What is everyone's favorite charcoal?
- Thread starter JohnTak
- Start date
Yep, ran a couple of small bags on a brisket a while back. Seemed to have a bit of hardwood smoke flavor, and maybe burned a bit hotter, but I didn't notice a huge difference from KBB, at least for me and how I was using it.
Charlie
Bradley Mack
TVWBB Pro
Weber briquettes here in Canada, or Jealous Devil. Depends what I’m cooking,
Steve Lenz
TVWBB Fan
Loved the flavor that stubs used to give the food. Have yet to find anything close.
Richard Garcia
TVWBB Wizard
Weber was my favorite
B&b oak briquettes, orange bag are good
I don't know why anybody would use lump for anything...... The odd sizes the small pieces it burnes so freaking hot you don't know what to expect..... I know people think that they're using real wood and that's why it's so popular but they're basically using carbonized trash in many cases.
I much prefer briquettes for everything they're predictable. It's really a shame that so many people have switched to lump for grilling.
Two pretty decent charcoals I've used recently..... A natural briquette charcoal from Paraguay that is sold at the dollar store..... It's a Royal oak charcoal line.... Briquettes are small and burn quite hot but it's good charcoal. I grilled some burgers with it about 2 weeks ago and they cooked in half the time they were cooking on my b&b briquettes.... The grill was hot, noticeably hot. Like lump hot.
Albertsons store brand charcoal. It's pretty good too. I'm pretty sure it's also Royal oak.... Always available and not too expensive.
Anything but kingsford, Kingsford has a stench it's nasty stuff.
Out of lack of briquetes, I threw some of the b&b competition char logs in the basket on the smoker under some lit briquettes when I cook the pork butt recently........ The fire went out..... Those things are garbage for cooking with...... Next time I may try crushing them up with a hammer first see if it's any better just to get rid of them
B&b oak briquettes, orange bag are good
I don't know why anybody would use lump for anything...... The odd sizes the small pieces it burnes so freaking hot you don't know what to expect..... I know people think that they're using real wood and that's why it's so popular but they're basically using carbonized trash in many cases.
I much prefer briquettes for everything they're predictable. It's really a shame that so many people have switched to lump for grilling.
Two pretty decent charcoals I've used recently..... A natural briquette charcoal from Paraguay that is sold at the dollar store..... It's a Royal oak charcoal line.... Briquettes are small and burn quite hot but it's good charcoal. I grilled some burgers with it about 2 weeks ago and they cooked in half the time they were cooking on my b&b briquettes.... The grill was hot, noticeably hot. Like lump hot.
Albertsons store brand charcoal. It's pretty good too. I'm pretty sure it's also Royal oak.... Always available and not too expensive.
Anything but kingsford, Kingsford has a stench it's nasty stuff.
Out of lack of briquetes, I threw some of the b&b competition char logs in the basket on the smoker under some lit briquettes when I cook the pork butt recently........ The fire went out..... Those things are garbage for cooking with...... Next time I may try crushing them up with a hammer first see if it's any better just to get rid of them
Last edited:
Martin, I will respectfully disagree with pretty much every single one of your points.
I want to burn charcoal, not charcoal plus binders. Since I've switched to lump, I've found that I really dislike the odor of briquettes, and the brand does not appear to matter. Nor cleaning up the much larger amount of ash produced by briquettes.
You really think you know what goes into briquette feedstock? What charcoal you are getting in briquettes is ground, pulverized, mixed with a binder & molded. The manufacturing process will allow hiding of an awful lot of cheap material. With lump, I can at least tell that I'm getting hardwood (yes, even remnants from other wood manufacturing.)
I won't argue that heat production is variable with lump vs. briquettes. That doesn't matter in my gravity fed smoker with a HeaterMeter, and in my grill with an adjustable charcoal tray, I have very good control over heat at the cooking surface.
I want to burn charcoal, not charcoal plus binders. Since I've switched to lump, I've found that I really dislike the odor of briquettes, and the brand does not appear to matter. Nor cleaning up the much larger amount of ash produced by briquettes.
You really think you know what goes into briquette feedstock? What charcoal you are getting in briquettes is ground, pulverized, mixed with a binder & molded. The manufacturing process will allow hiding of an awful lot of cheap material. With lump, I can at least tell that I'm getting hardwood (yes, even remnants from other wood manufacturing.)
I won't argue that heat production is variable with lump vs. briquettes. That doesn't matter in my gravity fed smoker with a HeaterMeter, and in my grill with an adjustable charcoal tray, I have very good control over heat at the cooking surface.
Les Stubby
TVWBB Fan
I use Humphrey lump. when available. Loved Weber briquettes for smoking, but those days are apparently gone.
Les
Les
Gib Gibson
TVWBB Member
I go with Kingsford. Never really tried anything else but I've been happy with what I've got too. Seems to burn pretty well for me.
David Livesay
New member
KBB. I use Kingsford Competition to start my KBB Minion and snake. Starts quick and hot.
I just tried Jealous Devil XL lump for the first time, pretty impressive stuff. Got huge chunks in the box and no foreign objects. It burns very clean, no sparks. I got mine at Tractor Supply CO, it's $1/lb there and that's the max I'd spend on charcoal.
I did a 7 hour cook on my Akorn and had plenty of leftover charcoal the next day. It for sure burns longer than Royal Oak.
Not sure I'd continue to buy more because of the price, but I've been wanting to try it due to the hype.
I did a 7 hour cook on my Akorn and had plenty of leftover charcoal the next day. It for sure burns longer than Royal Oak.
Not sure I'd continue to buy more because of the price, but I've been wanting to try it due to the hype.
JohnTak
TVWBB Pro
The informal count of personal favorite charcoal has been very interesting. The most popular top 5 are.
1 KBB 14 votes
2 Jealous Devil 11 votes
3 B&B Briq 6 votes
4 Royal Oak Briq 5 votes
B&B Char Logs 5 votes
5 Royal Oak Lump 4 votes
Weber Briq 4 votes
Thanks for sharing it was very interesting and fun!
Please continue to share your favorites.
1 KBB 14 votes
2 Jealous Devil 11 votes
3 B&B Briq 6 votes
4 Royal Oak Briq 5 votes
B&B Char Logs 5 votes
5 Royal Oak Lump 4 votes
Weber Briq 4 votes
Thanks for sharing it was very interesting and fun!
Please continue to share your favorites.
Jeff Boudman
TVWBB Wizard
Thanks for the heads up. B&B Competition is still on backorder at my ACE.
timothy
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Me too.
