# "Cowboy Lump Charcoal" (War Zone)



## Bearcarver (May 28, 2010)

OK guys, I never used lump hardwood charcoal before, but I've read about various kinds on this forum & other places. The only time I use any kind of charcoal is when I break out my little Hibachi to make a couple quick steaks, hot dogs, or burgers for me & the Mrs. So I finally bought a bag of "Cowboy Lump Charcoal" to give it a try.
[h1]*WOW !!!*[/h1]
I lit it in my chimney starter. It was spitting & carrying on when I carried it over to my Hibachi. I thought for a minute I was back in 'Nam! Bang---Zing---Bap-Bap-Bap-----Hot pieces were flying all over the place. I had to put it on my gas grill & close the lid to keep from getting hit & to keep hot flying pieces from landing under my deck in the mulch & starting a fire!!!

I think I'll go back to charcoal !

Can anyone tell me what that was all about???

It isn't wet or anything.

Bearcarver


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## rbranstner (May 28, 2010)

Cowboy is one of the what should we say, not so good cheap lump wood brands. Lets just say it doesn't get very high reviews usually and has been known to have particle board etc. found in the bags. Not all Lump woods are the same. Some brands are great and some aren't very good. Some burn hotter, longer, produce more or less ash and spark more than others. Check out this web page if you haven't been on it before. It has all kinds of great reviews. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm

I would definately suggest giving it another try but maybe with a better brand lump. Other than the sparks and stuff did it taste and perform up to your standards?


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## cliffcarter (May 28, 2010)

Royal Oak lump has a loyal following(I use it almost exclusively) but be careful to get the stuff made in the USA( country of origin is on the bag) and avoid this stuff. Look familiar *Bearcarver?*

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34405


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## Bearcarver (May 28, 2010)

rbranstner said:


> Cowboy is one of the what should we say, not so good cheap lump wood brands. Lets just say it doesn't get very high reviews usually and has been known to have particle board etc. found in the bags. Not all Lump woods are the same. Some brands are great and some aren't very good. Some burn hotter, longer, produce more or less ash and spark more than others. Check out this web page if you haven't been on it before. It has all kinds of great reviews. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm
> 
> I would definately suggest giving it another try but maybe with a better brand lump. Other than the sparks and stuff did it taste and perform up to your standards?


Thanks RB.

After I put on my flack jacket, helmet, and safety glasses, I finished the burgers. I didn't notice any better taste than with regular charcoal. I'll probably light the whole bag on July 4, and get rid of it.

BC


 


cliffcarter said:


> Royal Oak lump has a loyal following(I use it almost exclusively) but be careful to get the stuff made in the USA( country of origin is on the bag) and avoid this stuff. Look familiar *Bearcarver?*
> 
> http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34405


LOL----It wasn't that bad, but then again it wasn't dark out at the time.

BC


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## gofish (May 28, 2010)

Give the Royal Oak Lump a whirl ... you'll like it alot better!


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## dennisdocb (May 28, 2010)

GoFish said:


> Give the Royal Oak Lump a whirl ... you'll like it alot better!


Agree..I had the very same thing happen to me my first experience with lump as that's all ACE carried.  Then I tried RO-USA and haven't looked back..Good Smokes my friend..


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## jirodriguez (May 28, 2010)

I also prefer RO lump (when I can get it), but just FYI all lump will spark some, but some more than others. Another brand I like is Lazzari it is made from mesquite wood, but it sparks a LOT.


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## danielh (May 28, 2010)

I get the same from the frontier i've been burning..  But WOW does it burn hot and long, and doesnt leave much ash. 

I rarely even use briquettes anymore.  Especially for long cooks.  I'll mix some in when just grilling to get rid of it though..


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## disbe81 (May 28, 2010)

You have to expect some sparking with any lump. Just think of when you have a camp fire going, you can hear the wood at times popping and sparking.... its normal.... and lump is basically just charred wood. Lump has huge advantages over briq's. For starters, theres no added fillers and potential chemicals in lump like there is charcoal (cowboy brand is known to have particle board and other non real wood items in it though). You also usually get a longer more consistent burn with much less ash. You wont notice a big difference in taste from lump to briq's with cowboy brand, but some of the better brands i assure you will.

Also, some of the better brands cost more, but with the longer burn times you wind up using a LOT less on long smokes. Also, when i use it for just grilling, after i take my meat off, i have a jug of water and i pour it over my coals. Doing this, i can usually use the same batch of lump charcoal for 3 or 4 grilling sessions without needing to add more. Try that with briq's, lol! Dont give up on lump, its superior in every way!


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## cliffcarter (May 29, 2010)

Red bag Royal Oak lump is made in 4 countries-USA, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Of the 4 thenakedwhiz rates the USA and the Brazilian as the best RO lump. I have used the stuff from Paraguay and the burn time is no where near as long as the made in the US.


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## lugnutz (May 29, 2010)

Hey thanks for the Nakedwhiz link, found out I have several lumps to choose from, and the majority are made by RO just labeled different. Might even have wife stop in and pick me up some today and give it a try.


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## rbranstner (May 29, 2010)

DanielH said:


> I get the same from the frontier i've been burning..  But WOW does it burn hot and long, and doesnt leave much ash.
> 
> I rarely even use briquettes anymore.  Especially for long cooks.  I'll mix some in when just grilling to get rid of it though..


Did you pick up your Frontier at Sams Club? I picked up four 40lb bags earlier this summer when they had them. I really like the stuff. Comes with nice big pieces and it seems to last a long time. After a 6 hour burn I can hardly tell anything was burned in my basket.


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## stircrazy (May 29, 2010)

I have some royal oak that lights up better than that link, scared the begeezes out of me the first time I used it, but once I dumped it into the smoker it was fine, I think the chiminy makes it alot more dramatic than it is.  now even though I had a 10 foot colume of sparks shooting out the top of the chiminy I got a 9 hour burn time out of that load.

Steve


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## danielh (May 29, 2010)

rbranstner said:


> Did you pick up your Frontier at Sams Club? I picked up four 40lb bags earlier this summer when they had them. I really like the stuff. Comes with nice big pieces and it seems to last a long time. After a 6 hour burn I can hardly tell anything was burned in my basket.


Yeah I've been buying it from there..  Just pick up a bag everytime I go.

I find it way superior to briq's, especially Kingsford, even their comp line.  But it does have its flaws like anything else.  Hard to light and smells funny when lighting it, but other than that I'm pleased with it.  I usually just throw a few briq's in the bottom to help get it lit and keep it lit.  Havent found anything odd in the bags yet and I'm halfway through the second bag.  Its screaming hot though, great for searing steaks.  Make sure you have long tongs if you dont like the smell of burning hair.

It lasts forever though, I filled the ring in my 18.5" WSM and have done 2 small cooks lasting around 8 hours total plus startup and shutdown time and I would say I've only burned around 1/3 of the ring.  I'm pretty confident I could do at least a 16hr cook on it althought i havent tried it yet.


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## dick foster (May 29, 2010)

For one thing Cowboy is not one of the better brands of lump. Like everyone else suggested try some Royal Oak USA made and bagged lump. Wallmart carries the stuff so it's easy to find. The second thing is you're grilling and not smoking so the food isn't there long enough to make much of a difference either way.

For smoking you really want to use lump because it is made from hard wood only and the food is exposed to it for many long hours. Lump also gets hotter allowing many pits to get up the cooking temps required while many won't get as hot as they need with charcoal briquettes as fuel.  

Charcoal briquettes are made with clay to help stick it together (or dirt), sawdust of almost any kind of wood (a waste product) and even coal dust to help make it burn (another waste product).

They make charcoal briquettes as cheap as they can and sell it for as much as they can. They probably spend more money in marketing the stuff than they do producing and distributing it. If they could find a way to get old car tires and used ground up asphalt pavement in there and get away with it, they would probably do that too. Some brands are worse, much worse, than others. As charcoal briquettes go regular Kingsford is OK so long as it's not that crap that is doused with lighter fluid. You may as well go out and pour some used motor oil or gasoline on your food as to use that shit.

Charcoal briquettes were a invention of Henry Ford's so he could get rid of the sawdust from his Model T auto production line by selling it. There were only two goals, to git rid of the saw dust and if at all possible to make money doing it, not to make a decent fuel for cooking food.

I use briquettes only for preheating the pit when there is no food in it. Some of the stuff out there isn't even good enough for that. For actually cooking and smoking, I use lump only, along with the chosen wood for the smoke and flavor of course.


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## dadoman (May 29, 2010)

Try some lump from http://realmontanacharcoal.net/default.aspx 
It's wood specific, apple,maple,etc


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## dick foster (May 31, 2010)

Some of that is pretty interest but some is just plain strange. Who in their right mind would cook or smoke with pine or fir so why even make charcoal with it?


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## flbobecu (May 31, 2010)

Dick Foster said:


> Some of that is pretty interest but some is just plain strange. Who in their right mind would cook or smoke with pine or fir so why even make charcoal with it?


Maybe for those outdoor chimney/heaters, etc.?


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## coyote-1 (Jun 3, 2010)

I have no quibble with Cowboy.

For smoking it's not as good as RO, but for direct grilling it works better because it lights up quicker. When I'm doing my aged porterhouse steaks, they get grilled over Cowboy.

I do notice the taste difference between lump hardwood and typical briquettes. And I'm not the only one. There have been folks for whom I've grilled that I don't tell about my methods, and more than once I've gotten an unsolicited "best I ever had" comment.


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## sqwib (Jun 3, 2010)

Same experience here, thought my hair was on fire a few times.\

Might save a bag for the fourth of July celebration.

Why is it that all the Brands of Lump that are deemed S**t are the only ones I see for sale?


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## dick foster (Jun 3, 2010)

Does MBA ring any bells?

American business, especially retail busness has been given over to a bunch of glorified bean counters otherwise known as MBAs. All MBAs know is how to sell stuff cheap and how to make the next quarter look decent. Beyond those bounds they are all at a complete and utter loss.  

Then you have to consider the very old and time tested phrase "you get what you pay for". Add bought for cheap and "you get what you pay for" and I think you have your answer.

And now you also know why there are no more decent hardware stores, why butcher shops are as scarse as hens teeth and decent meat is hard to find along with a lot of other stuff.


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## tcs1 (Sep 24, 2015)

I've been using RO for a while now and noticed I started getting very small pieces in the bag, even at the top.  I went to Walmart and they were out of RO, so I was forced to buy Cowboy.  The bag now says that is improved, for whatever that is worth.  I have to tell you, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality compared to RO.  The pieces were mostly mid to large sized and they burned much hotter and longer than the RO I have been getting lately.  As for popping, I use Kingsford Competition in the chimney and use it to start my lump in the offset fb.  As for now, I am not able to say Cowboy is a lesser product vs RO lump.


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## joe black (Sep 24, 2015)

I've been using RO for several years and I think it's great.  I start my offset with about a 1/2 basket of RO lump.  I start the lump with 1/2-2/3 chimney of RO briqs.  I use a Weber cube to start the chimney and usually it's ready in about 20-30 minutes.  I dump it into a valley in the lump and then pull some of the lump on top.  When the lump has given me a good bed of coals, I switch over to splits for the rest of the cook.

I don't get any sparks as all of the lump is in my FB.
The lump gives a great bed of coals for the splits.
The lump lasts a long time which helps to support the splits.
I really like the way the lump works for me.


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## akdutchguy (May 12, 2016)

Grabbed a bag of cowboy lump last time I was at lowes. Did a batch of ribs on the uds. The meat had a different taste than when using kbb. I don't go to walmart very often but I might have to get a bag of royal oak and give it a try. So far pleased with the cowboy brand. Although it was only 1 cook. Got a batch of pulled pork going now with a mix of lump and kbb to finish off the bags. Hope it turns out good. 
Jason


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## gary s (May 12, 2016)

I like Lump, Even thought it pops & crackles   But I don't use much charcoal anymore, If I fire up the ECB to grill steaks or just starting my smoker. Right now I am using Kingsford Blue that I got on sale.  To me for grilling the lump imparts a better flavor

But it's exciting.  I can remember the very first time I used lump, Scared the crap out of me wasn't expecting all the fireworks

Gary


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## sfprankster (May 12, 2016)

Check for torn or ripped bags of RO at Lowes or Home Depot. I take them to the service counter and ask for 50% off. Most will give the discount, and a roll of tape, without question. Most torn/ripped bags may have lost less than a few chunks. This way. they're on sale year round.


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