Expert Grill Charcoal Briquets at Walmart

[cidbearit]

Sooner or later we're all bound to have a smoking disaster. Well a few weeks ago I had mine. Fortunately it was a relatively inexpensive mistake. I was going to smoke a simple appetizer for a potluck my bowling league was putting on. I had found a recipe for cocktail wieners wrapped in bacon and smoked. I thought it would be a good change of pace from the typical swedish meatballs and and queso chili dip.

The Saturday morning I had to do this, I realized I was out of charcoal. I use a Pit Barrel Cooker and have always used the Kingsford Blue. I ran to Walmart (closest place to me) and when I got to the charcoal area, pickings were slim. They had not yet restocked for the Spring. They had a few small bags of the Kingsford at what I considered a high price for the quantity. They also had Expert Grill Charcoal Briquets in a 16 lb bag on clearance (should have been a big red flag there) at nearly the same price as the small bags of Kingsford. I let the penny pincher in me get the best of me, and I bought the Expert Grill.

The stuff looked good (not a lot of dust or crud in the bag), and it lit very quickly. I dumped it in the Pit Barrel and put the lid on to let the PBC heat up. Right away I noticed there seemed to be a whole lot more smoke than the Kingsford put out. But I ignored it. I also noticed the smoke was more grayish white than a nice blue, but I ignored that too. Finally, I ignored the slight chemical smell of the smoke. Yes, the signs were all there, and I, well....

The recipe called for the wraps to smoke for two hours. Knowing that the PBC tends to cook quick on simple recipes, I decided to do a check at one hour. What a surprise! The wiener wraps were pitch black after one hour. Not burned. A sooty pitch black. Way over smoked. They indeed had the same chemical smell I had noticed earlier, and tasted even worse (yes, I tasted one. Actually a couple. My mistake, I had to pay).

Moral of the story: Stay away from the Expert Grill Briquets at Walmart, no matter how tempting the price. And it's probably a good idea to stay away from any charcoal being sold on clearance. From here on out, it's good old Kingsford Blue for me.

[Spinaker]

KBB is always a safe option. Do you think you bought some instant-lighting charcoal? That might explain the Chemical smell that you experienced. Some people do se lighter fluid, you just have to make sure it all burns off before putting any food over it. But if its not done right, you can certainly taste the fluid. Instant-Light charcoal is usually the worse offender. Thanks for the write up. Hopefully better luck next time!

[cidbearit]

Before I bought it, that was the first thing I looked for. It's not marked as EZ Light, fluid in the briquet, or anything like that, so I assumed it wasn't. And when I opened the bag, there was no "fuel" smell, nor did I notice anything while starting it in a charcoal chimney. My guess is that it may be something they use as a binder when forming the briquets.

[Lost in China]

Yeah, quality charcoal is something you don't miss until it's gone. I have had the worst problems with charcoal. I've finally found a brand that is so-so quality and available most of the time. Consistency is the key, you can't be constantly guessing how different kinds of charcoal are going to work.

[Huskee]

Thanks for the review!

I made a similar mistake several years ago. I was at Meijer (a large box grocery & goods store similar to Walmart in the north & central states) years ago and they had Meijer brand charcoal on sale. At the time I thought 'I don't need to buy expensive [Kingsford] charcoal, charcoal is charcoal'. So I bought some. Wow was I wrong. It smelled like a trash fire or leaf fire, and tasted just like it. I couldn't believe how bad it was. This was before I knew much about grilling and charcoal, so I may have put the meat on at a bad time too, but regardless it made a lasting impression. I've since tried Wicked Good & Royal Oak, and I've come to the conclusion that Kford is the best bang for the buck out there. I'll even by the small bags at high prices from party stores when I forget to take some camping because I know how it will behave no matter where I am.

[Jimmie Rhoden]

Wow, sorry to hear about your bad experience. I'm going to have to try Kingsford in the blue bag to see what the difference is. I've been using Expert Grill for a pretty good while now and haven't had any problems, of course I'm using the 26 inch Weber kettle with the SnS and I'm wondering if the type of Grill could play any part in it. But I'm going to test and see if the Kingsford in the blue bag Works any better just out of curiosity. I'm only getting about 8 to 9 hours average cooking time low and slow with the Expert Grill charcoal, I have also found that it doesn't give much flavor just using the charcoal by itself I get much better results when I add the wood for the smoke flavor. Am I the only one that's experience this I'm just curious.

[kmhfive]

I've only used KBB so far on the Weber 22 w/SnS. But the last one was Pastrami that I wasn't expecting a lot of smoke flavor to come through. I have some plans over the next two weeks, though.

[cidbearit]

I've not used the Weber, so I can't speak to your experience with that. I do know that in the Pit Barrel, the charcoal plays a large part in the flavoring. The design of the Pit Barrel limits the oxygen flow to the charcoal, causing it to smoke as opposed to burn cleanly. In fact, the PBC suggests using no wood, or a very limited quantity, as the charcoal provides sufficient smoke (I typically add some wood for the specific flavor of the wood type). So for the PBC, the quality of the charcoal does play a significant role in the end product (as my above experience indicates). Perhaps the Weber uses the charcoal strictly as fuel, and the wood is solely responsible for the smoking. In that case, the charcoal may not play as significant a role.

[Jimmie Rhoden]

I greatly appreciate your input because I am interested in purchasing the PVC, any advice or input would be greatly appreciated on different charcoals you have used and or wood

[GrillSFC]

That's not how a PBC or any charcoal smoker works. The charcoal burns cleanly, but slow. You should have blue whispy smoke. If you're choking the charcoal and getting white smoke, you will get bitter, dirty smoke flavor on what you're smoking.

[HawkerXP]

Welcome to the Pit!