Royal Oak Plus Briquettes


 
Shawn W

Shawn W

TVWBB Emerald Member
Continued from 'New Kingsford Sucks' thread, for discussion about impressions of and experiences with Royal Oak Plus briquettes:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
I just finished a MM cook with Royal Oak Plus (red bag) briquettes. It was fine. Nice smell coming off those briquettes too. They needed a stir around the ten hour mark as well ... got about 14 hours of 225F from a full ring. I had picked it up in the fall on sale for about half of reg retail price of Kingsford ... I'd use it again any day.
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Originally posted by Tony Hunter:
Shawn,

What about the ash? Was it as bad as Kingsford?

Tony
Click to expand...

Tony the ash production was the same with Royal Oak Plus, perhaps even a bit more than Kingsford. When the WSM cools I'll clean it out and see ...
 
Here are some pics of Royal Oak Plus briquettes:

ROB02.jpg

Last year's Kingsford on the left, Royal Oak Plus on the right. Notice the brown specks in the Royal Oak? It's all through the briquettes ... sure looks like real wood. The Kingsford briquette (left) weighed 25g while the Royal Oak Plus briquette weighed 39g (28g/ounce).

Royal Oak Plus Bag Picture (55k)

Side by Side Profile (40k). Last year's Kingsford on the left, Royal Oak Plus on the right.
 
Last year I bought several bags of Royal Oak briquets. The bag doesn't have the "Plus" designation on it so I'm not sure if what I have is the same.

IME, the RO I have burns the same as old Kingsford or a slight bit faster if at all. However, there seems to be more ash and it's "fluffier" than Kingsford.

Given people's complaint with new Kingsford, I'll be buying more RO, if not lump, when I run out of my current stash.
 
Yeah, there seems to be more ash with Royal Oak Plus qriquettes than with Kingsford ... it's lighter though ... I'd agree with the 'fluffier' description.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe Preiser:
Last year I bought several bags of Royal Oak briquets. The bag doesn't have the "Plus" designation on it so I'm not sure if what I have is the same... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know either Joe, I've not seen Royal Oak briquetttes, only the 'Plus' bags ... maybe thats how its packaged for sale in Canada. I can get Royal Oak Plus at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Canadian Tire in season.
 
I just bought a bag in Atlanta. Its label says "Royal Oak Premium." Same formula? Who knows?
 
I done a test this past weekend myself with Royal Oak. I got 2 20 lb bags at Lowe's for 5.77 each. What I got says Royal Oak Premium . First time for using Royal Oak.

I lit a full chimney and poured in the WSM. It smokes alot worse than kingsford for sure as it gets going and flames alot more when poured in the ring. After the flames died out it was grayed over real nice and time to start cooking. My lid temp says 280. I closed all 3 vents 50%. By the time I got the meat on it dropped to 220, just right for me.

I cooked 2 slabs of ribs cut in half in a rib rack on the top shelf and 2 chicken breasts and 4 chicken quarters on the bottom. Added 6 chunks of cherry and 2 oak chunks for smoke. The smoke lasted a good 2 hours which is about right for me but may be to much for some.

About every 30 minutes I would check on it and it went almost perfect. At the 3 hour mark I sprayed all the meat with a good coat of apple juice from a spray bottle. Pulled the ribs and wrapped in 2 layers of foil and back on the top shelf.

I lit another chimney full before pulling the meat and poured half of it in my kettle and used the other half for my Dutch ovens. I have the charcoal holders and I filled one side full and moved the chicken onto the kettle as the internal temp was as 138 at the 3 hour mark. The kettle lid temp showed 350 degrees. After another 2 hours I pulled the ribs from the foil and moved to the kettle and added my BBQ sauce to both chicken and ribs.

So After the 3 hour mark the WSM had dropped to 190 so I opened the vents 100% and it came back up to 210 for the last 2 hours. After removing the meat I left the WSM closed as if I were still cooking on it. At the 6 hour mark it had dropped to 170. So in my opinion a full chimney of Royal Oak Premium lasted 6 hours in the WSM for me. What was left was about 10 or 12 pieces the size of a big marble. Keep in mind this was a full chimney and not a full ring.

With the Dutch ovens I have a tater receipe I cook in it and a smaller oven of a pork and bean recipe of mine. The Royal Oak does burn up faster than kingsford for Dutch oven cooking. Kingsford will usually last about 3 hours under and on top of the ovens but the Royal Oak was completely burned out at the 2 hour mark but my beans and taters were done anyway. With Dutch ovens I haven't noticed any difference with the old or new kingsford, same burn time.

All in all, we ate like kings and I was happy with everything. It does cook different than kingsford but I didn't have any major issues with it. After this trial I must say that for me the old kingsford, new kingsford and Royal Oak priemium is all about the same. I would use any of them at any time, just keep in mind the differences.

My next trial needs to be lump of some kind, I have used it a few times but not much. It doesn't work good with the Dutch ovens I do know that.

Sorry for being so long and scattered out but as you can tell I slept threw most of my english class! I wanted to get most of the details in somewhere.

Any comments welcomed.

Randy
 
I have been using Royal Oak Briquettes since I got my WSM about a year and a half ago. Actually, I often use Kroger brand which appears to be identical. I used old Kingsford on cooks over 12 hours and RO on those under.

It does burn somewhat faster than old Kingsford, but the ash is less of a problem. When the Royal Oak is done, the grate is mostly empty as the ash falls through, but when the Kingsford is burned out, there is still a clump of ash that has to be dealt with. Moving it can cause ash to puff up in the cooker and coat the food.

I also think the RO is a bit harder to get lit than the old Kingsford. However, overall it works pretty well. My gut feel is that RO has fewer binders and gunk than Kingsford based on the rougher shape of the briquettes, but that may just be wishful thinking.
 
I agree on the makeup of the kingsford, it has to have something in it to make it so smooth and yes the ash does seem better than kingsford. It suprised me when it all fell through the grate because kingsford doesn't do that.

That is also my thinking, kingsford on the overnighters and RO for anything else.

Randy
 
I've used a couple of bags of the RO briqs. I was going to do some grilling and it took about 45 min, maybe more, for a full Weber C to ash over. If it burns that slow on a low/slow cook, that might be a plus - maybe use some new K for lit ?

I'm going to use some new K and see about making quanity and vent adjustments.

Paul
 
Just finished my first cook with regular RO bought at Lowes for 5.77 a 20lb bag...(I am very interested in more information on the premium/plus variety so keep posting!)...

My cook was loinback ribs...the RO lights slower and during the cooks they seem to gain temperature slower...I couldn't quite get the same higher temp with RO as easily compared to the old K product...I did have to stir the coals to get a higher temp laters in the cook...I noticed slightly less ash...

Overall, I think I would have preferred the old k-product over RO but it's a close call...you just have to learn its quirks...

While I'll miss the old k-product it is nice to be forced to try new things...I still have two large bags of Wicked Good "Competition Blend" in my garage that I'll use for a long butt cook in a week or so and I've ordered Wicked Good "Weekend Warrior" blend so I'm going to switch to lump after my stash of old K-product is gone...

I'll report my findings after my cooks with lump...

Keep posting those observations about other charcoal products! Great information...
 
I contacted Royal Oak Enterprises in Roswell GA looking for information about the differences between Royal Oak, Premium and Plus briquette products.

Royal Oak Enterprises
1 Royal Oak Ave
Roswell, GA 30076
(678) 461-3200

So far I got an 'I dunno' and a 'Would you like to leave a message with my supervisor?' (which I did)... also, they said they had no electronic brochures to send me

Not a lot of love so far but I hope to hear back and I'll keep the thread updated...
 
My experience with RO briqs is that it was better then old Kford as far as ashes, but could only get about %80 of the burn time (still more then enough - I got 18 hours of of RO with 1 stir at 14. I can get 20-22 on Kford).

All things ven, if RO is cheaper, I'm buying.
 
I just bought 40 lbs of royal oak premium at wallyworld for $5. Looks like I need to go back and get some more. I'm smoking two chuck roasts ( 7.5lber & a 6.0 lber).
 
I put the two chuck roasts on at 8:15pm stayed at 220 at last check 1:15am, at 6:30am temp was 180. checked the coals at they were about all ash put another lit chimney in to finish.
 
Hi there;

I am new to TVWB and I apologize for resurrecting a year old thread but I do have a question regarding Royal Oak Plus (red bag) briquettes...

Around here Kingsford is kinda hard to find but Royal Oak Plus is quite common... so when I was unable to find any Kingsford I in turn bought a (exactly as pictured by Shawn W earlier in the thread.) 18 pound bag of Royal Oak Plus (red bag) briquettes... I fired up a chimney of 50% Kingsford and 50% Royal Oak on the WSM and after a while got down to doing a simple pair of beer can chickens..

Well... as I sat there watching the smoke gently rise from the WSM I got a little Idle and grabbed the now empty bag of Kingsford and was reading the bag... (Yeah I was bored lol) and afterward I grabbed the Royal Oak Plus bag and proceeded to read it as well...


Well... What should I find in the small print on the top/side of the Royal Oak Plus bag as part of the instructions and safety information... (you know the part nobody ever reads cause it says things you don't really expect sane people will do like "Do not eat the briquettes... etc...)

<span class="ev_code_PURPLE">Do Not Use in a Water Smoker Grill)</span>

Whoa! What the heck??!!? And of course, UNLIKE Kingsford, there is NO 1-800 number OR even a website address on the bag...

Has ANYONE ever seen this on the bag or ever talked to a Roal Oak sales rep etc? Any info would be appreciated... mind you I think I will be keeping a greater eye out for Kingsford when I can or perhaps the Royal Oak Lump?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dru C.:

Well... What should I find in the small print on the top/side of the Royal Oak Plus bag as part of the instructions and safety information... (you know the part nobody ever reads cause it says things you don't really expect sane people will do like "Do not eat the briquettes... etc...)

<span class="ev_code_PURPLE">Do Not Use in a Water Smoker Grill)</span>

Whoa! What the heck??!!? And of course, UNLIKE Kingsford, there is NO 1-800 number OR even a website address on the bag...

Has ANYONE ever seen this on the bag or ever talked to a Roal Oak sales rep etc? Any info would be appreciated... mind you I think I will be keeping a greater eye out for Kingsford when I can or perhaps the Royal Oak Lump? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I have no idea why that's on there, pay no attention to it. If you knew what kingsford put in their charcaol you would never use it again, and I myself don't use that crap. The Royal Oak is a good charcoal and you are lucky to have it available to you to use. Of course this is just my opinion and I know many competions have been won with people using Kingsford but IMO it's crap. Now since your up North there you need to find yourself some of the Maple Leaf Briqs or their Lump, that's some Damn good charcoal Buddy. Probably the best I have ever used.
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Sadly we can no longer get here in the states.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Do Not Use in a Water Smoker Grill </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I was AWOL when that thread update happened, never noticed it.

Whoa. Ran out and checked and it's on my bags too. I'll be darned.
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I'll have to try to find out what that's about but I'm inclined to agree with Bryan ... I've used dozens of bags of the stuff and I'm still alive.
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They probably meant something like 'Do not use in a water smoker in the bathtub while sleeping'.
 
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