New Kingsford Charcoal Reviews...

[BigGQ]

I did a test run with them this past weekend too. Overnight cook @ 225 degrees, 8 Butts in two WSM. On at 9:30PM and off at noon. Over a 14 hour cook on one load of charcoal in freezing weather most of the time. The first WSM began to die around noon and the coals were spent. But the cookers ran steady all night.

I agree with all of Greg's points and will add one other observation. The competition briquettes seemed to light (ash over in the chimney) a little quicker. About 1/3 of the time less then the blue bag stuff.

On the competition briquette:

There is no more stank smell on start up or re-load like you get with the blue bag!

Temps were as consistent as the blue bag.

Competition briquettes might burn up a little faster but its neglibgible at best.

As far as ash...I would say there is less than the blue bag...but what I really need to do is comapre a chimney full of the Competition stuff vs. Rancher from Original Charcoal Company. That would be the deal sincher for me.

The only thing that seems weird to me is that they don't sell it in the same weights as the blue bag...and its more expensive for less...which I don't really like.

That being said...I am more impressed than not with this effort! Looking forward to more tests soon!

 

[Greg Rempe]

I agree Big GQ! I left that out of my assessment but I did notice a much quicker light time!

 

[mfreeman73]

I got to use some Comp K this past weekend doing a little grilling and bbqing. As far as the grilling, I was only grilling one steak and a few vegis, so I didn't really notice a difference as far as how it cooked. I guess I'd have to do a bit more to see. One thing I did notice, though, was that when I had the coals in the chimney warming up, it had a good smell. I know many people talk about the bad smell of regular K, which I never really notice, but I did notice a good smell from this stuff.


I then cooked a pork butt using the comp K. It came up to temp pretty quickly and I was able to keep pretty consistent temps from it, trying to keep it between 225 and 250. One time I had to leave for a little bit and left my wife in charge. She wasn't paying attention and it got up to about 275. It took several hours of closed bottom vents to get it to come back down. So, it seems that if it gets hot it's going to stay hot for a while. As long as you're keeping an eye on it and don't let it get too far out of hand, it shouldn't be a problem.

So, I liked the Comp K, especially for bbqing. You'll probably notice more difference there than you would just grilling. I've never used lump for bbqing so I can't really compare how it is against that. But, for now I'll keep using Comp K in my WSM instead of the regular blue bag. I think it also tasted better, although, I'm not sure if that was just in my head.

 

[Captain Morgan]

gonna do a bag today, but for grilling, not smoking. details may or may not be coming

 

[dollarbill]

One time I had to leave for a little bit and left my wife in charge. quote]

lol - Ive done that before too! I compare it to her asking me to mop the floor.

also - I havent seen it here yet?

 

[Captain Morgan]

on the chimney burn, I noticed a distinctly different smell...kind
of a sweet woodsy smell. So far, so good.

 

[bigwheel]

Well ain't no use in me trying it..cuz can already tell I aint gonna like it. No use in proceeding past that point huh? Now if the Widder Kingsford want to send me few free evaluation sample pallets of the stuff to conduct scientifical exspuriments upon the above mentioned substance...might be willing to be mo opened minded about the new marketing scheme. Who knows? Somebody also need to tell em to quit using N. Texas Mesquite in the Mesquite infused variety. It smells like *hit. On Mesquite nuttin North of San Antone should be used. Less a person is real drunk and desperate out in W. Texas. It aint quite the Cat's Meow like around Corpus and Kingsville. Somebody needs to talk some sense into these nut headed folks.

bigwheel

 

[Uncle Bubba]

click

Here are some pics from my trial run today.

Here are my thoughts...

I was pleasantly satisfied with the KC product. From the easy opening bag to the much better smelling initial burning aroma a very good first experience.

From the technical(sort of) side...I thought the briquettes were lighter than their blue bag counterpart and much lighter and smaller than Rancher...from what I can remember(doesn't matter anyways...they have f'd up distribution and I can never find their product anyways). I weighed 6 pieces in at 120gms. Post burn ash weight was 20 gms which gives it a 16.67% waste...not bad at all.

I used my 20x54 Klose for this cook and found this charcoal lights very quickly and the burn rate is actually pretty fast compared to normal lump. I also thought it didn't burn as hot as normal lump but that could be attributed to different sized pieces normal with lump charcoal. I not really sure it burns as hot as the blue bag but it produced a very consistent temp of 250 for almost the entire cook of about 7 hours light to finish and I wet through about 1 3/4 bags of it...not bad at all.

Overall...I'll use this product. I'm encouraged/satisfied with the first cook. I am really curious to see how it does with my method for doing comp chicken. That will dictate what I do going forward with it. I'm not one to change things that work.

I did notice a darkening color on my finished ribs. Not sure if it was the charcoal or the oak I was smoking with.

I will be interesting to do some high heat work with this on steaks and burgers and see what the results yield.

 

[Greg Rempe]

I did my first grill with it tonight...boneless skinless chicken thighs.

Things that were confirmed - this stuff lights quickly! The smell is, dare I say, attractive?!

Since this was a direct grill I did notice that these do consume themselves a lot quicker than regular KF Blue. Probably not as fast as regular lump but approaching those burn speeds. I wasn't looking for a super high heat sear this time around...but my thought is if I would have done a 2 zone fire the double thick layer would have proved to be plenty hot.

When I popped the top on the kettle, after a good 20 minutes of open flame time, the temp still was at 400*...so when the air is controlled, it re-confirms my theory that these briquets will perform well even during overnight cooks.

Alas, I would still like less ash...My neighbor has a bag of Rancer...we are going to do a 50 briquet burn soon to see how they all smell, how quickly they light and how much ash is leftover.

For now, I am happy with this stuff and I can buy it at my local HD TODAY!

 

[Captain Morgan]

all I can add is I thought it was a consistent burn. Not happy
about the price, so I'll probably just use it in comps.

 

[Cliff H.]

Re: Kingsford Comp. Indepth Review

First time posting, great to be onboard.

I found this review on the VWB site.
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/compkingsford.html
It goes into great detail.

Hi PJ. Welcome to the forum. Jump in man.

 

[Cliff H.]

I smoked four butts with the new KF this week. I started the fire with a weed burner at 1:00 am on Wed. The coals were lit all over the basket in less than 60 seconds.

I dumped an entire 12 lb bag in the basket and cooked on a UDS. The cook lasted for 14 hours. I put a small pie pan in the center of the second grate to keep drippings out of the very center of the charcoal.

Aveage temp was 230 at the dome which is more like 240 at the grate.

After an hour I made a mental note that this charcoal likes burning at low temps in a drum. I had to give it twice as much air as I normally would with the same amount of reg lump. Usually I am having to fight a bit to keep temps below 250. This should prove usefull for my wsm which likes to run at 260 with the vents all but closed.

I was expecting a drop in temp at about 6 hours. That is usually predictable from past experience but it never happened. It ran solid in the 230 range for at least 10 hours. After that the temps started to drop. I shook the ash down a couple of times and that helped some but the temps didn't want to go above that 230 dome temp mark.

After 10 hours I decided that time was a factor and decided to foil the butts at 170 and raise the temps to around 300. During the time it took to get them foiled I had time to let the fire get good and hot by leaving the lid off for longer periods between plucking and foiling I was suprised that the fire didn't get away from me considering how long the lid was off the smoker at times.

The smoker ran at 290-310 for the next two or so hours. The butts came off at 3:00 pm. I left the vents wide open until 5:00 pm. The dome temp was 230 when I shut everything down.

Here are some more scientific observations..

The basket:

The UDS :

The butts :

You can see from the pic that almost all of the KF Comp was burned up in the 16 hours that I let it burn. This part I am not impressed with.

There was more ash than I thought there was going to be considering the consistent burn. Even so, still not bad.

To be fair I only dumped powdered ash in the bag. No fat. You can see that I left some powder in the drum.

12 lbs of KF Comp produced about 1-1/2 lbs of ash.

Overall, I am pleased with the product. I am not going to use it all the time but I will use it again.

 

[Captain Morgan]

excellent review

 

[Greg Rempe]

Finally doing an overnight with the new KF. I am cooking 2 butts...they went on around 9:30pm tonight. I am taking pics to document. They MM coals came up to speed VERY quickly!! NICE!! And it smells good as well.

I will post pics after everything is done. Currently holding steady @ *245 dome. I started with a full (not over packed) ring of new KF.

 

[Cliff H.]

Good luck on the cook Greg.

Be prepared to refuel around 6:00 am.

 

[dollarbill]

Well? How'd it work out?

 

[Greg Rempe]

Still going, DB!

 

[dollarbill]

Still going, DB!

Those must be some big butts? Cant wait to see em'. Also prob. a stupid question thats on the front of the bag but what is MM?

 

[dollarbill]

Talk about felling like a dumb***....thanks

I thought the coals were actually mm brand or something.

 

[Nick Prochilo]

Talk about felling like a dumb***....thanks

I thought the coals were actually mm brand or something.

Not yet!