Large Lumps of Charcoal...?

[Egghead.jr]

Can anyone steer me in a direction to purchase Lump Charcoal that's mostly BIG LUMPS instead of all the tiny pieces many brands put in their bags..? I have had good success with Cowboy Brand in their smaller 20lb bags until my wife surprised me when she bought an enormous 40lb bag of Cowboy brand while she was at COSTCO. I was thrilled until I opened it only to find that it was 99% VERY SMALL pieces that I regard as completely useless. I just found an extruded charcoal I believe the brand is B&R or B&B in a bright red bags that I found at Academy Sports. The large extruded pieces work very well in the charcoal basket in the bottom of my Pit Barrel Cooker and then covered with a single layer of original Kingsford briquettes. set up this way, it will burn for over five or even six hours.

 

[browneyesvictim]

You will fine more than you ever wanted to know here:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumprank.htm
A lot depends on what is available where you live. But knowledge is powerful when you spot a new or different brand of bag in a store near you. Cowboy is not so great as you found out. And try Royal Oak Ridge instead and get away from Kingsford. They changed their recipe.

 

[Geebs]

Im all stocked up on Kingsford, but once I am through those i am switching to the Royal Oak, someone posted a chart on here in comparison and the Royal Oak stayed hotter and burned longer leaving the same amount of ash behind.

 

[fullsmoke]

I love Ro lump the best charcoal I ever used !!!

 

[Egghead.jr]

You will fine more than you ever wanted to know here:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumprank.htm
A lot depends on what is available where you live. But knowledge is powerful when you spot a new or different brand of bag in a store near you. Cowboy is not so great as you found out. And try Royal Oak Ridge instead and get away from Kingsford. They changed their recipe.

Browneyesvictim, Thanks for posting this link that allows me to read every conceivable thing I would ever need to know about all the different brands of Lump, Extruded & Coconut charcoal. I live in Missouri and know there is a lump charcoal manufacturer in the Ozarks. (South Central MO.) I'm wondering if they'd let me visit and buy five or ten bags of their biggest chunks right off their floor..? Half of them would keep me in Charcoal for the entire summer and I could sell the others to friends.

 

[browneyesvictim]

There ya go! You are in prime wood country there in MO for good charcoal actually. I am sure you can find what suits you.

 

[SmokinAl]

RO lump here too!
Stay away from Cowboy, unless you like fireworks!!
Al

 

[hebs]

Cowboy is horrible IMO... I've seen stuff in there that looks like old furniture pieces. I typically use Royal Oak which doesn't have a ton of large lumps per bag and sure there's tons of better choices that cost more $, but I have 2 lump buckets that I sort my bags into. 1 for all of the large lump, and the other for the rest. I only use the large lump for smokes so the bucket is usually full by the time I smoke. (once a month if I'm lucky) If you smoke too much for that to be an option, check out some of your local butcher shops. I've found they tend to stock some pretty good stuff. Can't go wrong with http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumprank.htm like browneyesvictim stated, but I would look into your local butcher shops first.

 

[BrontoBurger]

You will fine more than you ever wanted to know here:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumprank.htm
A lot depends on what is available where you live. But knowledge is powerful when you spot a new or different brand of bag in a store near you. Cowboy is not so great as you found out. And try Royal Oak Ridge instead and get away from Kingsford. They changed their recipe.

Thanks so much for the link! Cowboy was my first bag that I used on Monday with that NY Strip. Worked well, but I'm a newbie, so can't judge, LOL. My next purchase will take the above into consideration!

 

[noboundaries]

Here out West we do have RO Lump at HD, but mesquite lump is pretty much the go-to and about one third to half the price of RO Lump. I had a bag of Sonora Mesquite out in the garage that I decided to use to hot smoke a turkey today. I opened the 15 lb bag, and found some nice pieces, some small stuff, and two pieces that literally made up half the weight of the bag! Hold on, I'm going to go take a picture. I saved them because I remembered this thread. Be right back.

The two pieces in a HD bucket.

The larger of the two pieces.