I've discovered recently that Royal Oak charcoal briquettes are nothing but ground charcoal with a corn starch binder!!!
This from their website;
"Our USA produced briquets are made from ground charcoal mixed and bound with cornstarch, which is then formed into Ridge briquets. "
I think that probably the reason I did not originally like Kingsford or Royal Oak, is because of the additives in the briq's. That along with the stench.
Now, I've realized that the reason is that the charcoal I've always used has maple, beech & birch in the mix, or pure sugar maple, depending on the brand. It's an aroma I got used to. Royal Oak, IMO has more oak, hickory... etc in the blend. To me it stank/stunk... smelled bad, just because I wasn't used to it. I had bought some RO briquettes because they were on sale... and wasn't impressed because of the to me "stench", but it started to smell OK after a few cooks. Then one day I lit up some pure white oak lump to do some steaks, and to me it stank just as bad as KBB or RO. That's when it hit me... It wasn't the charcoal itself, it was the wood used. Wood I wasn't used to.
So, now I'm really liking the Royal Oak briquettes, especially since I can get them for $8.99 for a 15.7 lb bag.
So, I respectfully take my foot out of my mouth as RO is concerned.
