Brian Thomas
TVWBB Pro
Like several here, I bought several bags of Royal Oak when it went on sale at Lowes during Memorial Day Weekend.
For high heat cooks it works fine but does take longer to light up as several have noted in the previous thread regarding Royal Oak. It also does not get as hot as KBB and burns down quicker. I haven't noticed any reduction in ash so far. I do like the fact that you don't get the white smoke fog buildup when you first light it though.
I've done two cooks with this stuff in the WSM and like the results so far. Cook #1 was two racks of ribs and they turned out great. One thing I found was that since the stuff burns at a lower temp than KBB, you don't need to fill the water pan. I learned this during the first cook when after two hours using a half filled water pan and all vents open at 100%, I was getting a reading at the grate of 198F! I was wondering *** was going on, so I emptied the water pan and after that it was no problem getting it to the 225-250 range. Lesson learned.
Cook #2 was a tri-tip with 3 chunks of oak mixed in with the Royal Oak. Used an empty pan lined with foil and it was no trouble at all maintaining temps in the 250 range. That turned out wonderful!
It does seem to have a better flavor profile then KBB so I may just save the last bag for smoking and buy more of the stuff the next time it goes on sale and just use it in the WSM.
Hope this helps.
For high heat cooks it works fine but does take longer to light up as several have noted in the previous thread regarding Royal Oak. It also does not get as hot as KBB and burns down quicker. I haven't noticed any reduction in ash so far. I do like the fact that you don't get the white smoke fog buildup when you first light it though.
I've done two cooks with this stuff in the WSM and like the results so far. Cook #1 was two racks of ribs and they turned out great. One thing I found was that since the stuff burns at a lower temp than KBB, you don't need to fill the water pan. I learned this during the first cook when after two hours using a half filled water pan and all vents open at 100%, I was getting a reading at the grate of 198F! I was wondering *** was going on, so I emptied the water pan and after that it was no problem getting it to the 225-250 range. Lesson learned.
Cook #2 was a tri-tip with 3 chunks of oak mixed in with the Royal Oak. Used an empty pan lined with foil and it was no trouble at all maintaining temps in the 250 range. That turned out wonderful!
It does seem to have a better flavor profile then KBB so I may just save the last bag for smoking and buy more of the stuff the next time it goes on sale and just use it in the WSM.
Hope this helps.
