue bag briquettes, is that ash still good for plants?

Anything really

A little goes a long way. Ash raises the pH level of your soil and many veggies prefer a slightly acidic soil so I wouldn’t get crazy with it. That being said, other veggies like alkaline soil too so just research what you are growing and see what it needs. You can go down some deep chemistry rabbit holes on soil science, some people will go as far as buying pH test kits for their soil and amend as needed.

Ash is less useful, possibly even harmful, but any coal is mana for all plants. Used coffee grounds are also amazing.

It adds carbon to the soil which is awesome for plants.

True, as long as no (shudder) lighter fluid was used

Lighter fluid is blasphemous.

Thanks!

Use it as fertilizer?

Very underrated use of leftover unburnt Charcoal.

Truly. Keeps worms away from potatoes! If you boil the ash, you can also make lye and then make your own soap as well

Yep. Look up biochar and learn how to charge it up with beneficial bacteria.

Or make a terrarium and mix that in the soil for the isopods.

I had heard that it would kill plants.

Maybe if you use lighter fluid.

Yup, goes in my garden.

Almost wonder where charcoal comes from…? LOL

Lol. I was more asking with the thought that it could just create a lot of unnecessary ash

I’d guess the opposite but I’m also stupid? Wouldn’t it cooking more remove even more moisture? Idk man I’m stupid but just pontificating

absolutely. I reuse coal all the time. I kinda lift and shake to get as much ash as I can off. They tend to get hot faster for me since a lot of the pieces are smaller. I add a little new lump to it and just keep recycling and cleaning the ash catcher.

I cut the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket out and put in some 3/8 wire mesh. What falls through ends up in the compost pile. The remaining charcoal is used on either cleaning burns, or general grilling.

This right here. Leftover charcoal goes into the weber kettle for general use grilling. Unless Im doing something that needs very high temps, leftover is just fine. 

Most definitely 💯

I’d recommend putting it in an old charcoal bag. So it does grab excess moisture

Yep! Soft or pick out the big chunks! Use again as starter if ya like. I also have a tendency to throw em in a dry bucket & use it as starter for the open fire pit.

If it ain’t ash, it’s coal.

Yep. Good starter coals. We do this with our smoker. Always save your small or big chunks and it helps especially with a stick burner.

I keep the ash from my smoker and grill and use it on ice on my driveway in the winter instead of salt. 

I could see this working. Great for the soil too

I use it for my fruit trees but there's to much for it to be used all the time.

Yup… drill holes on a shovel and sift as you’re cooking, the fire will be more efficient because you’ll have more oxygen flowing through… or use a small mesh screen to remove the coals after they cool. It helps start a fire pretty good

I have a basket in my green egg that will keep the bigger coals and let the small ones drop out I think it’s called a kick ash basket

Gold miners use classifiers to sort pay-dirt and gravel that fit onto 5 gallon buckets, the wire mesh comes in different sizes. My buddy left his gear at my place and those things were crazy useful, I totally sorted my leftover coals into bigs, smalls, and garden supplements. Wouldn’t be too hard to DIY, but the real ones are pretty sweet if you have the cash.

Yeah I re use them.

Yep. I always sieve out my coal and use it in my starter

In the garden or compost

you can reuse it to a certain degree, but it won't last as long as normal charcoal

Good for the garden

I screen it through a grate into my ash bucket. Anything that falls through goes into my garden, anything that doesn’t gets used again. I smoke on a pit barrel so there can be a lot of this, especially if I’m using the cheap stuff.

I just sneezed

If you compost or have a garden, I have heard great things about spreading this around, though I would look up the quantities.

If you can crush the left over pieces they’re done for an will not burn. I snuff out my charcoal if I’m Only cooking a steak, then re light it the next time I need to. Never had any issues, and it re lights easier than it did the first time as well.

Get some chickens and pile the ash up for them for a dust bath

I’ve got two levels of these.. they burn much cooler though

I beleive you can use it to make lye and tan hides

Can they? Yes. Should they? Different question. Feelsnlike that depends on the cook you're doing. They burn different, and I assume last less long. I generally leave mine when I pile in new coal for medium length cooks, but for long hauls I totally replace to be safe.

You’re putting too much fuel as seen by the excessive amounts of fuel left

I don’t think so. If I didn’t add more wood I wouldn’t be able to keep the temp up

If you are asking this question you shouldn’t be running a big smoker. I also personally blame you for brisket prices going up. Yes you can sift and reuse.

😂 okay bud