I've never had any problems with Royal Oak. It's cheap, readily available, and burns well for me. I use Cowboy on occasion in a pinch, but only for grilling, never smoking.

MAPP torches work great for lighting the charcoal, BTW. 15 seconds in two or three spots will get the fire going pronto.

Boy I am glad so many do not like Royal Oak. In fairness, the regular bag is frustrating when it is all small pieces, as is ANY bag that has them small and powdery. That really can be affected by poor handling at the store as well.

By far, the best value and most impressed I have been, has been with Royal Oak XL.

B&B is hot hot but like 4th of july with crackling, 3 bags, all the same, good flavor though, still happy to use.

Rockwood I have bought on a pallet at Dizzy Pig here in VA, so very little handling, premium price, and it was full of tiny pieces, multiple bags... Bought 12 bags once... That was frustrating.

BGE has been ok, nothing noteworthy for me.

I haven't tried cowboy, because the internet seems pretty consistent on its quality. :-)

With any of them, I pick up, and listen to the bag. That has been best for me finding out what the bag has inside as far as size of lump.

I've tried the B&B once, it was awful and had chemical smell.

I have a Primo smoker and used to use the Primo brand lump and it was great but I use Royal Oak now since it is easy to find. Royal Oak makes BGE and Primo's Lump charcoal.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I use either lump mesquite or lump oak in my egg depending on what I am making. I live in Texas and use the HEB Central Market brand so no need to go with BGE brand for your egg.

Have you tried the B&B lump oak that HEB sells? I like it better than Central Market brand.

I have not. I will give it a try.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I use either lump mesquite or lump oak in my egg depending on what I am making. I live in Texas and use the HEB Central Market brand so no need to go with BGE brand for your egg.

Have you tried the B&B lump oak that HEB sells? I like it better than Central Market brand.

I have not. I will give it a try.

The B+B OAK lump is my go to brand. Very good and relatively mild flavor. Good assortment of pieces in it. Lasts a long time. It crackles/sparks a little when you first get it going, but it's the only downside I've seen to it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jimmy123x,

B&B Oak is what I use the most when I'm burning lump. I've used FOGO Premium and just bought some Jealous Devil because I found a decent deal on walmart.com.

quote:

Originally posted by wingfoot:
I've tried the B&B once, it was awful and had chemical smell.

Which one? They have 5 lump varieties (oak, hickory, mesquite, “hardwood”, “champion xl”) and oak brickets. Been using the oak lump for several years now and never had an awful smell. Used 2 bags of hickory lump in the last 2.5 months and it was almost as good as the oak.

Anyone following down the FOGO rabbit hole can use this link and get a 10% discount. Plus bonus points for me!

http://i.refs.cc/sV0QKTmA