Just fired up the
WSM with a half load of used charcoal (KBB and RO lump), chunks of hickory, half load of cold RO Ridge, few more chunks of hickory, and 1/3 chimney of hot RO Ridge. Out of my 6+ decades of life, I've got a lot of muscle memory hauling KBB around the garage, yard, BBQ, and smoker. As soon as I picked up a full charcoal bucket with the RO Ridge in it, everything felt like old school KBB, pre-2006. It even fired up like the old stuff. I'm letting the temp controller bring it up to temp. Sniffing the white smoke, all I can smell is hickory wood, not the charcoal.
Smoking 6 lbs of "pork riblets" in a roasting pan this afternoon. Turns out pork riblets are the trimmings from cutting down a full rack of spares. Not boneless like I thought, but that's okay. I love those meatier rib tips, YUM! Plus, they are perfect for adding to smoked baked beans, which are on the menu this weekend.
Now, to convince my wife I need to go buy another 20 bags of RO Ridge. Won't happen, but I'll give it a shot.