Consumer Alert: Cowboy Lump

[TboneD]

You might've heard folks say this stuff isn't worth the bag it came in. You also might've had good results with it and thought it was a bargain. Truth is, it's because their quality control has been sporadic at best, and I'm DONE with it.

I should've taken a pic of the smoke pouring out of my charcoal chimneys. Yes, that's flooring scrap, and yes, a quarter of the stuff falls through the grate. Another quarter burns up in the chimney, and what's left burns up FAST!

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[TboneD]

I came to the same conclusion. Burns too fast. I just buy all natural briquettes


http://www.GoCarnivore.com

The problem I have with supposedly all natural briquettes is that many of them smoke a LOT, like more than just plain old Kingsford in the blue bag. I assume it's the starch binder in them. So anyhow, yes, they're good for grilling with when all ashed over, but I prefer not to use them in a charcoal smoker or grill when I'm trying to use wood for the smoke flavor. I actually had a few brands on hand a while back and did a test with three. If I recall, the cheap Sams Choice big briquettes smoked the least, and the B&B smoked the worst. I think Stubb's was the third one and smoked almost as bad. I just lit em and would just occasionally check them. It was easy to see the smoke coming off the ones that were smoking the worst. And as to what this translates to in taste, I'll put it like this. For a while now I've been doing most of my BBQ on my stickburner, burning mainly just hickory. Well, I decided it was just too easy to put a couple of pork butts on my 18.5" Weber smoker. So I used Kingsford Comp natural briquettes and a little hickory, and didn't foil. Well let me tell you what. It might've been ok but the flavor wasn't NEAR as good as thin blue hickory smoke I get with my offset smoker. Anyhow, probably more than you cared to know but I thought I'd share anyhow. [emoji5]

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[TAFKAP]

I used to buy the Cowboy brand, but haven't seen it in quite a while. I've noticed a bunch more wood in there than past attempts, but have switched to a number of different varieties with bigger chunks. I'm pretty used to it burning fast, and I just accept that as a part of grilling with lump charcoal.

 

[backroads]

I've normally had good luck with it, but I bought some Friday to grill some chicken. I noticed a couple pieces of wood chunks. It was the heaviest smoke I've ever encountered with this brand. I was surprised how much was used for the short cook.

Not sure if it was just a store increase, but it was about $2 more this time as well.