My favorite new charcoal
- Thread starter jaystraw
- Start date
timothy
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
It is good charcoal, pricey but smells great.
I'm using some on steaks later.
www.acehardware.com
I'm using some on steaks later.
Basques Sugar Maple All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal 17.6 lb - Ace Hardware
This bag was designed to be used in the rotisseries in Chalet Suisse restaurants. At the time, the restaurant chain purchased a significant portion of all the charcoal produced in Quebec. Imagine! Since then, this bag has mainly been sold on food markets.Find the SUGAR MAPLE CHARCL 17.6# at Ace.
www.acehardware.com
Darryl - swazies
TVWBB Diamond Member
This is the thread I thought I seen this name in.
I picked this up today, made a thread on it specifically...it’s from Quebec and sugar maple hardwood.
I’m hoping for good things....I can pick this stuff up for exactly 6 bucks cheaper than jealous devil and I only have to drive about 45 minutes one way to get it.....
JD is $40
New charcoal is $33 and change.
Hoping for good things.
I picked this up today, made a thread on it specifically...it’s from Quebec and sugar maple hardwood.
I’m hoping for good things....I can pick this stuff up for exactly 6 bucks cheaper than jealous devil and I only have to drive about 45 minutes one way to get it.....
JD is $40
New charcoal is $33 and change.
Hoping for good things.
Attachments
jaystraw
TVWBB Member
I’d say in the medium/smaller size. I didn’t have any big chunks at all.
Darryl - swazies
TVWBB Diamond Member
Follow up review, I believe my green bag and the red bag have to be the same thing....seems like it anyways.
I have now used this charcoal maybe 4 times or so......and I will be using it again this evening for thighs and breasts.
While most hunks are a fair size at the top ( I purchased a bag that was still "crisp", basically not beat up at all, edges were perfect ) there is a fair amount of smaller pieces as well......considerably more than JD lump.
Right now this isn't a problem too much as I am using the smaller pieces for the charcoal flavor and add them on top of the hot coals when I add my protein to the grill.
I have seen brands that have been the same in the past.....with smaller pieces when the bag is new.
What is going to happen as the bag gets closer to 1/4 of charcoal left is there will be mainly small pieces left, just not what I want to work with for the most part.
So there will be a considerable amount of unusable...or waste I believe, we will have to wait and see. I am using it on every cook until it is gone.
For $6.02 in saving vs. buying the JD lump it really just might not be worth it....
I also have not given it a high heat test yet, I will be trying to cook at 450 tonight, we will see how that fares.
The flavor of the charcoal seems to be fine, but I believe JD is far superior......at least with JD there is a flavor that can carry over to the protein if you want it to.
The choices I have to work with are........as I cook with lump 98% of the time.
New Quebec charcoal is fairly local, I can drive under and hour to get it and pick the bags I want to take home, possibly deal with waste and get an average or maybe better cook out of it....still pending final decisions on this brand.
or
Order JD lump over from a bbq place in the city ( going in person is 2+ hours driving and insanity traffic ) from the website. Pay $6 more for each bag and usually I get about 3 or 4 bags out of 8 to 10 that I buy have holes in them. Harder to store and makes everything more messy. Get a better product that I know how to work with, great flavor and I can use about 98% of the bag...waste is minimal almost in every bag. Shipping gets cheaper the more money I spend....usually about $400 in bbq products is about $14 shipping. I try to order this 2 times per year....spring and fall, keeps me going for the year.
I have now used this charcoal maybe 4 times or so......and I will be using it again this evening for thighs and breasts.
While most hunks are a fair size at the top ( I purchased a bag that was still "crisp", basically not beat up at all, edges were perfect ) there is a fair amount of smaller pieces as well......considerably more than JD lump.
Right now this isn't a problem too much as I am using the smaller pieces for the charcoal flavor and add them on top of the hot coals when I add my protein to the grill.
I have seen brands that have been the same in the past.....with smaller pieces when the bag is new.
What is going to happen as the bag gets closer to 1/4 of charcoal left is there will be mainly small pieces left, just not what I want to work with for the most part.
So there will be a considerable amount of unusable...or waste I believe, we will have to wait and see. I am using it on every cook until it is gone.
For $6.02 in saving vs. buying the JD lump it really just might not be worth it....
I also have not given it a high heat test yet, I will be trying to cook at 450 tonight, we will see how that fares.
The flavor of the charcoal seems to be fine, but I believe JD is far superior......at least with JD there is a flavor that can carry over to the protein if you want it to.
The choices I have to work with are........as I cook with lump 98% of the time.
New Quebec charcoal is fairly local, I can drive under and hour to get it and pick the bags I want to take home, possibly deal with waste and get an average or maybe better cook out of it....still pending final decisions on this brand.
or
Order JD lump over from a bbq place in the city ( going in person is 2+ hours driving and insanity traffic ) from the website. Pay $6 more for each bag and usually I get about 3 or 4 bags out of 8 to 10 that I buy have holes in them. Harder to store and makes everything more messy. Get a better product that I know how to work with, great flavor and I can use about 98% of the bag...waste is minimal almost in every bag. Shipping gets cheaper the more money I spend....usually about $400 in bbq products is about $14 shipping. I try to order this 2 times per year....spring and fall, keeps me going for the year.
Darryl - swazies
TVWBB Diamond Member
High heat was not even close to a problem.
1 wax cube.......got coals, added a handful more charcoal.
Hit 550 without trying too hard......got it settled and the meat on and it chilled out at 450 to 460 for the cook.
1 wax cube.......got coals, added a handful more charcoal.
Hit 550 without trying too hard......got it settled and the meat on and it chilled out at 450 to 460 for the cook.
Jim Lampe
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Bob Correll loved this stuff.... he got me into buying it.
jaystraw
TVWBB Member
I’ve never tried JD, but I just found it on Home Depot for $24 delivered for a 20 lb bag. I’ll give it a shot as I’ve heard others speak highly of it.
Darryl - swazies
TVWBB Diamond Member
Final follow up on my thoughts of you new favorite charcoal.
Overall it was a good charcoal, I had a few ups and downs with it.
High's:
It seems to have pretty good flavor. Lights extremely easy, gets red hot way faster than JD lump.......so hot its hard to hold the chimney to pour out the coals. It is like JD is so much more dense, so saying that it seems like the Basques doesn't work for a long time like JD does. Sprinkling smaller pieces on top of hot coals allows it to give of a bit of smoke considerably quickly.....I did this last night while grilling a flank steak for taco night, and the night before over hot cook chicken. The proteins had a distinct smoky charcoal flavor. I enjoyed this.
It is also locally obtainable for myself.
Lows:
Lots of waste in the bag, I tried to use a bunch of the smaller pieces but I am just not use to it. They are so small they not only fall through the chimney but also fall through the slow n sear in to the bottom of the kettle. I am use to JD so I had to dispose of more of it than I wanted to. To second the waste comment there is lots of waste when it comes to left over charcoal in the bin at next cook. The Basques is fragile once heated partially it seems, it just falls apart by touching it. It also turns to a brownish type color, it's different for sure. It is hard to describe. When I would throw out just enough charcoal to cover my palm with JD I am throwing away at least 10 times as much with my last cook....I would be able to use almost everything left of the JD. I found 3 items in the bag I had to throw away...like chunks of concrete.
Final thoughts:
The bag is 17.6lbs. vs. JD is 20lbs.
Lots of waste in every way vs. basically very minimal waste in JD.
$33.00 vs. $40 JD.
Drive an hour to get vs. shipped to my door for a pretty good price. ( gas is pretty crazy priced here still )
With the price difference it would be an easy quick decision....but based on how it heats, how much I need to use to cook and maintain temps, how much waste there is and just how good JD really is....makes my decision pretty easy.
I will be sticking with JD but I will for sure have a bag or 2 of this stuff around. For the positive reasons explained above mostly.
Thanks for reading up on my thoughts!
I don't have a lot of other valid charcoal brands I should evaluate like this...based on my living location, there really isn't much " good stuff "
Our Canadian Tire.....similar to a home depot style store has a bunch of brands but they are all worse than the second choice above.
Overall it was a good charcoal, I had a few ups and downs with it.
High's:
It seems to have pretty good flavor. Lights extremely easy, gets red hot way faster than JD lump.......so hot its hard to hold the chimney to pour out the coals. It is like JD is so much more dense, so saying that it seems like the Basques doesn't work for a long time like JD does. Sprinkling smaller pieces on top of hot coals allows it to give of a bit of smoke considerably quickly.....I did this last night while grilling a flank steak for taco night, and the night before over hot cook chicken. The proteins had a distinct smoky charcoal flavor. I enjoyed this.
It is also locally obtainable for myself.
Lows:
Lots of waste in the bag, I tried to use a bunch of the smaller pieces but I am just not use to it. They are so small they not only fall through the chimney but also fall through the slow n sear in to the bottom of the kettle. I am use to JD so I had to dispose of more of it than I wanted to. To second the waste comment there is lots of waste when it comes to left over charcoal in the bin at next cook. The Basques is fragile once heated partially it seems, it just falls apart by touching it. It also turns to a brownish type color, it's different for sure. It is hard to describe. When I would throw out just enough charcoal to cover my palm with JD I am throwing away at least 10 times as much with my last cook....I would be able to use almost everything left of the JD. I found 3 items in the bag I had to throw away...like chunks of concrete.
Final thoughts:
The bag is 17.6lbs. vs. JD is 20lbs.
Lots of waste in every way vs. basically very minimal waste in JD.
$33.00 vs. $40 JD.
Drive an hour to get vs. shipped to my door for a pretty good price. ( gas is pretty crazy priced here still )
With the price difference it would be an easy quick decision....but based on how it heats, how much I need to use to cook and maintain temps, how much waste there is and just how good JD really is....makes my decision pretty easy.
I will be sticking with JD but I will for sure have a bag or 2 of this stuff around. For the positive reasons explained above mostly.
Thanks for reading up on my thoughts!
I don't have a lot of other valid charcoal brands I should evaluate like this...based on my living location, there really isn't much " good stuff "
Our Canadian Tire.....similar to a home depot style store has a bunch of brands but they are all worse than the second choice above.
