Royal Oak or Kinsford?

[Smokinfunk]

That's pretty much what I was imagining, and I'm glad to hear that is the case. In addition to smoking, I tend to do beer can chicken (in many variations) pretty regularly - so this would be perfect since that's indirect. And since my smoker's firebox is kind of challenging (too many air leaks, making temperature regulation a high-maintenance process), I may try it for smoking as well. Guess I'll have to grab a couple bags!

Thanks lots, PT!!
_________________
============================
WSM 22.5", Digi-Q ATC, Cyber-Q ATC
Brinkmann Cimarron Deluxe offset smoker
Weber One-touch 22.5" grill
Weber One-touch 26" grill
============================

If God hadn't meant for us to eat animals, He would not have made them out of meat!

[Smokinfunk]

Well my wife was over at Home Depot and picked up a bag of the Original Charcoal Company Rancher 100% Natural Hardwood Briquette Charcoal we've been talking about. Didn't have time to BBQ anything this weekend so I opted for some Spicy Island Chicken Wings and tried out the new charcoal. The recipe is for direct cooking, medium-hot fire.

PT - I wonder if maybe it was one of our famous North Carolina super-humid days when you tried this product? I say this because you mentioned it was slow starting with a chimney. I had no problem yesterday afternoon - fired right up. But I must also acknowledge the relative humidity was not too bad (I've definitely had a hard time getting anything going quickly in the chimney when it's a steaming day).

I did notice as you did - more ash than you get with lump, but definitely not as much as most briquettes. Overall, I really like the product and will definitely continue using it. They aren't exaggerating when they say 100% natural - the only additive is natural yucca starch to bind the briquettes together.

In the interests of completeness, in case anyone else is reading this - I used to have substantially greater problems getting anything going in the charcoal chimney on just 1 or 2 sheets of newspaper. Kept having to put more in. Then I starting using another recommended method, which I can't remember if I found here or another site, but it helped with my efforts so much I'll recount it here:

Take a single double-width sheet of newspaper, roll it loosely into a tube. Do this again with another sheet of newspaper so that you have two long tubes.

In the Weber charcoal chimney, place a tube into the bottom chamber so that it follows the inner ring of the chimney (like a tire inner-tube). Do the same with the second tube of newspaper so that one is above the other (not one inside the other). Light 'er up.

I think the reason this works so much better than crumpling up the newspaper is because it leaves the inner area of the chimney with unobstructed airflow which gives better combustion, yet the rolled tubes allow the paper to burn a bit longer. As a side benefit, it also seems that I have a lot less of little ash-bits of newspaper flying around while I wait for the charcoal to come up to temp - the tubes seem to keep the ashes "together" better.
_________________
============================
WSM 22.5", Digi-Q ATC, Cyber-Q ATC
Brinkmann Cimarron Deluxe offset smoker
Weber One-touch 22.5" grill
Weber One-touch 26" grill
============================

If God hadn't meant for us to eat animals, He would not have made them out of meat!