Peaches, grapefruit, and shredded coconut are potential fruit infusions for charcoal.

Part of the fun of cooking is constantly experimenting, because you never know when you will stumble on that next great idea. I'm biased, but I think that especially pertains to outdoor cooking on the grill or the smoker.

If you have spent some time wandering the aisles of stores dedicated to grilling, you will have noticed that things are starting to get fancy with the charcoal selections. What started as pressed briquettes that all looked the same has transitioned to hardwood lump charcoal that has no consistency but often produces added slow-burning flavor.

More from the Food Shack: Chuck Blount tests charcoal brands

Now companies are doubling down on charcoal and stuffing it with a variety of ingredients. It's easy to find it with chopped bits of garlic, onion and woods such as mesquite, apple and hickory woods. All are good options that will have your grilling station smelling heavenly. Kingsford recently released a line of specialty charcoal that includes one with embedded basil, another with cumin chili, and one with garlic, onion and paprika.

"The meat does take on those flavors, although it can be hit-and-miss with how much, and your grill or smoke box will start to smell like that meat has been on there for hours," said Clarence Joseph, a champion San Antonio-based competition barbecue cook.

Chuck Blount tops charcoal off with peaches at Chuck's Food Shack.

I have tested a few of these flavored charcoals and written about them in the Food Shack chronicles. But I couldn't help but wonder if there needs to be more testing, because that is how great ideas are born. It's as easy to tossing a variety of ingredients directly on the coals to see what happens. I decided to take the fruit road, adding coconut, grapefruit and peaches directly to the charcoal and pairing it with meats that seemed appropriate.

I used B&B oak hardwood lump charcoal with a pair of my backyard grills and fired them up to 350 to 400 degrees. The reason for that variance is that managing lump charcoal is like herding cats.    

The results were mixed. Here's what happened:

Coconut flakes are about to be tossed onto the hot coals at Chuck's Food Shack.

If I had to do it again, I would start with whole coconuts and break them into the chunky pieces. Instead, I chose shredded flakes to toss onto the charcoal, and that was literally like tossing fuel onto a burning fire. Coconut has a lot of waxy fat to it, and every handful that was tossed onto the charcoal burst into flames.

I tried to give the coconut a fighting chance by pairing it with a recipe for coconut shrimp (see below). The shrimp turned out tasty, but that had little to nothing to do with the coconut being added to the charcoal.

Pork chops grilled with charcoal and grapefruit.

The skin of a grapefruit is like a knight's coat of armor, and it did a fantastic job of holding up to the high heat. I tossed a few cups of large, cut-up pieces of grapefruit on the charcoal, and it sizzled and started to smell like a grove of citrus trees. This is a situation where more is indeed more, so I would have cut up more grapefruit and placed some on the coals and some on the cool side of the grill with an indirect setup. 

Seasoned pork chops were the meat of choice for this experiment. Given about 15 minutes in the grill, flipped once halfway through and placed on the cool side with the lid closed, the meat was indeed infused with a slight hit of citrus notes.

Verdict: Solid option worth doing again 

Pork chops grilled with charcoal and peaches.

Few things smell better than freshly cut peaches. While they have fairly thin skin, they do well on the coals if cut into quarters. The peaches instantly produced a sweet aroma, especially the Texas-grown varieties that are still available. To retain as much of this sweetness as possible, I closed the lid immediately after putting some pork chops on the grill.

It produced flavor that was above and beyond — the best way I can describe it is porky pie.  I served some to my family, who had no idea what was what. Perhaps the best reaction was from my daughter, who asked, "How did you get pork chops to taste like peaches?"

Verdict: Best of the bunch

Those are my results; I encourage everybody try some more fruitful ideas on their own.

Finished coconut shrimp after it was grilled with coconut applied to the coals.

For an easy and tasty sweet treat from the sea, these shrimp will be a guaranteed hit.

Instructions: Start with three medium bowls. Combine flour, salt and pepper in one. Beat the eggs in the second bowl and mix with the honey. Combine Panko and coconut in the third bowl.

Dip the shrimp into the flour, then the eggs and honey, and then dredge the shrimp into the coconut mixture, pressing gently so it sticks. You want a lot of coconut on each shrimp. Set the coated shrimp aside on a plate as you coat the remaining shrimp.

Set the grill up with an indirect setting with the charcoal set to one side or by only using the burners on one side of a gas grill so that it has an internal temperature that hovers between 350 and 400 degrees.

Coat the bottom of a  perforated grilling rack with 1 tablespoon of oil. Place the shrimp in a pattern around the rack, then pour the remaining oil on top of it. If you don't have a grilling racks, you can substitute two or three layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil with holes pierced in it.

Place the rack between the hot and cool zones of the grill and cook for 5 minutes with the lid closed. After five minutes, remove the lid, turn the rack 180 degrees and cover again, cooking for 5 more minutes. When the shrimp tails turn red and the meat is firm, the shrimp are done. 

cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver    

Chuck Blount is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience at the San Antonio Express-News, and a tenure split between writing and editing about food, drinks, poker and sports, where he was part of the team that covered four of the five Spurs' NBA championships. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.