It’s Sunday. I know I shouldn’t run out of lump, but I did. I have a couple of rib-eyes I wanted to grill so since everywhere that good lump is sold is closed, I had to buy a bag of Royal Oak. The bag looks good on the outside, but when I opened it, look what I got. Shame on you Royal Oak.
Comments
Don't get me wrong I love Rockwood and similar products but it's not available close to me and I'm not going to buy 5-6 bags at a cost of $150 when I could get 10-12 bags of a product that meets my needs for the same amount. If im by a store that carries it then, I usually run inside and grab a bag but it's not my every day go to charcoal.
Rockwall, Tx LBGE, Minimax, 22" Blackstone, Pizza Party Bollore. Cast Iron Hoarder.
I avoid bags that rattle when shaken gently, also stay away from bags with too much empty space on top, it's sign of too many shattered pieces settling to the bottom.
Grillin' and Brewing in Atlanta
LBGE
MiniMax
We had some pallets delivered to a dealer a few years back and I got a call that one pallet was about a foot shorter than the others. I figured the top layer of bags got scraped off or stolen (both have happened before), but there were 30 bags on the pallet very flat like feed, seed, or potting soil bags. Upon examination, water softner pellets were scattered around in the bags. Some jackass set a 3000# pallet of water softner pellets on top of a 670# pallet of charcoal and bounced it down the highway for several hundred miles.
Luckily the dealer was able to spot the issue, otherwise those bags could have gone home with someone and they would have been understandably PO'd.
The rocks and the metal banding are just part of the charcoal making process here in the US. They're tough to keep out. There's a big magnet to hopefully grab the metal, but the rocks look just like charcoal. We have an extra 0.4# in every 20# bag to cover for any rocks, machine error, etc.
Just one note about "big chunk charcoal".....lot of times it's not charcoal yet, that's why it's still big. It's been held together with wood fiber, and wood fiber contains water, thus less BTUs. So those brands that are selling their big chunks for more money are double dipping because they spent less time in the kiln--less carbon in the bag, more water & wood fiber. If you can't break it apart by hand, it's not charcoal--it's charred wood. Properly kilned charcoal is brittle, breaks apart by hand, makes a glass or metallic sound, etc.
Here's a good guest blog post I did if anyone really wants the inside track on charcoal..... https://www.pizza-porta.com/blog/2019/8/18/guest-blog-charcoal-rockwood-charcoal
Don't give up on them over one bag, try a bag from another location or in a month or two when a new pallet comes in (in case they had an experience like me.)
Life is to short to get wound up over a $12 bag of lump.
I am in the "painstakingly careful to get the string to unzip in one pull" camp. So, seeing that bag chewed open makes me freak a little.
Sorry it happened to you!
But that's my questioning side....always gets me in trouble.
The fines are not discarded, and are worth plenty of money. They have a lot of uses too--whether it be screening to smaller sizes for industrial use, hammer pressing them into powder for briquettes or pellets, agricultural soil amendments, animal feed supplements, etc. We sell the fines for all kinds of industries.....even to the US Army's Pine Bluff Arsenal for use in munitions.
No fiscal reason to bag those fines in lump bags when you can easily use or sell them in other channels of the company.
Trust me, it's a supply chain issue. I've personally witnessed employees of a big box store tossing charcoal bags of the top rack to the bottom to avoid having to close the aisle for the forklift to lower a new pallet. They treat them like a bag of kitty litter, dog food, etc.
I hate it when I go to the kitchen for food and all I find are ingredients!
MichaelI was at a plant once where the pallets were stacked FOUR high in their warehouse. You would not want anything off the bottom pallet.
At our warehouse for national distribution, we never stack higher than two pallets since that's how they ship in the trucks. At the local delivery warehouse for St. Louis, we go three high since it's a smaller warehouse, but the bottom pallets are labeled for restaurants, caters, and others wanting the smaller chunks (in any case, the breakage is still negligible since the mileage on these are minimal).
The agitation is what really beats this stuff up. You can bubble wrap the hell out of a bag of lays potato chips, but its still going to break down if it's shipped 1000+ miles. Every bump in the road does some damage to brittle products.
There was a manufacturer that was boxing charcoal for a while--but it didn't solve any problems. In fact, it allowed the charcoal to bounce around more. At least with the multiwall bags, it can hopefully "nest" and spread the PSI with minimal breakage.
I just thought I would share that, in case any of you weren't already convinced that I'm a geek.
"For the record, I took a critical thinking test once and did quite well." - Pete Prescott
Then I took it to the post office, where the postal worker promptly pressed down pretty hard with the stamp tool she had. I thought for sure I was screwed. Somehow the chip survived and I ended up having the lightest design in the class.
"For the record, I took a critical thinking test once and did quite well." - Pete Prescott
In cooking, often we implement steps for which we have no explanations other than ‘that’s what everybody else does’ or ‘that’s what I have been told.’ Dare to think for yourself.
https://kutv.com/news/local/tow-truck-latches-onto-herriman-womans-car-moments-after-parking-in-front-of-own-driveway
Apparently when you donate blood, it has to be yours.
Ogden, Utard