with all the talk about what kind of charcoal to use (kingsford, rancher, royal oak, ect,ect.) i wanted to try a off brand charcoal. i went to a cut rate store, "save-a-lot" thats here in the kansas city,mo area. pick up a 18lb bag of charcoal called "kindle" it's cost was $4.50. a bag took it home and fired up the wsm. i had two 5lb's chuck roast,on one chuck roast i used my reg. rub and on the other i used a cajun seasoning, put a cup of beef broth in the pans. i used the standred method to fired up the wsm. when the wsm got up to temp i put the pans in the smoker uncovered for two hours and then foil for the rest of the cook. i did use one big peice of hickery for the smoke flavor. i use the clay lid in place of water in the water pan since this has been good for my wsm keeping a good even temp thru out a cooking process. at 12:30p.m. i put the meat on, got the wsm temp set around 250-260 it held it temp for the next 5 hours. at no time did i have to add any charcoal at 5:30 pm i checked the chuck roast and both were fork tender and had a great flavor.
with all that said, maybe it's not the rancher or kingsford or royal oak that is so better but the way the wsm is made to cook and hold heat. so for me, i will be buying a couple bags of this charcoal to use with my wsm.
I used this brand of charcoal last summer to grill with, it was cheap and i did not want to use my rancher or kingsford to grill a few items on the grill the only lasted for less then an hour. my next test for this charcoal will be a overnight cook.
my 2 cents take.
