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Cowboy lump charcoal

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xrayscatter
xrayscatter Posts: 4
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I've been using either BGE or royal oak lump charcoal. Last night I tried cowboy lump charcoal for the first time. When I pored it into my bge I noticed that it had a different look than what I'm used to. Most of the charcoal looked like big chunks of black tree branches. I was a little concerned but decided to light it anyway. It lit up very fast and it wasn't it very fragrant. But the weird part was that there was never any white smoke. I used a couple fire staters and opened both vents wide open. I waited and waited for the white smoke. Nothing!! So I stabilized the temp and cooked on it. The food tasted great as usual. It was just odd that there was no white smoke. Not even grey smoke. Has this happened to anyone else? Did I get a bad batch of cowboy lump charcoal?
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  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
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    No, you got an especially good batch. There's been comment that Cowboy has switched from using discards from flooring/furniture manufacture, and is using wood. One comment was that it was comparable to the very fine Wicked Good lump.

    The harder the wood used, and the more thoroughly it is carbonized, the better the lump. Burns longer, has less smoke. Extremely fine Japanese binchotan charcoal emits no smoke.
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  • BullyC
    BullyC Posts: 142
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    You will notice with cowboy Lump, it is a very very mild
    smoke flavor, thats what I prefer, even though I do also
    like BGE and Royal Oak too. I know royal oak makes BGE lump.
    Cowboy here in St. Louis is almost half the price of BGE Lump. That BGE logo on the bag is extremely pricey.
    I bought some lump from whole foods market once,OMG
    Horrible, I threw the meat away, talk about a horrible taste. You will find this out when experimenting with different Lumps. So for me I will use the cowboy,
    cause mild and inexpensive. Can always add a few wood chunks of choice if wanna add some more wood flavor.
    take care Bullyc
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  • Pjoe
    Pjoe Posts: 224
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    I had just the opposite experience with my first Cowboy lump cook last night. Lit the Egg and had a LOT of white smoke. After about 20 minutes it cleared up and seemed like the bad smell went away. I put on some boneless thighs, direct raised grid, as I have in the past but after the cook they smelled and tasted bad. These will go in the trash.
    Bill
    LBGE AR SMALL BGE WOO RING
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  • eggsrgreat
    eggsrgreat Posts: 86
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    That reminds me of the lump I bought at Sams clup. Didn't realize until I got home, but 100% mesquite, and it tasted like a freshly tarred road. Had throw the food away :(
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  • CBBQ
    CBBQ Posts: 610
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    BullyC,
    I use Fire King which is very dense like Wicked Good. You can get it at different locations in St Louis. The cheapest place is the Farmers Co-op in old town St Peters. It's around $22 for a 40lb bag. They have 20lb bags too but I never buy those.
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  • B&BKnox
    B&BKnox Posts: 283
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    On my first bag of Cowboy, yes it mostly looks like tree branches turned to charcoal or almost charcoal. On some pieces the back falls off and the wood I am not convinced is carbonized. Anyway it smokes like crazy for about 40 minutes, thick white-ish gray smoke then it starts to settle but still smokes more than usual. Food I've coked tastes okay but not a fan of so much smoke. I'll be in MN in September near a wicked distributor and I plan on getting me 100 lbs or so.
    Be Well

    Knoxville TN
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  • Cpt'n Cook
    Cpt'n Cook Posts: 1,917
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    I have used cowboy for years and have never found it to be too smokey. I always use it for baking because it IS so mild. I have no problem with the shape of the charcoal.
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  • zwvirtual
    zwvirtual Posts: 3
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    You can read the reviews on Cowboy lump.

    http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag
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  • crghc98
    crghc98 Posts: 1,006
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    same here, and I'm still getting mostly carbonized wood scraps, as opposed to limbs...wonder if there is more than one manufacturing facility or something...
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  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,747
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    bet you will see a difference soon, this summer it changed over to half flloring and half lump to all natural looking lump. bought several bags a month back and they all look like this with some round branch pieces mixed in. this is the cowboy in the market baskets im getting.

    002-29.jpg
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
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  • crghc98
    crghc98 Posts: 1,006
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    interesting...I stocked up at the beginning of the summer, so I haven't purchased anything new. It is pretty much all I can get in winter (if I'm lucky to find anything at all) without hitting the coal and ice places (limited weekend hours) or overpaying for the BGE stuff at a dealer...
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  • mb99zz
    mb99zz Posts: 183
    edited March 2013
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    I just used Cowboy for the first time tonight and I was kind of let down.  First off, I had a huge rock about the size of a softball.  And there was a piece of wood that was at least a foot long and maybe 4 inches in diameter.   The fire started with basically no white smoke which shocked me.  I let the egg raise to my desired temp and then stabilized it.   Then the white smoke came and kept coming.  I waited 30 minutes and after getting the "we're starving" protest from the family...I reluctantly put our tenderloin on.  Big mistake.  The meat had that nasty smoke flavor.  The kids hated it.  
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  • georgia_greg
    georgia_greg Posts: 2
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    xrayscatter said:
    I've been using either BGE or royal oak lump charcoal. Last night I tried cowboy lump charcoal for the first time. When I pored it into my bge I noticed that it had a different look than what I'm used to. Most of the charcoal looked like big chunks of black tree branches. I was a little concerned but decided to light it anyway. It lit up very fast and it wasn't it very fragrant. But the weird part was that there was never any white smoke. I used a couple fire staters and opened both vents wide open. I waited and waited for the white smoke. Nothing!! So I stabilized the temp and cooked on it. The food tasted great as usual. It was just odd that there was no white smoke. Not even grey smoke. Has this happened to anyone else? Did I get a bad batch of cowboy lump charcoal?

    “Food is Essential to Life, Good Food is Essential to my Soul”
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  • georgia_greg
    georgia_greg Posts: 2
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    You got an especially good bag, the bag I bought had almost all small chunks the size of gravel. It took 2 1/2 hours to get it to 400 3 1/2 to get to 600 to cook pizza. I'm taking it back, absolute garbage
    “Food is Essential to Life, Good Food is Essential to my Soul”
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  • Jai-Bo
    Jai-Bo Posts: 584
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    I can't stand Cowboy coal....went through a few bags a WHILE ago and got more rock then anything else.
    Hunting-Fishing-Cookin' on my EGG! Nothing else compares!
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  • Sundazes
    Sundazes Posts: 307
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    I use it for burn offs
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  • Hub
    Hub Posts: 927
    edited August 2017
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    I see Cowboy get trashed here on a regular basis, but I simply don't understand it.  I've bought many bags from Ace, which tends to only carry the best lump, and I've never had a single issue with it.  It's my favorite lump, and I prefer it over Rockwood.  Ain't nothing wrong with it.  Two posts up somebody claims they got more rock than wood.  Really?!?! That's nonsense.
    Beautiful and lovely Villa Rica, Georgia
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