Grill/Smoke/Roast = SnS Grills Kettle + SnS Deluxe Insert & Drip n' Griddle
Grill/Smoke/Roast = Hasty-Bake Gourmet Dual Finish with HB rotisserie and Grill Grates
Smoke = Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5"
Pizza = Blackstone Propane Pizza Oven (Stacy's, but she let's me use it sometimes)
Indoor Cooking = LG Studio 30" gas range
Camp Cooking = Coleman 2 burner white gas stove
Thermometer = FireBoard FBX2 with 2 ambient and 6 meat probes
Thermapen Mk IV = Light blue
Thermapen Mk IV = Black
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Auber 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 1 fan)
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Fireboard 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 2 fan)
Knives
Wusthof Classic Ikon set: 9" carving knive, 2X 8" Chef's Knife, 7" Santoku and three utility knives
Kamikoto Kuro set: 7" Santoku, 6.5" Nakiri, 5" Utility
Amazing Ribs Brazilian Steak knife set
Favorite wine = whatever is currently in the wine rack
Favorite beer = Sam Adams Boston Lager or Shiner Bock
Favorite whisky = Lagavulin Distiller's Edition 16 year old single malt
Best Cookbooks - Meathead's "The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", Chris Lilly's "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book", Aaron Franklin's "Franklin BBQ", Raichlen’s “Brisket Chronicles”
Current MCBS - Momofuku
Current fanboy cookbook - "Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around the Levant"
Not the abominable lump from Cowboy Brand …. Their briquets are pretty darn good, actually. Had a long cook today on the SNS Kettle/Insert. Filled the insert full, pulled out 15 briquets and lit them in a small chimney. They were good and hot in about 10-12 minutes. Added them back to the SNS and let it come up to temp (250’ish is where I like it). Ran that from 4:30 AM until 11:00 AM, about 3/4 of the briquets were consumed, so I refilled. That ran at 250’ish until about 2:00 PM when I pulled the meat off. About 1/3 of the insert’s charcoal was consumed.
All in all, they burned as hot as Kingsford Pro, but much slower …. Probably would have used 1.5 inserts worth of KP to get the same temp and time.
I love the cowboy briqs. Took a chance on them last fall when they were on clearance at costco. Had I known I w er would like them so much, I would have bought all they had...
14 lb bags are currently available at Tractor supply for 8.99. Just ordered 10 bags..will pick up later this week.
Burgers and dogs on the kettle using the vortex as my hot zone. Full chimney of coals...
3 hours after lighting and temps still running 350ish...
love these briqs.
I try not to resurrect dead threads without a reason, but I have a reason lol.
A few months ago I had just a really rough cook with some KBB. They seemed to just, well, not get hot, and once they had all burned out....it really felt they were more cornstarch (i.e. "ash") than anything combustable.
When I went to Walmart to stock up as my supply of KBB was getting low, I noticed they had the 20 lb bags of Cowboy Briquets for cheaper (!) than the 16 lb bags of KBB! So I bought a pair.
I've got several cooks under my belt with these and I really like them. The briquets are dense; in fact each one has roughly twice as much mass (I weighed them) as a KBB briquet.
In my experience, the seem to take just a little bit longer (3-5 minutes) to light in a chimney than KBB. They may burn hotter, but I am not sure. They also spark a little bit, reminiscent of lump.
The "ash" produced is minimal compared to KBB, which is delightful. But the one thing I absolutely love is that, unlike KBB, after a cook, the remaining cooled briquet pieces don't crumble easily. I've never had this consistent luck relighting charcoal as I have with these Cowboy Briquets. Cheaper and saves me money by less charcoal used each cook? Yes, please.
With the exception of my PBC (I've got that thing down to a science with KBB), I think I my have permanently switched to CB for all things briquets.
I think you will find that getting the PBC dialed in using Cowboy has a pretty short learning curve….if you wanted to get away from KBB altogether. Adding 25 lit coals to a full basket is the magic number for me.
I've gotten away from KBB since I tried Cowboy. That and B&B for long cooks are it. I have the PBJ and using our queen fzxdoc Kathryn of the Pit Barrel suggestion of 40 in the basket, being a junior I use 20 and it works just fine.
Yes! I love cowboy briquettes! I am closer to moving away from even B&B to use them exclusively after they performed a flawless overnight cook in my OJB last week. Walmart regularly carries them for delivery at $17.99 for two 40 pound bags.
That's exactly how I just got my last two bags. I generally can always find enough stuff to get my total to over $35 for the free shipping and nine times out of ten, they will elect to deliver from a local store and I will get it same-day.
Can’t beat the price. The nearest Walmart to me that carries them (not available in all stores for some reason) is a little bit out of the way, but I buy in bulk when I go, so not a big deal. I had a bad experience with charcoal delivery from Walmart (bags showing obvious signs of having been wet), so I prefer picking up in person so I can see what I’m getting.
I’ve learned that not all stores treat their BBQ supplies with the same care…
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
I've been using Cowboy briquets for nearly three months now. They are still cheaper than Kingsford, but that does not tell the whole story.
On a typical cook that lasts less than an hour, I've able to reuse 1/4 if not 1/2 of the remaining briquets for the next cook. (As long as I remember to shut the vents on my Kettle in a reasonable amount of time, of course.)
I never could reuse Kingsford briquets....they were either too small or just crumbed into dust.
As such, I am going through the Cowboy briquets at a much slower pace than I did with KBB, saving even more money. Great, great product.
I agree - I am much happier with Cowboy briquettes than Kingsford. I have some of the new Jealous Devil XL briquettes, but haven't used them quite enough to really have much of an opinion on them yet.
Just got 40lbs from Walmart delivered to my porch. I will give them a try and report back. I often use lump of some kind but also use briquets. Usually, of the Kingsford varieties, I like the Green bag Apple briquets.
Duraflame may be phasing out the two-pack of the 20 lb bags of Cowboy briquets. The past two times I've gone to Walmart, they now only have the large 40 lb bag. It is the same price as the two 20 lbs ones ($17.92).
The problem is, the packaging is a bit inadequate for 40 lbs. Many of the bags have holes from handling. The last time it was challenging to find a bag without a hole that would leave a trail of charcoal dust trailing behind me as I wheeled my cart around the store.
(Insert: mental image of someone lighting a match and turning the trail into a fuse that leads right to me. Wily E. Coyote stuff!)
So, if you do plan to pick one of these up, make sure you at least have a barrier or something for your trunk/back of SUV.
Probably saves on packaging costs.
On a personal level, it will save me from having to explain to the person(s) at the checkout that the current product is a two pack and don’t scan it twice. I can’t count how many times it has happened 🙄
Same experience, one Walmart open the plastic wrap and tried to sell it as $17.92 per one bag even though I showed them the 2 bag labeling and their own website. Last week I did the 40lb bag of Cowboy charcoal.
Costco now sells their Kirkland Pro briquettes in a 30 lb bag instead of the two pack that they were doing. Still a better price per lb than Kingsford Pro :-)
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