Lump Charcoal Showdown: High-End vs Budget Brands

Рет қаралды 12,924

2 ай бұрын

Boy did I get an earful in the other charcoal showdown. Person after person said that lump charcoal is the only charcoal and briquettes are just imposters. In this video, I test to see which lump charcoal provides the best and if it is worth spending more to get something that goes up in smoke!
Tested Charcoal:
Expert Grills (Sold at Wal-Mart)
Cowboy Lump (Sold at Wal-Mart
Royal Oak (Home Depot)
Fogo Premium (Ace Hardware)
Kamado Joe XL- amzn.to/4aWCNGF
B&B (Ace Hardware)
Jealous Devil (Home Depot)
Equipment I used to make this video:
Weber Kettle: amzn.to/49KzqSu
Chimney: amzn.to/44IGJsT
Good Camera: amzn.to/3U82mOe
Better Camera: amzn.to/3w1WcYb
Microphone: amzn.to/44cKkPO
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Пікірлер: 49

@AndrewMak 2 ай бұрын

Perfect timing on this video as we head into grilling season! This makes me feel great about the 4 bags of B&B lump I have stockpiled. Great video and thanks!!

@bocivus328 Ай бұрын

Your comparison videos are 2nd to none, man. As always, great job and thanks for the info!

@brianmohyde2338 22 күн бұрын

I like to put lump on the Smokey mountain first then dump a hot chimney of Kingsford on top usually get 4-5 hr cook before adding more

@joshbaker1639 2 ай бұрын

Great comparison video! I’ve always been a fan of B&B, it’s never let me down and always provides a great cook, whether it is steaks, chicken, pork butt or brisket.

@aaronfriesen7557 Ай бұрын

Informative and enjoyable! Great job

@gacj2010 2 ай бұрын

Such great information for consumers.. Thanks , man

@johnpnj 2 ай бұрын

Another great video! I've tried Jealous Devil, B&B, Cowboy, Royal Oak, and another brand I found at Costco. For the price, I honestly enjoy Cowboy. I like their Briquettes too...good wood smoke smell and flavor at a good price. Just my personal opinion

@MitchAndPhilip 2 ай бұрын

Wow! This is an excellent comparison video. You did some great tests. Thank you so much for sharing your results. EPIC!

@ohiomp7606 2 ай бұрын

I bought a couple bags of kingsford briquettes last year but after this review I remembered how much I enjoyed cooking with lump. Going to have to grab a bag of B&B next time I stop at one of the few stores that carries it locally haha

@RA-rf4nz 20 күн бұрын

Thanks. Answered all of my concerns for which lump to use for when. Looks like Kamado Joe, B&B, and FOGO are the ones to stock.

@gleichg 2 ай бұрын

I found this video very helpful. I guess I am an outlier. As I use both lump and briquettes. I love lump a small pile of lump for steaks and burgers, but when I smoke I use briquettes. I think the tests were pretty smart, and covered all the bases.

@dbettis6477 Ай бұрын

Be careful kingsford briquettes are toxic to your health A study was done on them I stick to lump charcoal only now

@agrillingbeerguy 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for this! I don't typically use a lot of lump charcoal as I have a lot of 100% hardwood "briquets" still hanging around, but I'll definitely check out some B&B soon.

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

B&B makes both lump and briquets and performed well in both tests.

@benjaminlee5976 2 ай бұрын

thanks for great info

@InkraggablKrunk 2 ай бұрын

Curious to see if any of the upcoming huntsman accessories will fit on your kettle joe, or if the kettle joe grates fit on the huntsman

@Southjerseysmokin 2 ай бұрын

Both fogo and bb do really well in the WSM, and can do a make shift snake method in kettles with them too. I buy mostly fogo, but if it’s out of stock I’ll gladly grab a bag of bb Royal oak is aaaaight but the pieces are normally small

@boohoohoohoo Ай бұрын

5:50 how was the flavor of the other brands? very curious about Kamado Joe Big Block, JD XL Lump?

@clay8222 2 ай бұрын

Ive used lump for a long time. Harder charcoal is my favorite. Jealous devil is a close second. Least favorite is royal oak

@boohoohoohoo 21 күн бұрын

2:40 How long did each one take to get fully lit? Also aside from JD, which else produced very little initial smoke?

@jm.519 2 ай бұрын

I appreciate that you walked through the process and tried to hold everything as even as possible. Were the taste tests blind tests?

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

Great question. They were not blind and were done over a few hours. I wanted to make sure they all were grilled on a weber kettle to keep things consistent. I'm working on a plan to do a different comparison and make it a blind test.

@jpbanksnj 23 күн бұрын

For me? FOGO lump black bag and for briquettes B&B. I'd still like to try Jealous Devil, but man, the cost is just stupid.

@ebrente 2 ай бұрын

B&B 💪 I’m also a big fan of Buffalo lump of you can get your hands on a bag.

@jaredhuang2225 2 ай бұрын

I bought a bag of expert grill lump charcoal a few months ago and it said made in the USA. IME the large chunks will not actually catch fire properly, you may want to re-evaluate Kamodo Joe's. There is another budget brand on the west coast "Sonora Charcoal", its made in Mexico and I've seen it in every grocery store in California. The lump sizes are extremely inconsistent (some are the thickness of your forearm and 3/4 of the length), I found it very difficult to light and the big pieces will essentially put the existing fire out.

@boohoohoohoo Ай бұрын

You are the man. You are like the NASA scientist who decided instead to contribute to the advancement of BBQ skills in mankind.

@ChrisBFerguson 2 ай бұрын

I just ordered some Josper brand charcoal. Very good reviews on Amazon. I am almost done with what was 35 pound bags of Jealous Devil charcoal.

@ChrisBFerguson 12 күн бұрын

That Josper brand charcoal cooked way more evenly than the Jealous Devil bag I had and did not take as long to pre-heat.

@yesitsmario88 2 ай бұрын

Cool comparison! Walmart carries B&B lump now, it's about $0.75/lb there.

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

That's pretty lucky. Mine doesn't and I had to go to two different Ace hardwares to find it. On the bright side, I found a much better selection and they do taste tests on Saturdays.

@judsonkr 17 күн бұрын

Am making the switch back to briquettes. Tried multiple brands, most of the ones mentioned here and 70% of the bags are crumbs.

@heavyset0223 Ай бұрын

Best lump charcoal is El Diablo mesquite lump. $20 for 40lbs

@pareloader5989 2 ай бұрын

I bought 4 bags of Royce oak for $9.95 a bag.. couldn’t pass it up

@williamkrause5624 2 ай бұрын

Honestly just pouring charcoal out of the top of the bag is misleading and the smaller stuff would have settled to the bottom. You probably wont get a good size comparison that way. You should have poured out the complete contents of the bags to better compare the sizes of the chunks.

@nellyville41 Ай бұрын

^^^this. I’ve tried cowboy, kamado joe, and b&b. Cowboy had the most shards at like 1/2 the bag and sparkled like the 4th of July!

@jaybee1570 2 ай бұрын

America’s test kitchen recently claimed their tasting panel could not tell the difference between lump and briquette. Curious if you would agree?

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

I'm working on a plan to test that, but need some help so it can be a blind taste test.

@declanfarber 28 күн бұрын

Those people are from the Boston area. They don’t know anything about barbecue, except maybe what they saw on the radio. ;^)

@mrallan8063 2 ай бұрын

I'm disappointed you crushed the large peices. Imo, the larger pieces is why you pay the premium. The small peices in my experience burn much faster because there is more surface area vs large peices need to burn down. I'm not even sure using lump for short duration cooking even imparts any meaningful flavor vs briquettes.

@robzilla69 2 ай бұрын

Lazzari. Next

@johnray7636 17 күн бұрын

Ill never buy royal oak again. Had a piece explode in my face while lighting with an electric lighter. Eyebrows and hunk of hair gone. Lucky didn't get in my eyes. Be carful out there.

@GrillTopExperience 17 күн бұрын

Yikes!

@emmgeevideo 2 ай бұрын

Why do you rate the brands in cost per pound but your other weight measurements are in grams? Not helpful. We never heard why chunk size makes a difference in long cooks -- which you didn't test anyway.

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

Americans are used to buying things by the pound and using the metric system in science class. It's either that or I'm trying to aggravate both the US and international audience.

@emmgeevideo Ай бұрын

@@GrillTopExperience As an American I'll say that over the years I have an intuitive sense of what a pound feels like. Your citation of a chunk's weight in ounces didn't register in my mind the way it would have if you had cited it in ounces or pounds. I certainly know what a gram is in terms of a unit of measure and I use grams on my scale when weighing ingredients for pizza dough. My recommendation is that you decide where most of your audience lives and you verbally use one system of measurement (i.e., the one your audience is most familiar with) and superimpose a caption with values using the other system of measurement. That way audiences familiar with either measurement system can easily understand your point without you getting tongue-tied as you narrate. But mixing cost per pound and citing chunk weight in grams is the worst of all possible approaches. IMHO...

@thommtum 2 ай бұрын

Jealous devil is not made in USA!

@GrillTopExperience Ай бұрын

Doh! Jealous Devil says made in Paraguay in tiny letters on the bottom. Fogo is El Salvador. You Tube lets you cut parts of a video after it is published and I submitted a fix to pull that part. Thanks for commenting.