Another newbie Q...

DMW

OK, no one has mentioned Fogo on this thread. Not much smoke flavor at all from the lump burning IMHO. Maybe a bit more than the Rockwood I tried, but not much. I haven't tried OO, @henapple stood me up last week...

Also, Fogo is very dense and burns forever without giving off much ash. Some of the pieces are larger than my head (and I have a big head), so after placing the huge ones on the fire grate you may need to break some in half to fill in some of the gaps. Anyway, I ran at 250* average for 19 hours, then 400* for about 2, and shut it down. Here is what was left in my XL:

Tonight I used that same lump again without adding anymore. It is available on Amazon Prime with free shipping. Prices vary wildly, so I like to keep some on hand and order more when the price goes down. For everyday grilling I usually use Royal Oak, takes longer to burn clean, so I need to plan accordingly if I'm doing something like chicken that will pickup the flavor. If I'm just grilling burgers for a few minutes per side, I'm not all that concerned. If baking bread or dessert, I make sure I can't see any visible smoke coming out of the top.

Ramble finished.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

g37 said:

Just bought my large egg. I just tried wicked good charcoal. I'm gonna stick with wicked good. Bigger chunks and less ash.

it's widely accepted as one of the best but they have had some bumps in the road service-wise. I would tell anyone with access to it to give it a rip.

g37

Just fyi. My last bag of bge lump had alot of rocks in the bag.

dgroce10

I used to be able to buy Royal Oak on Amazon via Prime for around $12, but it doesn't seem to be available anymore. I'm guessing it wasn't worth it to Amazon to pay the shipping.

Needless to say, as many others have suggested, I buy it at Home Depot. My only advice: just make sure anything you buy isn't imported. And make sure you use whatever you do buy, because that's what it's all about!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

g37 said:

Just fyi. My last bag of bge lump had alot of rocks in the bag.

that does happen with most brands but it's not normally an indicator of poor quality. It's common to find rocks, metal bands and other flotsam and jetsam from time to time. That bad stuff has plywood, fence posts, insulation and body parts.

Hoosier_Patriot

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Seriously though- if you have some of each (sadly, I do) you can see which one you like. I'm not going to get in to good vs bad because I don't think any are really "bad". Hell, I cooked on Best of the West for a year and told The Wiz he was full of it for rating it poorly (he was not full of it- it's bad). I got another large at Salado this year and it came with a free bag of BGE lump (and I got drunk and stole another from the after party after Micky passed out). I already had OO and a ton of Rockwood in my garage. I hadn't used BGE (royal oak) in years so i fired it up in the new egg to kill the curry cloud that The Little Canadian and the King of Calcutta soiled my virgin egg with at the fest and I had OO on the OE. So without saying one is good and the other is bad, here is what I noticed. The royal oak was very smoky with white smoke billowing out for most of the cook. It imparted a very heavy smoke taste that I found unpleasant. I have also noticed that most newbs that post "help! My wife says my food is too smoky and won't eat off the egg" are using the BGE lump that came with their egg. I would find fish or chicken way way over smoked with that profile. It's smoky. Not bad. But heavy smoke. OO Is much cleaner and a very high quality lump but still way smokier than Rockwood. Rockwood is clean. Like super clean. I like to add my smoke with chunks. If I don't add with RW, it is very light, very clean. I can put cherry wood in for chicken and it tastes like cherry. With Royal and to a lesser degree OO, it tastes like lump smoke. Now if you love really smoky food, you may not notice. But if you are looking for more subtlety and nuance, then you want a cleaner lump and to add flavor through chunks Or maybe not at all. Try them all and see what you like. I like clean very smoke neutral lump. That is rockwood. OO has a little more smoke, RO a little more still. All personal choice.

My wife did complain about the smoke from Royal Oak on fish but she was fine with it on steak or pork or chicken.  Maybe I need some Rockwood for fish? So where is the best plaice to get Rockwood?  What is a reasonable price for it?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Hoosier_Patriot said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Seriously though- if you have some of each (sadly, I do) you can see which one you like. I'm not going to get in to good vs bad because I don't think any are really "bad". Hell, I cooked on Best of the West for a year and told The Wiz he was full of it for rating it poorly (he was not full of it- it's bad).

I got another large at Salado this year and it came with a free bag of BGE lump (and I got drunk and stole another from the after party after Micky passed out). I already had OO and a ton of Rockwood in my garage. I hadn't used BGE (royal oak) in years so i fired it up in the new egg to kill the curry cloud that The Little Canadian and the King of Calcutta soiled my virgin egg with at the fest and I had OO on the OE. So without saying one is good and the other is bad, here is what I noticed. The royal oak was very smoky with white smoke billowing out for most of the cook. It imparted a very heavy smoke taste that I found unpleasant. I have also noticed that most newbs that post "help! My wife says my food is too smoky and won't eat off the egg" are using the BGE lump that came with their egg. I would find fish or chicken way way over smoked with that profile. It's smoky. Not bad. But heavy smoke. OO Is much cleaner and a very high quality lump but still way smokier than Rockwood. Rockwood is clean. Like super clean. I like to add my smoke with chunks. If I don't add with RW, it is very light, very clean. I can put cherry wood in for chicken and it tastes like cherry. With Royal and to a lesser degree OO, it tastes like lump smoke. Now if you love really smoky food, you may not notice. But if you are looking for more subtlety and nuance, then you want a cleaner lump and to add flavor through chunks Or maybe not at all.

Try them all and see what you like. I like clean very smoke neutral lump. That is rockwood. OO has a little more smoke, RO a little more still. All personal choice.

My wife did complain about the smoke from Royal Oak on fish but she was fine with it on steak or pork or chicken.  Maybe I need some Rockwood for fish? So where is the best plaice to get Rockwood?  What is a reasonable price for it?

Depends on where you are. We don't have a local dealer that carries it so I buy it 5 bag a at a time from Firecraft.com. They pay freight over $99 and it was at my door in 2 days. They are $20 per 20lb bag which is a very fair price for a great product.

Hoosier_Patriot

Thanks Cen-Tex and to everyone else who provided some really good feedback!

>-

OmahaOne

johnkitchens said:

Hankyorke said:

Not this again.... Nakedwhiz reviews/reviewed lump got there read, then try, then repeat

It will keep getting asked by the new guys. I certainly don't mind helping them. 

And I'm sure all us "Newbie" really appreciate all the repeat questions being answered. Besides you never know when someone will find a new way of doing something that a "Veteran" might like to try. Thanks for all the support.