Scott Smith
TVWBB Pro
As a gas griller myself, I don't usually read the kettle forum, so I apologize if this all has been covered in the forum, or is just common knowledge to everyone.
A couple of winters ago, Home Depot had a massive price reduction on Weber brand charcoal. I bought a lot of it for pennies on the dollar and gifted it all to my dad, explaining to him that the stuff was pretty expensive at regular price and might actually cook somehow better than the Kingsford he usually uses and was very happy with. My dad had trepidations about this different kind of charcoal, but eventually got around to using most of it.
After trying them for a number of fires, my dad's takeaway was that suddenly all his official Weber recipes worked perfectly. He used a lot of recipes that would specify like 40 briquettes, and he always had trouble with the time, number of briquettes, and temperature. He concluded that the Kingsford briquettes were a tad smaller than their Weber counterparts. He had been cooking for years without enough fuel.
So I guess the takeaway is to use Weber briquettes with Weber recipes. I also find it fascinating how each company can adjust the size of their briquettes relative to the competition's.
A couple of winters ago, Home Depot had a massive price reduction on Weber brand charcoal. I bought a lot of it for pennies on the dollar and gifted it all to my dad, explaining to him that the stuff was pretty expensive at regular price and might actually cook somehow better than the Kingsford he usually uses and was very happy with. My dad had trepidations about this different kind of charcoal, but eventually got around to using most of it.
After trying them for a number of fires, my dad's takeaway was that suddenly all his official Weber recipes worked perfectly. He used a lot of recipes that would specify like 40 briquettes, and he always had trouble with the time, number of briquettes, and temperature. He concluded that the Kingsford briquettes were a tad smaller than their Weber counterparts. He had been cooking for years without enough fuel.
So I guess the takeaway is to use Weber briquettes with Weber recipes. I also find it fascinating how each company can adjust the size of their briquettes relative to the competition's.