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Royal Oak no thanks!

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Comments

  • AUWAG
    AUWAG Posts: 73
    BGE = Royal oak.  Throw away the extra cash if you want to but it's kind of silly.
    I haven't found RO where I live but I always question any product which is supposedly identical to the premium brand. It's like coming out with a generic before your patent is up. Why not charge more for both?  I guess I am just negative and pessimistic. I hear RO is good and trust that but why is there even BGE charcoal to begin with? 
  • I personally use BGE lump and don't mind paying a premium. It is consistent and burns very well. I have used different brands but would rather spend a dollar extra per cook to make sure my more expensive meat isn't ruined because I saved a $1 on my charcoal. Meat=more important to me and BGE coal is amazingly consistent
    Excellent point. I would never compromise my cooks for cost.
    If that was true you would hire a professional chef to cook for you every time.  That makes no sense.  We all have a price.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • Well since we were talking about lump, I assumed most people would get the context.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • AUWAG
    AUWAG Posts: 73
    Yes I am well aware but not every name brand has a generic and there are slight differentiations as there are with coke and chek cola. I am confused why these products are supposedly identical and are compared as such. Why does BGE lump even exist? I rarely see a post about problems with its consistency but RO and other products seem to have some issues. 
  • AUWAG
    AUWAG Posts: 73
    So the same is to be said with any BGE product? The kamado joe is in the same boat I assume?

    Not to be rude but I do not think I've found a post having a problem with BGE charcoal and there are plenty of RO ones. This makes me think it is slightly different. 
  • troutgeek
    troutgeek Posts: 458
    Actually, generic and name brand drugs are identicle concerning the active ingredients, but not so much for the inactive/filler ingredients. The inactive ingredients can have different absorbsion rates, causing the brand name to perform better. Not always, and not for everyone, but for some, there is a difference. The inactive ingredients are the true close kept secrets of the drug industry.
    XL BGE - Large BGE - Small BGE - Traeger Lil' Tex Elite - Weber Smokey Joe
  • gte1
    gte1 Posts: 379
    You do know that generic drugs are chemically identical to name brands.  To purchase a name brand because of a fancy label does nothing but cost you more.  Same for BGE lump and royal oak.



    Even though the dosages of generics are the same the amount of drug available in the bloodstream may vary by up to 10%. In certain situations that can be very significant. They are defiantly not exact copies of the brand name.

    As far as lump is concerned, my last few bags of RO have been very inconsistent. I hope this is not a trend. Just ordered 5bags of WG from my local Ace.

    George

    George
  • gte1
    gte1 Posts: 379
    Which one is FALSE the statement about the generics or the lump?

    A generic drug contains the same active ingredient, which provides therapeutic benefit, as does the brand-name version. But having the same medicinal component does not mean the two pharmaceuticals are identical. They may contain different inactive ingredients, including those for pill coatings and color or to bind the constituents into tablet form. They also may vary in bioequivalency, which is the amount of drug that is available in the bloodstream at any point in time. In fact, a 2009 FDA study showed that of 2,070 orally administered generic drug products approved by the agency between 1996 to 2007, generics differ in bioequivalency from brand names, on average, by about 3.5 percent; less than two percent varied by more than 10 percent.

    The minority of patients for whom a switch might be problematic are those on narrow-margin therapeutic index drugs, such as anticoagulants and antihypertension meds for which there is a fine line between a dosage that is beneficial and one that is toxic. Even when using pioneer (or brand-name) drugs, doctors monitor patients on these types of medications until they find the precise dose that works with each person's physiology. Switching medication, especially if there's even a small bioequivalence variability, can introduce a change that throws off therapy.
    George
  • Eggbertsdad
    Eggbertsdad Posts: 804
    Lump=drugs?!


    Sarasota, FL via Boynton Beach, FL, via Sarasota, FL, via Charleston, SC, via The Outer Banks, via God's Country (East TN on Ft. Loudon Lake)
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,671
    So the same is to be said with any BGE product? The kamado joe is in the same boat I assume?

    Not to be rude but I do not think I've found a post having a problem with BGE charcoal and there are plenty of RO ones. This makes me think it is slightly different. 
    just so you know, bge doesnt make the lump, its made by royal oak and packaged in bge bags, its not similar, its the same
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • dlk7
    dlk7 Posts: 1,053
    I'm pretty sure that Royal Oak hires lump elves to sift through the lump when a batch is done and put the big pieces in the green bag and the smaller pieces in the red bag.  Sometimes the elves get mad at their bosses and put some big pieces in the red bags.

    Two XL BGEs - So Happy!!!!

    Waunakee, WI

  • tazcrash
    tazcrash Posts: 1,852
    OK, so what type of generic drug is best for low & slow? I tried prevacid (not generic), but the fire kept going out.  

    Ba-da-dum

     
    Bx - > NJ ->TX!!! 
    All to get cheaper brisket! 
  • gte1
    gte1 Posts: 379
    Viagra keeps the fire burning!


    But sometimes it's hard to light.

    I take and prescribe generics all the time, I have no issue with it. However if I had a life threatening illness that required very precise dosing I would take a brand name drug. Just my personal preference.

    George
    George
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited May 2012
    buy enough bags of any brand, and you'll find there are small pieces in some bags, large in others, bits of rock, etc.

    face it, before you got the egg, you were satisfied with clicking a button and burning "lo-med-hi" over gas.

    after spending a grand on a grill, you tend to obsess about stuff as though it actually has some bearing on the food, when it really doesn't.

    there isn't one recipe or method which benefits from one brand of charcoal over any other.  none stay lit any better, none require refueling, and none reach higher (or lower) temps.

    push comes to shove, you can cook with any bag, brand names are irrelevant. 

    some are denser? sure. means more mass can be loaded in the cooker. about the only time this matters is if you are doing back-to-back-top-back pizza cooks at high temps

    some are lighter? yeah.  not sure that's bad.  i can cook my steaks over lighter cowboy charcoal as well and faster than i could over new wicked good. 

    but if all manufacturers suddenly stopped producing charcoal all except for one brand(pick any name), it would not impact the way i personally cook.

    if it's cheaper, it's fine with me.

    i get a bad bag every now and then... it happens. just like the big flakes of cereal are always on the top, after they bulldoze this stuff from one pile to another in the yard, or dump it in piles off a conveyor (or whatever they do) they're going to have smaller pieces at the bottom of the pile, and ending up in the last bags.  a truly bad bag should go back to the dealer, but i have always made do.  not worth trucking it back to the store and bitching, and it's always ended up burnt anyway.

    >shrug<




    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • 55drum
    55drum Posts: 162
    I pretty much use RO all the time...get it at Resturant Depo for $0.45 p/lb ...always have good results
  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
    "Dense" is given too much credit.  Some of the longest burning charcoal I've ever tested was like pieces of styrofoam.

    And as for different bags of the same brand getting different size distributions, it was mathematically proven a number of years ago that if you a pile of "stuff" composed of "things" where the "things" are of different sizes, the smaller "things" will work their way to the bottom of the pile and the bigger "things" will make their way to the top.  You see it in bags of lump.  You also see it in ginormous piles of lump at the manufacturer.  When they take a front loader and dump a load of charcoal from the big pile into the machine, they are going to get different size distributions depending on what part of the pile they are loading from.
    The Naked Whiz
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    whiz: problem isn't knowing how the small stuff works itself to the bottom of the pile, it's that some manufacturers don't stop when they filling bags with only small stuff.
    :)

    i actually don;t mind small stuff. it's when it's ALL small stuff that it can be an issue.,
    i use the small stuff on top of a low and slow fire.  fills in the cracks
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • Ottawa_Eggman
    Ottawa_Eggman Posts: 111


    i actually don;t mind small stuff. it's when it's ALL small stuff that it can be an issue.,
    i use the small stuff on top of a low and slow fire.  fills in the cracks
    Very well said strike that was my whole point from the beginning but some how the conversation ended up about drugs and Viagra........ go figure
  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
    Stike, the pile problem explains the variation.  I had a bag of RO that was essentially all "big" pieces.  But yes, the companies need to try to mix it up a bit when they get to the bottom of the pile.
    The Naked Whiz
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i hearya, whiz.  in fact,  believe i mentioned the pile problem first.
    heh heh heh

    i think smaller manufacturers like wicked good have the brains and desire to stop filling from the small stuff.

    but when you are a minimum wage worker on the RO line, i don't think you care too much, and just wanna get credit for the filled bag
    :))
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • BGE4Life
    BGE4Life Posts: 34
    BGE = Royal oak.  Throw away the extra cash if you want to but it's kind of silly.
    I haven't found RO where I live but I always question any product which is supposedly identical to the premium brand. It's like coming out with a generic before your patent is up. Why not charge more for both?  I guess I am just negative and pessimistic. I hear RO is good and trust that but why is there even BGE charcoal to begin with? 
    Royal oak is like many other companies out there.  Private label manufacturing is very profitable because there is no marketing costs associated with it.  Nearly every brand of croutons is made in the same plant in Wisconsin and all they do is switch the bag on the machine.  Charcoal is very similar, they change the bag at the fill line and out comes another brand.  It keeps plants operating at higher capacities so layoffs aren't needed.
  • dlk7
    dlk7 Posts: 1,053
    Physics!!!




    Based on this, my garage has reached "critical temperature" because all of the large pieces are in the top half of the bag.  Thanks Tweeve for the attachment.  This winter I'll check whether the effect is less!!!!

    Two XL BGEs - So Happy!!!!

    Waunakee, WI