Kingsford Original

What's your opinion of using original Kingsford blue bag briquettes for grilling, and in a wsm?

Alan,
I like using lump for direct grilling because it burns hotter which helps with searing. For smoking I personally like using Kingsford Blue, Wiked Good and Royal Oak. For smoking I like briquettes better because they burn consistently and give you a solid steady temperature. I do though use Kingsford regularly for all types of grilling and testing. What are your thoughts?

thanks
kk

Thanks Kevin.

For a few years I used kb for everything and could not notice any off taste issue some talk about, in fact I liked the "grilled" taste. Maybe a year ago, while doing some high heat searing I found kb added a mineral iron like taste to burgers. And that that flavor wasn't there with more natural charcoals like stubbs, kingsford competition, or wicked good briquettes. Some day I'll give kb another go for grilling to see if this is still the case. But I've mostly switched away from kb for grilling. That said kcomp is the best briquette made for grilling IMO.

But for smoking, it's all about kb. There's a lot of debate on the web on whether kb is perfectly fine for smoking/indirect cooking. I believe it is. I can't imagine a pork butt smoked over kb (once the igniter smoke has passed) is much different than using kcomp, stubbs, etc. And I wanted to get your input. It seems you may agree.

Alan,
Yes we are on the same page. There is so much debate out there about the many different brands of charcoal. I would find it hard to believe when smoking using the above mentioned briquettes that someone would be able to tell the difference. Direct cooks, I would say yes, indirect cooks and smoking I would say no.