Cowboy vs Royal Oak lump

alb73

My local IL Walmart has been out of Royal Oak so I grabbed a bag of Cowboy.  What's your take on either brand?

travisstrick

Royal oak has been fine for me but I avoid cowboy at all costs.

tarheelmatt

I used Cowboy a time or two and didn't mind it. Some very large pieces.  I use RO pretty much all the time now.  

Fred19Flintstone

Royal Oak is what I usually use and it works for me.
I've had plastic banding and fiberglass insulation come out of a bag of Cowboy. No thank you!

RiverDoc

I have used cowboy in the past it seemed ok tended to pop sparks and create more ash. I now use Rockwood and really enjoy it. I don't have any experience with RO but it seems to be popular, good luck.

TigerTony

When I first bought my bge 9 years ago I never gave much thought about brands of lump, I thought for the most part they were all the same. Then one day I bought a bag of Cowboy. I opened the bag and they had pieces of building lumber. Seriously I could clearly see pieces of a door frame and a baseboard. When I lit it, it started sparking and snapping. Then it took forever for the smoke to clear. I made the mistake of cooking a dutch oven peach cobbler on the egg that day using that crap lump. None of us liked it due to a way too smokey flavor. It took a long time for my wife and daughters to agree to taste dessert cooked on teh egg after that.

Maybe it's just me. But I assure you I will do without lump if I have to buy Cowboy.

I tried other mesquite lumps they were all bad, especially El Carbon from Mexcio. You need eye protection and a work vest to light that stuff.

Now using Ozark Oak and Rockwood. Love them both. I will however give Royal Oak another try since it is much less expensive. Next time I geaux to Restaurant Depot I'm gonna buy a bag.

grege345

Return the cowboy and go to homed depot.

jhl192

I had some bad experiences with Cowboy in the early days. Took a long time to gain my families confidence back. I avoid Cowboy at any price. I wouldn't do a clean burn with it.

fishlessman

cowboy is all logs now, the scrap lumber is history. sounds like a good thing but the scrap flooring they used then  was much better
) todays cowboy is sometimes good, sometimes not good, you have to watch the lump as you dump it in the egg and remove a couple of unburnt pieces, other than that i have no complaints.

MeTed

I have used one bag of cowboy lump and did not like it. Mostly I use Royal Oak.

henapple

That's like asking do you like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Jets. ...

onedbguru

henapple said:

That's like asking do you like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Jets. ...

and then it depends on who you like...  

As for Cowboy, I have used it a few times when I couldn't find anything else...  When I went to the beach all they had was a weh..weh...charbroil charcoal grill - rusted out quite a bit... and at the store it was Matchlight or Cowboy...  Then later in the week found a Super WallyWorld and got RO. At home, my storage is full of RO - might be enough to last until Spring.

JRWhitee

Royal oak is ok, cowboy sucks. Just my opinion.

SkinnyV

Gave away 8bags of cowboy. It only cost me $1 bag but it was that bad

anton

I am limited to two in my area, Cowboy, and Royal oak, I can't seem to find anything else off the shelf. Cowboy has been fine, a little ashy but good in general, (maybe I don't know any better), and Royal oak always comes with a few rocks, I mean like EVERY bag I have bought, has rocks. I have not had the joy of using Rockwood or Ozark Oak, and refuse to pay the ridiculous price for BGE lump out of principle. I will probably order some good stuff online in the future.

stv8r

I too did not like Cowboy.  Strange pieces in there.  I discovered a restaurant wholesale supplier in my area that sells retail(Amrein Foods). I get the Humpfrey Lump there for $12.73 a 20lb bag.  It gets good reviews on Nakedwhiz and Firecraft.  Happy so far and year round availabilty and decent price help. 

KennyLee

Never had a problem with Cowboy and used several bags.  Not my favorite, but I didn't notice a lick of difference between it and the BGE lump they threw in when I bought my Egg.  However I will say that all I use now is Ozark Oak and Rockwood because I think they are the best.....mainly OO now because no one around me sells RW.

stemc33

For me, the experience was bad enough that I will never try Cowboy again. I'll use briquettes and clean up ashes or go without before I burn it again. I thought RO was really good until I tried Ozark Oak. I've only used a few bags but it makes a difference. I use a chimney to start my egg and sometimes I run back outside to see if the OO is lit because lack of smoke. Not kidding. Here's a pic of my plate setter after using OO for 2.5 hours at 450°. Hasn't been this clean since new. You'll also notice how much cleaner and brighter your firebox will become using OO. This is with regular cooking, no pizza or clean burn.