Hi folks.
This is my first post.
After moving from an offset barrel smoker to a WSM, I have been visiting this cite for three years now.
I decided to finally sign up and post.
Home Depot just got in a whole pallet of the new 100% Natural Kingsford.
I moved away from lump about a year ago when I cooked a shoulder on Kingsford for 14 hours untouched.
I then made Baby Backs that smoked for 5 hours with Kingsford.
Hands down all the family raved about both. Much better than any previously made with Lump.
Like Chris, living in Costa Mesa (So Cal) the only lump we get is Kingsford Charwood which leaves a black film and the food tasting like soot. (My wife accused me of cooking it in the coals!)
Cowboy is nice but burns up too fast and also costs more.
We also get Big Green Egg but way too expensive.
Being all natural was important so I gave the New Natural Kingsford a try.
I could not taste any difference on the grill via chicken or beef.
The coal lit faster than lump and seemed to burn even faster.
I haven't used it in an overnight smoke and probably won't.
Why mess with a good thing. I'll probably just use the rest of it and be done with it.
My opinion, it's performance at just the grilling level wasn't quite there.
I have given up on "all natural". Performance is way more important.
(And when it comes to grilling, who cares if it was cooked on lump, when the left half of your $14 rib eye is med-well and the right half is rare)
Another reason I have given up on "all natural" is as follows....
I wanted to find out for myself if using the minion method with Kingsford would impart that beautiful aroma into the food.
Here's what I did.
Minion Method Taste Test: Kingsford Vs Big Green Egg Lump.
I recently cooked two chicken breasts in separate cookers using the minion method.
I picked chicken for it's ability to absorb flavor.
I used Kingsford in one, and Green Egg Lump in the other. No wood, no oil, no rub, just coal and breast.
I cooked the breasts for 2.5 hours at about 220. I wanted to rely expose the meat for some time.
With a taste test, the Kingsford did taste different but not better nor worse.
Both had a slight coal taste and very similar. No other chemical off taste could be could be detected by either. (And this, from someone who won the Pepsi challenge
)
With the Kingsford, you could taste the slight coal taste right away.
With the lump, the taste was almost the same, however, the coal taste snuck up on you slowly as you chewed.
Try the test for yourself.
Last, I saw an episode of the travel channel. They where showing the Rendezvous (
http://www.hogsfly.com/) using charcoal briquettes to cook there ribs.
Having spent quite some time in Memphis, these are world famous, and if briquettes are good enough for them they'll work for me!
