Charcoal brand


 
D

DennisT

TVWBB Member
I have mostly used Royal Oak briquettes in my WSM. Kingsford seems to produce allot more ash. Local grocery store was only place i have found RO lately, but with end of summer I don't think I'll find it there until next year. Looking for suggestions.
 
Royal Oak Ridge isn't what the old Royal Oak briquettes used to be...tons of ash, low temp. I've been trying to find their 100% Hardwood which I'm assuming is like the old Chef's Select and the pre-Ridge version which was excellent but it's hard to come by.

I've been using Timber Lump lately with very good results.
 
I use Weber Hardwood charcoal pretty much exclusively right now. It’s just the best in my opinion and I bought a bunch of it. I heard it’s no longer going to be made, but that’s discussed in a different thread.

I got a bag of those Royal Oak briquettes and I thought they were OK but I wasn’t very impressed.
 
Not having weber sucks

B&B competition oak briquettes are decent.
4.99 for 8.8 lb bag at albertsons. Reasonable everyday price.
Albertsons by my house has big stacks of B&B hickory and pecan split wood too for $10 bag. I saw the splits into 3-4" chunks, fill 5 gal buckets
 
Kingsford in its many formulations (minus any of the ones pre-saturated with lighter fluid!) has done fine for me the last 30 years or so. :)

R
 
I used to use royal oak because that's what home depot carried. However I noticed that the temperature was hard to maintain with that brand. It may have been my inexperience with smoking. But then HD stopped carrying Royal Oak and switched to Frontier Brand. Now I have no issues with fluctuating temperatures. Just dial in the vents to the temp you want and it will usually stay right on course. The other thing I noticed with the Frontier Brand is that it burned a lot longer than the Royal Oak. I use about half the amount of lump charcoal with Frontier. Here is a link from HD https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frontier-17-6-lbs-Natural-Lump-Charcoal-195-338-374/313319118
 
Rich G said:
Kingsford in its many formulations (minus any of the ones pre-saturated with lighter fluid!) has done fine for me the last 30 years or so. :)

R
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The Kingsford Matchlight is doing A-Ok for only Grilling here in Costa Rica. In my experience Once the Briquets are fully lit it leaves no foul oder or taste.
 
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Lewis B said:
Hmm. Home depot still showing Weber as available as shipped to home.

www.homedepot.com

Weber Charcoal Briquettes-17950 - The Home Depot

The Weber Briquette is made of 100% all natural hardwood with no added chemicals. Weber Briquettes deliver a consistent high heat for up to 3 hours, making them perfect for all types of grilling applications.
www.homedepot.com
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Yeah that’s where I’ve been getting it when I can’t get it anywhere else. I think it’s $19.99 a bag delivered.

I had always used Royal Oak Hardwood Lump, but I also had a hard time dialing in my temps with it occasionally. I also found a 15 inch long piece by about an inch wide piece of burnt metal in a bag once. Moved to Weber and have been real happy.
 
Honestly KBB works great for whatever application I have. I do like Weber a lot but it's going away. The B&B briquets are good but tend to crumble after the first use so they they don't reuse as easily but they can work if you are careful. The Royal Oak I've used has worked fine, I just can't keep track of their ever changing branding. Some are better than others, I guess. I bought some of the red, white and blue bags from last year's walmart sale and they ran great.

What I'll say is this. When it comes to charcoal I think a lot of it is overblown as far as one brand being far superior to another. It's one variable among many. If something is going wrong with a cook I usually don't go there. For me it's always been something else, except maybe if I'm being cheap and reusing old charcoal. As far as grilling I've gotten better sears with KBB vs Jealous Devil at times. I could blame the charcoal, but it wasn't the charcoal. It was how hot and well lit that charcoal happened to be. Maybe I waited too long to Pour in the lit Jealous Devil and it was half spent. Maybe the chunks were too big or too little. Use what makes you happy, but if you are looking for some huge gain in performance, I just don't think it's there.
 
Heres another vote for Jealous Devil. Best Charcoal that I have seen at higher elevation. Bar none! I go through 10-35lb bags in a year.
Also I like Fogo's axe breaker charcoal. I use several bags a year of it also. Like to mix the 2 or just switch from time to time.
Briquette's I wont even buy them anymore. You know the hot dogs of the charcoal world. You never know what's ground up in that charcoal.
Maybe a little rat dna, sounds real appetizing to cook over dont it? Also, the axe breaker are superior because I can put the charcoal in the smoker, put my propane torch right on the charcoal & light it like I do every evening. No 4th of July sparkler show, no sparks burning my eye lids, no burnt holes in my clothes or my skin. Axe breaker lump has a nice aroma & cooks well low & slow or excellent higher heat. For the record big green egg has a new axe breaker coming out & a Canadian Sugar Maple coming out. Cant wait to try both of these new lumps. I used to burn Sugar Maple from Fire craft it was the sweetest lump I ever lit. Well, thats just my 2 cents worth. lump on everyone
 
I really like the Weber brand briquettes, but alas that looks like a finished product, unless Weber suddenly decides to change their minds. Also like B&B, but it is hard to find. And as far as KBB is concerned, I have no problem with cooking with it. I know what to expect, and not expect out of it. I don’t sense any off putting smells and tastes from it, and you can’t swing a dead cat by its tail without hitting a bag or two. As far as lump goes, I have had good results with RO. It also is readily available for me. The only lump that I have been dissatisfied with was Bayou Classic. Opened a bag of that to find one or two old growth tree stumps and the rest charcoal powder. YMMV
 
ChuckH said:
I really like the Weber brand briquettes, but alas that looks like a finished product, unless Weber suddenly decides to change their minds. Also like B&B, but it is hard to find. And as far as KBB is concerned, I have no problem with cooking with it. I know what to expect, and not expect out of it. I don’t sense any off putting smells and tastes from it, and you can’t swing a dead cat by its tail without hitting a bag or two. As far as lump goes, I have had good results with RO. It also is readily available for me. The only lump that I have been dissatisfied with was Bayou Classic. Opened a bag of that to find one or two old growth tree stumps and the rest charcoal powder. YMMV
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I hate that Bayou classic. I’ve had to get it occasionally when I can’t find anything else, and I’m always sad that I bought it. There’s hardly any usable size chunks it’s either huge pieces or powder, and it burns weird. I am not a fan if you couldn’t tell LOL
 
Were still nursing or supply of Stubb’s, but I've heard the Trader Joe’s is good stuff although we’ve never tried it. Not sure if you have Trader Joe’s in your area.
 
I love Kingsford Pro. I load up on it when Costco puts it on sale.

Never thought to check Trader Joe's for charcoal, I'll have to check them out.
 
I was watching a cooking show today, and they were talking about Binchotan charcoal used in Japanese Robata grills. Looked on amazon, and it’s $55 for a 3 pound bag.
So, could be worse? Lol.
 
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