Lump vs briquette, and fav brands, for smoking on a 22" Weber Kettle


 

KevinInStL

TVWBB Member
So after a stressful last few cooks with these damn Royal Oak Ridge Briquettes, I've had enough of them. Unfortunately I bought 4 bags of them at Lowe's when thy were on sale at LDW. But fortunately they were only $4 a bag. I'll probably end up putting them out by the curb for some other poor sucker to suffer through.

They just suck, at least with the snake method. They burn up fast, incompletely, and not very hot. They also produce a ton of ash, and the food I cook with it seems to make our stomachs unhappy.

I would prefer to use lump for everything as I try to minimize the additives and unknown chemicals when cooking my food. I use Rockwood because I saw it was highly rated on that NakedWhiz site, plus it's made here in StL so I can get it relatively cheap.

Anyway, all the youtube and interweb bbq gurus seem to recommend lump for fast, high heat grilling and briquette for low & slow smoking. I'm fairly new to this and trying not to ruin too much food. I usually don't want to have to babysit my fire a whole lot, so I've stuck to those recommendations so far. So, right now I only use the lump for steaks, burgers, brats, or chicken pieces.

So my first question to you all is: have you had success smoking low & slow on a 22" Weber kettle with lump? Without requiring a lot of babysitting the vents and the fire? And if so, how do you do it? Slow n Sear, firebricks, Weber charcoal baskets, a banked 2-zone fire, something else? I only have the 22" Weber kettle for now. There may a WSM in my future, but not until the spring at least. Btw, I say low & slow in a relative sense. I usually seem to end up in a time crunch and cooking my "low & slow" stuff more in the neighborhood of 275-325, though I have smoked one or two things down around 225. I do have a 2 channel wireless thermometer so I always monitor the grill and meat temp throughout longer cooks.

And if you haven't had good results BBQing with lump on a Weber kettle, what seems to be the longest, cleanest burning briquette that produces the least ash, and seems to have the least additives and most neutral flavor? Weber? B&B? Something else? No offense to you Kingsford lovers, but I'll probably never cook with any Kingsford product. I just don't trust a giant bleach company (Clorox, the owner of Kingsford) to make charcoal that doesn't contain additives or other unnecessary chemicals that I'd rather not have in my food.

Thanks in advance
 
I don't do any slow cooking on my weber kettle, but in my 22"WSM, I prefer briquettes. After Stubbs left the market, I have been using Weber briquettes - yes, they are expensive, but I've gotten good results.

I've also used Rockwood lump for slow cookng and grilling, but I prefer briquettes for slow cooking.
 
Kingsford, Weber, Royal Oak and its look-a-like Embers work for me in the kettle or the smoker. Both Royal Oak products burn fast and ashy but if I get a good price it's all good.
For lump, I'm still working my way through 120# of Western lump. I've used Cowboy brand as well. Either is fine as long as it's low cost and free of rocks and sticks.

I usually don't run the kettle less than 300°F

Have you looked into an offset stick burner and skip char products all together?
 
KBB is my go to for L&S on the WSM or my mini and Kingsford pro if doing something like a brisket or something that's going to take a long time. For grilling I like KBB and Royal Oak. Royal Oak is great for high heat but does not work well in the WSM for L&S.
I also use lump either alone or mixed with briquets for high heat grilling also it does a great job for searing.
The only thing I don't like about KBB is the stinky white smoke on start up.
 
Kevin, you are so right about those Royal Oak Briquettes. I bought a couple of bags, took a bag camping a while back. Stuff wouldn't stay lite very well, didn't put off very much heat, Performed $h!tty at higher elevation. Going hunting in a week or so. Will be taking Jealous Devil Lump Charcoal. I find nothing works better than ae breaker lump. And yes you can use it in your Kettles. They have a new bag with smaller size pieces. And you can also get bigger chunks as well. They have it all covered now. Plus they are going to start selling XL briquettes in 2020. I will be interested to see how they ship these with out getting broke up in the shipping process. But if they are as hard as the lump it wont be a problem, because axe breaker is hard to break even with a hammer. And if you are looking for a lump that doesn't burn as hot give Fogo a try. I also use this lump. Its the only 2 I use now. And regardless of cheap price I will not use Royal Oak briquettes again. They only thing I found that they are good for is throwing them in the charcoal chimney. Getting them blazing hot & then throwing them over some lump. They also put off a amazing amount of ash. By the way the Devil has new bagging, by far the best on the market. Check out their web site for sure. Matter of fact I ordered 2 35 lb bags yesterday. Aint now way I'm running out in winter. lol hope that this helps, good luck.
 
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I've got some of the royal oak that Walmart had on sale around July 4th and Memorial day. I found it works fine. My only complaint is that the briquettes are kind of small and can't be reused easily. Kingsford works well with snake method. I can't imagine trying to do a snake with lump. Weber has some issues with snake method probably just because of the roundness of the briquettes. I don't know if they make good enough contact with each other. Otherwise they are awesome. I've used B&B briquettes and like them a lot. I've still got 4 or 5 twin packs of KBB so I use them probably most of all. I can understand wanting to go with a more "all natural" briquette though. If money were no object I might go with something like Jealous Devil or FOGO. I think FOGO has a variety that is the same wood a Jealous Devil.
 
I'm pretty sure the OP's bad experience with RO was with the Embers label.
I had picked up a twin of it and it is terrible, IMO. It ruined a tri tip by giving it a creosote taste.
The 1.5 bags I have left will get pitched.
The RO All Natural briqs was pretty decent.
 
I'm pretty sure the OP's bad experience with RO was with the Embers label.
I had picked up a twin of it and it is terrible, IMO. It ruined a tri tip by giving it a creosote taste.
The 1.5 bags I have left will get pitched.
The RO All Natural briqs was pretty decent.

Nope, mine is the "Royal Oak Classic Premium Hardwood Charcoal Briquettes". The bag looks exactly like this
 
I strongly concur with the poor assessment of the Embers (RO clone?) briquets. I bought 4 bags at HD during the Labor Day sale, and it is just horrible stuff. I tried to donate my remaining stock of it to the local Boy Scout troop, and they wouldn't take it either.

I use Kingsford in my Performer, mostly KBB, but I keep several bags of Kingsford Professional on hand for hot cooks, like pizza, etc.
 
And on the flip side, I use only RO briquettes. But mine come in brown paper bags weighing 40 pounds...

After using KBB for 30 plus years, I made the move to this particular RO.
 
And on the flip side, I use only RO briquettes. But mine come in brown paper bags weighing 40 pounds...

After using KBB for 30 plus years, I made the move to this particular RO.
Are they Chef's Select you can get shipped to a Do It Best store?
I had some a few years ago, before they added the ridges, and liked them a lot.

Chefs-Select-20lb-600x600.png
 
Yup... Excellent briquets !! But the 40 pound bags are a handful when pouring into the WSM base. Nice to see it's also available in weight more easily handled.

While they seem to be available via the Do It Best stores, mine come from a wood supply in the city of Orange (California). Also get my Blue Hog lump from them.
 
I've noticed you can get 8 lb bags of jealous devil for 12 bucks or so at ace hardware. I'm tempted to give it a shot on some steaks or something where I really want high heat.
 
I've noticed you can get 8 lb bags of jealous devil for 12 bucks or so at ace hardware. I'm tempted to give it a shot on some steaks or something where I really want high heat.

I just started using it this summer in my WSM 22” for long cooks. I love it. I’m fortunate that I have a dealer not far from work. The 35lb bag is under $1/lb, iirc.
 
Used 12 bags of embers i bought on sale for 2.98 ea last christmas......i had no problems. A bit odorous when lit until hot however.

Embers is royal oak...home depots store brand.
 
Used 12 bags of embers i bought on sale for 2.98 ea last christmas......i had no problems. A bit odorous when lit until hot however.

Embers is royal oak...home depots store brand.

Agreed I stocked up last year when they were blowing out the small bags for 1.75 each. I grabbed 10 and still use them. Ive had best luck using a chimney to get them started. Love using them in the WSM for long cooks.
 

 

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