Royal Oak Chef’s Select Hardwood Briquettes


 
Barret

Barret

TVWBB Pro
I was so pleased with this purchase that I wanted you all know about it!

Background: I live in an area that does not provide a lot of options for the grilling/smoking fanatic which I find myself, and so I constantly do research to figure out the best deal I can get my hands on, mostly to find the way I can stretch my dollar the farthest since I don’t have much money and an currently unemployed.

Thus, I created a spreadsheet of all my options for “all-natural” hardwood briquettes, and found that the best option for me is Royal Oak Chef’s Select Hardwood Briquets [sic] ordered online from doitbest.com. This product on that site is only available via ship-to-store, but the shipping is FREE. Their price is $17.99 for a 40-lb bag, which works out to be only 48¢/lb., and compared to Lowe’s price of $8.49 for a 15-lb bag of Stubb’s hardwood briquettes (60¢/lb.), I save 12¢/lb.

As for the ship-to-store, there is only ONE location in my area that accepts these from doitbest.com, but it is only less than 10 miles from my house.

So, on 02/27 I placed my order, and by 03/02 I got an email saying it was in! I had ordered 80-lbs of hardwood briquettes, and I am ready for Smoke Day VII!!

Funny that these are marked "Food Service; Not For Resale". Guess I'll need to open my kitchen up to the neighborhood, eh?
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Barret
 
I think this is regular 100% hardwood Royal Oak in different package.
That being said I use a lot of royal oak. The local grocery will have it as low as $6 for an 18/lb bag around the major BBQ holidays and I stock up.
I like it a lot.
 
Thanks for posting Barret!
I just ordered 2 bags.
I'm always game to try different charcoal.

Couldn't find much info about it, but it appears to be a larger briq, can you confirm this?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob Correll:
...it appears to be a larger briq, can you confirm this? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Good question, Bob! I was wondering the same thing, since I've seen at least one more post on here about this particular charcoal, and it was referred to as "large" or "larger" briquettes.

So today I opened one of the bags and randomly selected two briquettes, and then placed them next to two randomly selected Stubb’s briquettes. There is a noticeable size difference (the tape measure is only there to show relative size):

ROChefsSelect2.jpg


ROChefsSelect3.jpg


I’m wondering:

1. How many less RO “large” briquettes I may end up using per smoke in relation to Stubb’s “regular” briquettes
2. Just how much longer each RO “large” briquette may burn compared to each Stubb’s “regular” briquette

If both are true above, I’ll probably use the same amount of charcoal [as Stubb’s], pound for pound. It will be interesting to see….

Barret
 
Looks like some good stuff, Barret.

I suspect that the larger briqs allows them to burn longer before falling through grates for commercial cookers, and it should also create larger air-passages between the briqs - for better air-flow / hotter combustion.

My guess is that whatever vent settings you use for K / etc. will need to be re-calibrated for this stuff. It may be less prone to clog-up the charcoal grate.

Let us know how it works for ya.
 
Barret....I believe that the Gordon Food Service (GFS) stores also sell Royal Oak in their GFS labled briquetts (red bag) and hardwood lump (black bag). These are also the larger sized "food service" briqs and are 20 lb. bags. This info may not be up to date as it has been about a year and a half since I have been there and I do not remember the price. I bought a "bunch" of RO when my local K-Mart had it on year end sale for $1.79 per 18# bag. I got it all!

I have used the doitbest.com to get some pecan wood chunks, and it works great. Pecan trees don't do well in Ohio.

Ron.... IIRC I didn't have to do much vent adjusting, but I really do not pay a lot of attenion to that, I just focus on my target temps. I like the larger briquetts and the GFS lump (at least what I have gotten) has been very uniform in size. HTH
 
Barret, be sure to post an assessment after your next lown-n-slow cook, if that's how you roll. I just placed an order for some myself the other day, and are too hoping that they work as well as Stubbs.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Barret, be sure to post an assessment after your next lown-n-slow cook, if that's how you roll. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Dave - yep, that's my goal. I'll report back on here as soon as I get a chance to smoke something good.

Barret
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by B. Kaylor:
Barret....I believe that the Gordon Food Service (GFS) stores also sell Royal Oak in their GFS labled briquetts (red bag) and hardwood lump (black bag). These are also the larger sized "food service" briqs and are 20 lb. bags... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brad, I recently tried some of the big briqs from GFS and wasn't too enthused...LOTS of ash and problems keeping temps up where I wanted compared to Stubbs. I hope this ISN'T the same stuff, although one of the guys there did confirm that RO made their charcoal. We'll see.
 
are the stubbs briq the same size as the normal ro briq ? if the ro stuff is truly bigger it makes me wonder if its the same as the stuff sold at wal mart under their brand name sam's choice. those briq are also on the large side. i've used them and have not had any issues with them.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by george curtis:
are the stubbs briq the same size as the normal ro briq ? if the ro stuff is truly bigger it makes me wonder if its the same as the stuff sold at wal mart under their brand name sam's choice. those briq are also on the large side. i've used them and have not had any issues with them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

George, someone here recently said that RO makes those Sam's choice briqs, but I haven't used them in years. How do they do compare with K blue in terms of ash and burn?

The Stubbs briqs are about the same diameter, but much thicker than K. However, it's been so long since I used any regular RO briqs that I can't remember much about them.
 
yes, i verified that the sam's choice briq are made by ro several years ago. saw a pallet outside my wm one day and the label said "made by royal oak". i think it makes just a little less but to be honest, i havn't used k blue in a long long time so have no recent comparrisons.
 
Thanks, George.

Ya know, I think that we usually get what we pay for, so I doubt that the Chef's Select briqs will last as long or have as much char as the Stubbs. On the other hand though, if it burns a little slower than Stubbs but doesn't have so much binder that it's prone to suffocation like K blue, it'll be the IDEAL candidate for low-n-slow, at a pretty good price.

I'm crossing my fingers, Barrett.
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I have used it a lot. It has super long burn and low ash. Not the best smell though. May be from the vegetable binder or the like.
 
Went to my local Lowe's this morning and they had the Stubb's briqs so I purchased 3 bags simply from the nice reviews here. I never gave them much of a consideration because I'm not too big a fan of thier sauce. Grillin over RO lump tonite but plan to use the Stubb's for a tri-tip smoke tomorrow... can't wait
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steven Reed:
Went to my local Lowe's this morning and they had the Stubb's briqs so I purchased 3 bags simply from the nice reviews here. I never gave them much of a consideration because I'm not too big a fan of thier sauce. Grillin over RO lump tonite but plan to use the Stubb's for a tri-tip smoke tomorrow... can't wait </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's funny, cause if I would've read first on the bag that Cowboy Charcoal (as in Cowboy lump) made Stubbs briquettes, I probably would have never tried 'em. I'm not too big on Stubbs sauces, but lots in the family are. You'll love the charcoal for the tri-tip.
 
I bought into this charcoal (80 lbs) and have used it twice now.
Seems to start faster than Kingsford also seems to last longer than KBB.
Butt, i haven't cooked long on it, only grilled... both times yesterday.
I liked it so much, i'll row the dice... late last night, I ordered 3 more bags.
 
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