Nature's Hardwood Briquettes review

[necron 99]

I finally squeezed in a few tests of the Natures Hardwood briquettes recently. I grilled a sirloin steak one night with a partial chimney full, then I used the rest of the bag, plus a bag of El Mas Carbon mesquite lump, plus some Rancher briquettes, and some of my self-collected hand cut mesquite from when I lived in Texas to smoke a 9 pound USDA Select brisket weekend before last. I bought the Nature's Hardwood briquettes, Nature's Mesquite lump, and El Mas Carbon lump at my local Winn-Dixie, but surely there are other chains that carry the Nature's Grilling Products lineup.

My opinion is the Nature's Hardwood briquettes are a good product and in circumstances like cooking a full size brisket on a smaller smoker like my BBC, perhaps advantageous vs. Rancher from an ash management standpoint. The price of $4.99 per 9 pound bag regularly, $3.99 per 9 pound bag when on sale like the bag I picked up to try, is competitive with lump, but nothing beats the current Rancher charconomics. I plan on using a mix of Rancher and lump, supplemented with wood, on future briskets until my Rancher hoard is gone.

The Natures Hardwood briquettes are rounder and smaller than the Rancher briquettes. They fired up fine in my Weber chimney, but they take a bit of time to get going. No longer than a chimney full of Rancher though to me.

The Natures Hardwood briquettes appear to use very little binder compared to Rancher. There was a slight bit of popping in the chimney and when adding fresh cold briquettes to the fire as supplemental fuel. I'd almost charachterize them as 'pelletized lump'. When I blew on some of the coals after dumping the chimney but before putting the meat on during my sirloin grilling test, bits of the surface layer would fleck off, and these briquettes left very little ash behind to clean out the next day - considerably less than Rancher. They didn't produce any funky smells or flavors. They seemed to burn somewhat hotter than Rancher briquettes, which would fall in line with a lower binder to charcoal ratio. There were occasional broken briquettes and some higher than typical dust in the bag, but I've also found that with some bags of Rancher so the variables of handling in some point of the supply chain are possibly more to blame for that.

The El Mas Carbon lump burned fine. I used it exclusively as supplemental fuel, and there was some sparking and popping even in that mode. Not unexpected with mesquite lump though. I suspect the El Mas Carbon lump bags are filled at the same place the Nature's Mesquite lump bags are filled, but sell for $1 less per bag because they don't use the word 'Gourmet' on the package. I have a bag of the Nature's Mesquite lump I'll use on my next brisket for a true comparison - I have a 13 pound USDA Choice Angus brisket in the freezer right now I picked up at Super Target for $1.49 / lb!

So, I feel less paranoid about potentially not finding more Rancher after my stockpile runs out - enough so that I didn't clean out the last 15 or so bags of Rancher I saw on my last visit to the SE Baton Rouge Home Depot. My wife was amazed and approved of my restraint I'd also say I've progressed from being lumpaphobic from trying stuff like Cowboy years ago to more lump-accepting. A new Cabela's opens near here on Friday, maybe they'll carry the Fire King lump locally.

Pics to follow. Questions welcome.

The briquettes



The lumps



The slather & rub



Brisket at the start of the cook. I'm disappointed in the local family-owned grocery. Their sticker with price of $2.39 / lb identified this as USDA Choice Angus Brisket but when I took it out of the package, I saw it was marked USDA Select on the back by IBP. It came out fine, but I have since switched to Super Target for whole briskets, USDA Choice, for $1.49 / lb. The local Sam's Club sells USDA Select briskets for $1.60 / lb.


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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[loomis1228]

[necron 99]

Thanks.

I went to Whole Foods today, and I saw the Nature's Hardwood Briquettes for sale there, at $5.99 / 9 lb bag (higher than Winn-Dixie by $1). Looks like Whole Foods has chosen to sell this briquette in addition to it's house brand lump charcoal. I did not see any of the other Nature's Grilling Products offerings at Whole Foods - just the briquettes.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[USDA Monkey]

I just bought 2 bags for $3.25 a peice (the was selling them for $6.49 buy 1 get 1 free). I'll probably try it out tomorrow and post what I think of it.
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I Love a Good Fattie

[r6abusa]

Great review.

The only briquettes I have seen around here are Kingsford, America's Choice, Royal Oak, and Rancher.

[necron 99]

I'm looking forward to USDA Monkey's test report. I had too much shotgun effect in my test for good objectivity - I introduced too many new things at the same time.

I'd added one of those SS grilling woks as a charcoal basket for this cook, and it really only worked like a big fixed position damper. The next day when I cooked some baby backs and chickens using Rancher, I couldn't get the dang cooking chamber above 185 until I dumped the charcoal out of the blasted wok onto the charcoal grate! So, that's why I think this stuff burned hotter - I could maintain 225 to 250 with the Natures Hardwood briquettes and later with the El Mas Carbon lump.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!