First ever smoke - pork came out great, but drippings ruined by Quick Light Charcoal

My early Christmas gift arrived earlier this week - an Oklahoma Joes offset smoker.

Built, seasoned, and ready to go I use a dry rub and pork. At around 150 degrees I wrap in foil due to time constraints and not wanting to wait out the stall.

I then notice the issue - I don’t have enough fuel and I’m going to run out. I know I could put in the oven as most the smoke flavor has been absorbed, and it’s in foil anyways - but I’m stubborn and feel it’s important to finish out my first smoke (for some dumb reason).

I call my wife who’s running errands and ask her to get me some charcoal. The only thing they have is this red bag of Kingsford briquettes at Target - quick light or something.

I just say yes as I’m smoking while WFH so didn’t want to look it up.

Turns out these things have a thin coating of lighter fluid or whatever it’s called. I’ve never used that stuff and always had a chimney (cooked on a charcoal grill for years).

Anyways - I dumped a few of these into the cooking chamber. They IMMEDIATELY catch fire and I swear I lost a little hair on my hand. I could smell the lighter fluid immediately. I thought I let it burn off long enough before closing the firebox lid - wrong.

The pork was saved due to its temp and being wrapped in foil - but all my beautiful drippings reeked of lighter fluid - and I had to throw it away.

Other lesson learned - I used way too much fuel due to inefficient management of heat.

I’ve fallen in love with this hobby already.