Why not Cowboy??

[richtee]

Of Minion method fame?

 

[richtee]

And there ARE better choices. But at $4 a gallon gas, the Cowboy works. I'd prefer RO but- it is whut it is.

 

[coyote]

here is a link that you might find useful.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag

I guess use it if there is nothing else..I found it to be terrible lump..most just did not look like wood that I would use. and it seemed to throw sparks out every where.

 

[jminion]

Yes I be that minion.

I truely understand the fuel price thing, so I find what I want and make the trip buying as much as I can storing up for the long haul.

I have a catering company so we go thru a lot. I was recieving charcoal both briquets and lump from DuraFlame two years ago (they stopped the program). The briquets where very good, the lump was produced by Cowboy. I bought other product because it just didn't do the job when you have to produce food for a large crowd.

 

[richtee]

Pleezed to meetcha. And I WISH the economy here allowed me to do that... Grr.! "One pallet of RO please" ;{)

 

[smoking gun]

When I first found the RO at wallyworld there were 2 brand new pallets full. They were in the front by the checkout lanes. They were sandwiched between 2 pallets of Kingsford mesquite brikets and 2 pallets of regular kingsford brikets (blue bag) They moved them to lawn n garden about 2 weeks later. The have restocked the kingsford and have tons of sams choice brikets. No more ROlump tho. I know one of the guys that runs the L&G there but he's been on vacation for 3 weeks. Maybe thats why no mo lump. I'll hafta put a bug in his ear when he gets back. I'n the meantime I'm going to check the local Meijers stores for frontier. I'm with you Rich I wish I could just get a pallet of RO. 8 bags will last a while but not 4ever.

 

[white cloud]

When I decided to give lump a try I could not find RO, but found a bag of frontier brand. Now I dont know if it is the same MFG as cowboy but it was real shiney almost glass like. It did a lot of poppin and cracklin. I have yet to come across a bag of RO and have settled for with the advise from BBQ Bubba, a Gordon Food Service GFS brand of lump. It has large and small pieces with a dull flat finish on it and seems to work real good.

 

[meandmytwodogs]

I have used an a$$ load of CB before I started using RO and think I can really express what I've learnd about the diferences and I think I can give an educated opinion. The CB creates more ash, especially light ash that tends to float and land where you dont want it. besides that, it burns faster. This factor may be leveled a bit if you have a higher end smoker that holds temps longer, but it still will not burn as long as the RO. In a serious pinch....I will still use it. But only after I've gone to the last two places I've been able to score the RO. Last resort....it works. But don't tell anyone I said that. There are only two places I've been able to find this in Omaha. And it's only durring the summer! Grrrrrr! I can only stock up so much!

Not Dave

 

[wutang]

Glad to hear from someone who has used a bunch of both. In Omaha I have seen RO at Menards. I bought the bag that made me wright this thread at Westlake Hardware near Oakview. I have been in there several times this summer buying wood and it is the first time I have seen RO there. They have had Cowboy all summer. Again-thanks to everyone for the input

 

[sea_munky]

hey coyote...that's a really cool site. Didja see that weird piece in the Cowboy?

 

[bbqgoddess]

Here in So Cal, lump is not that easy to find...bbq galore carrys the big green egg lump great stuff....serious bling, bling...kroger has a lump burns a little faster and more of ash, the cb I found burned faster, lots tonnage of ash and hell I thought it was the fourth of July...thought I was going to set the house on fire had cabana boy running for the hose just in case....so kroger it is.....

 

[vlap]

An update from nakedwhiz.com on cowboy lump. Pretty interesting. By thier standards its not a bad lump at all.

[font=Verdana,Helvetica,Arial]"This is an updated version of this review. Since this review was originally done, we have added more tests and because Cowboy is so easy to find around the country, we felt we should update the review and bring up to our current standards. [/font] [font=Verdana,Helvetica,Arial]When we first wrote this review, we had heard a number of people on various forums praise this brand of lump charcoal and we were anxious to open our bag. We were left wondering why it gets such extreme praise. It appears to be a good basic charcoal, but that's about it. Of course, Cowboy has also been vilified on the web with accusations that they use scraps with finish on them. And there's a lot of knee-jerk types of statements to the effect that since the charcoal is made from scraps of wood, it can't be very good. So, let's see what this charcoal is really like. [/font]
[font=Verdana,Helvetica,Arial]The charcoal is indeed basically all scrap. We pick through every bag fairly closely and we can honestly say we didn't find a single piece of charcoal that wasn't scrap lumber. It should be noted that the raw material stream for Cowboy is the scrap from milling operations that make molding, flooring, etc. None of their raw materials have any finish applied. This is all unfinished kiln dried hardwoods." [/font]

 

[coyote]

yes, and the tootsie roll wrapper..looks like they just scoop anything in to the coal maker.lol. unfortunatly..I have seen weird looking stuff in most of that I have used. I just give it the once over now and discard the weird looking stuff.

 

[bbq bubba]

Glad you took my advise, just so you all know, GFS has it on sale for $4.99 a 20 lb bag right now.
It's R.O. in their own bag!

 

[richtee]

OK..I'm gone! Tanks Bubba!

 

[bbq bubba]

Thought you might like that info!!

 

[richtee]

Grr.... NOT on sale! Not in Rochester Hills anyway. $11 ... ah well. I got two anyway.

 

[phreak]

IMO lump is like a box of chocolates...

I think, as it's been said here before, that the biggest difference in lump is how the bags are handled. Most times I buy it at the grocery store I have to put a couple bags back because they have holes(probably means the bags were tossed). Which means the pcs will be broke up and have more dust, more small pcs etc.

 

[mgnorcal]

One interesting thing about CB is that it has no smell when burning.

I use mostly mesquite hardwood from Mexico, otherwise Lazzari hardwood lump and I've tried several others too, including orange wood lump. All of those put out significant smoke and flavor, sometimes I barely need to add wood chunks for stuff like chicken and meatloaf.

But with CB, the only flavor you're gonna get is from your smoke wood.

Has to do with the wood being kiln-dried first I think. But also because the pieces all look like end pieces of dimensional lumber and trim, no rounds and no branches.

 

[azrocker]

I have used cowboy and was unaware of the problems. I have noticed it burns faster. I am switching to RO thanks to all the good advice here.