Royal Oak or not?

All I've ever used as Royal Oak. Alwats available, easy to light, and cheap. If you look at how charcoal is made you'll see why you get some odd things. For the price I'm not concerned. I buy the red bag from Wally world.

Now if I had access to something "fancier" I'd try it, but depends on price.

Red bag if you're going to use it. What does the green one say - is it a specific wood?

I never had a problem with RO, rebranded as Wegman's lump. It takes longer to get to temp/clean smoke than Rockwood for me. Price is hard to beat.

I've probably used 50+ bags of Menards Royal Oak in the past. It's ok for what's available in big box stores. I've had much worse. I've been a lump snob the last few years with Ozark Oak. I'll take Royal Oak before Cowboy anyday.

All I Use is RO in the red bag- no complaints---had a bag or two that wasn't in the best of shape-But for me clean and reliable for me....Been wanting to try something different to keep in my "hip pocket" I think Firecraft was the place

Jeepster47 said:

So far all I've used is Nature Glo (Royal Oak in a suit and tie), but I stumbled upon some Royal Oak in it's casual dress at Menards.  Today I finished off the Nature Glo stash, so topped off the fill with some Menards Royal Oak.  Upon lighting it, I noticed more smoke than normal ... in fact I pulled three pieces that were smoking like a smudge pot.  Two of those pieces were bark.

It's not fair to make a conclusion on a data sample of one, but the Royal Oak dressed in green from Menards didn't seem to be the same quality as Nature Glo.  I'd tell you that the smell was worse, but maybe that's just because @SGH has made me more paranoid.

What has been your experience with the Royal Oak derivatives?

The truth is, I used RO for over 2 years myself. I would still use it in a pinch. The biggest problem that I see with RO is it just is not as clean burning as RW & OO. It took considerable more time to burn of the VOC's with RO than it does with either RW or OO. Heck I turned out a lot of great food using RO, but I find that RW & OO gives a superior over all result. Again if OO & RW were not available, I would burn RO rather than not cook. Also I like the neutrality of RW. RO will impart some what of a mild off taste to some things. For the record, I still use the 16 pound bags of RO to bring the big units on line. But once running I convert them to 100% wood. Please don't misunderstand anything that I said before. RO is a decent lump, especially for the price. It's just not in the same league as OO & RW. Again I did use it almost exclusively for over 2 years until Thatgrimguy and the Biggreenpharmicist showed me the light with OO & RW.

I've yet to try anything other than BGE lump, and RO, so listen to others who have...Maybe one day I will, but there's a home depot with RO less than a mile away!!

fusionhq said:

I've yet to try anything other than BGE lump, and RO, so listen to others who have...Maybe one day I will, but there's a home depot with RO less than a mile away!!

Skip the BGE lump if you haven't already. It's Royal Oak bagged under the Big Green Egg name. You end up paying more for the bag to say BGE

Nothing wrong with RO IMO. Then again it's all I've tried and the most plentiful here in SoCal. As long as I don't try anything else, I guess I can't tell how bad it is like some people say. It burns hot, cooks well, it's cheap, plentiful and I'm never in a rush to cook when I'm egging so burning off the VOC's (what ever the hell that means), doesn't matter to me.

I mean it's charcoal not rocket science right???

Have had really mixed results with RO - some bags nothing but teenie tiny pieces that are all but unusable - that, and about a quarter bag of dust at the bottom.  Can't beat the price - especially on sale from Wally World for the 16 lb bags, but as they say.."you get what you pay for".  (I personally would like it if it weren't for the size consistency, the crazy sparkiness and the random chunks of.,.I have no idea what those are but they smoke like crazy and I'm not sure they aren't toxic.  Aside from that, it's a good lump!)

OO has been my go-to lump (much larger pieces consistently - at least in my first few bags from Firecraft),  but I also just got a 35 lb bag of Fogo from Amazon to test out also.  WW has also been good but a lot harder (in my experience) to light.

Can someone explain burning off VOCs? I can't ever see them. X_X

With all the bad mouthing RO gets on this forum you wonder how they can remain the largest producer of lump packaged under their own name, BGE name and many other national chain store names. Can't say why they are such a big cat, but they are just the same. @Jeepster47 makes the same point I live by and I make my selections right off the pallet. The other sure fire method that works for me is I grip a bag to feel how tight it is packed. Any I find that seem loose-goosey will also rattle telling me they contain small pieces and those bags get set to the side!

I get RO cheap as hell from Home Despot. I find it a little smoky, but good overall. I have some OO, and some FOGO for when I want a cleaner/ neutral fire. ,I also got some sweet Santa Clara Valley Orangewood from a good guy @SMITTYtheSMOKER at his shop Eggs by the Bay, it is from mexico, but it is very clean burning, cooked my t-day turkey and the light smokiness was perfect.
:-bd

Speaking of royal choke. ..somebody needs to tell dumbass she's a princess...not a hollabak