Cowboy briquettes??

[mike.stavlund]

I saw this for the first time today at Kmart. No bargain at about 50 cents/lb, but seems promising. Claims no fillers or toxic binders (though when Trader Joes claims the same it means their charcoal will crumble when heated).

Has anyone tried this?


Sent from my iPhone using my fingers

[Davescprktl]

Sorry just can't trust that brand anymore.  They have had a really bad track record.  Buyer beware!

[jcnaz]

Cowboy charcoal products and Stubb's charcoal are both made by the Duraflame Company. I would sure give this a try, it my just be re-branded Stubb's!
In my area, Stubb's is about $.75/lb.

http://www.cowboycharcoal.com/charcoalmenu.html

[SixZeroFour]

Cowboy charcoal products and Stubb's charcoal are both made by the Duraflame Company.

Interesting! The Cowboy is NOT rebranded Stubbs... In fact I think Trader Joes was selling the rebranded Cowboy (cheaper) briquettes as even the bag graphics are very similar between the two. I used to love the stuff (TJ's) but the last batch I picked up had plastic fibres sticking out of many of the briquettes across multiple bags. Now all I buy is Stubbs and Royal Oak briquettes. 

[austin87]

@SixZeroFour http://royal-oak.com/charcoal-products

Are all the RO briquettes the same? They appear to be, just regionally branded. I've seen Embers at Home Depot but never picked them up. I use Stubbs briqs and RO lump but wouldn't mind another good briquette to add to the stash.

[Travis]

@austin87 I picked a bag of Walmarts brand. It's called backyard basic. 16.6 lb for $5. The briquettes are bigger than kbb brand and do not seem to be as dense. So far, the longest cooks I've ran them on is two hours, replenishing a dozen or so after around an hour. I haven't tried smoking anything yet with them, but they will work for me with that kind of savings.  Same amount of ash.

[charred]

I seem to be in the minority about this, but I contend that Cowboy Lump had a real good stretch of quality product as recently as a couple of years ago. I switched from gas to charcoal a few years ago and soon made the progression to lump. I read about the crap people were finding in their Cowboy bags, and so I steered clear. Then someone posted that they had a good experience w/ it and when it was clearanced at Lowe's I bought a couple bags. It was sparky, but otherwise fine. There was no foreign material in the bags, so I went back and bought the 20 or so they had left. In all those bags, I found 1 non-wood item- some kind of flimsy curly-cue soft springy thing. I ran out of it over this winter, but last summer I found a new favorite lump called Pitmaster, from Paraguay. (I can't find anything else about it).

Last week I bought my first bag of Frontier, and in the very first pour into the WSM, out came 2 8-inch small-diameter green tree branch pieces. 

[TheDude]

I have found rocks and nails in spent cowboy lump. No thank you. Finally found a place here that carries RO. The pieces are terribly ununiform, but haven't found anything weird in it.

[jcnaz]

@SixZeroFour http://royal-oak.com/charcoal-products

Are all the RO briquettes the same? They appear to be, just regionally branded. I've seen Embers at Home Depot but never picked them up. I use Stubbs briqs and RO lump but wouldn't mind another good briquette to add to the stash.

Austin, I recently had a phone conversation with a representative of the Royal Oak Charcoal Co. in which I asked about this. He stated that all of the Royal Oak Ridged briquettes have the same basic formula, which is similar to Kingsford/KBB (hardwood char, coal dust, borax, limestone, etc.). The regional brands have different hardwoods (mesquite, hickory, maple, etc.) added for aroma/flavor. The Embers brand follows the basic formula and is bagged for Home Depot. Most store brand charcoals around the country are also produced in this way by Royal Oak.
The reason that I was speaking to this gentleman was to get some information about the OTHER Royal Oak briquettes:



http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/off-topic/royal-oak-chef-select/msg96327/#msg96327
These are high quality 100% hardwood briquettes that are marketed to the restaurant industry. I just bought some more through my local hardware store for $.55/lb ($21.99/40lb.bag). I like them as well as Stubb's and better than Kingsford Competition/Professional.

$0.02

[SixZeroFour]

Thanks for this @jcnaz - good info! I'm going to have to try to track down some of that's Chef's Select just for kicks.

@austin87 I have only used the standard RO briquettes myself but based on jc's info wouldn't be scared to try any others. Seems like a good product.

[Travis]

Thanks for this @jcnaz - good info! I'm going to have to try to track down some of that's Chef's Select just for kicks.

@austin87 I have only used the standard RO briquettes myself but based on jc's info wouldn't be scared to try any others. Seems like a good product.

I wouldnt mind trying a bag of that either. Only problem I have with lump is all the unusable pieces or dust I always find with any brand. RO, imo, seems to have the least, but all that is just bad filtering from the factories. All that dust adds up boys

[charred]

The dust has never come close to equaling the extra ash from regular briqs compared to lump.

[TheDude]

The dust has never come close to equaling the extra ash from regular briqs compared to lump.

I really don't see much difference. I use lump for high heat cooks. Steaks, wings... Everyday cooking and smoking gets kbb.

[mike.stavlund]

I picked up a bunch of RO lump last year when it was on sale at Home Depot.  I really like it-- probably a tie between that and Frontier as my favorite lump.  Though I do find some rocks in the RO lump, which is really aggravating.  The Frontier is generally free of debris, though I do tend to buy bags from the US rather than Mexico (I buy the 32 lb bags at BJs, where they tend to stock both versions). 

For briquettes, I like Stubb's the best.  But that might be because I rant out of Coshell. 

I've had really bad experience with Trader Joe's briquettes, and in my experience the RO briquettes are about the same (smudgy smoke, and they crumble to dust before  one cook is even complete). 

I might try some Cowboy briquettes, but I can currently afford to wait for a sale (aka, I over stocked last summer  ;-) 

[charred]

Mucho more ash w/ KBB than lump. It's akin to the difference in ash left in the wood stove from burning wood or compressed sawdust blocks.