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Royal Oak Lump Charcoal

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Outdoorguy

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As a relatively new BBQ guy looking to do some back yard events. What's the best way to stack Royal Oak Lump charcoal and using the minion method in WSM's. I would really like to get away from the Kingsford taste?
 
Pour it in the charcoal ring. Reach down, grab the bottom bowl, shake, rattle, shake, rattle. Add more charcoal to fill it up. Repeat the shaking until you are comfortable with the settling. (This is not rocket science....a couple of times will knock it out.)

The best thing you can do is get one of those Weber mini-chimneys and fill it up with lump, get it lit. By the time all of it is going good, it will have settled and burned down to about 2/3 at the most. Pour that on top of the charcoal, assemble smoker.

Put meat on, put lid on. Open door and put your fist-sized smoke wood in....tongs help. Shut the door and get ready to catch the climb to your desired cooking temp.
 
I fill ring 1/3 full, then use my hands to pack it in, do another 1/3, and so on. I have some rubber gloves for cleaning, I think they are Playtex from Lowe's that I wear to keep hands clean. Just try to fill all the air space with charcoal.
 
Thanks for all your help. I used Royal Oak this pass weekend doing ribs and found it took about 3 hours to stabilize the temperature. I do 250 for slow and 275 for rib's and chicken. The Royal Oak bags are about 80% small pieces to very little pieces and with a few tennis ball size chunks. I can pack an 18" WSM with Kingsford and get a 16 hour run so that's were my question started. My 22.5 WSM is what I used for the first try w/ Royal Oak. I also use a BBQ Guru DX2 and/or Party Q which is worth there weight in gold for WSM's. I'm doing a Backyard event near San Diego, Ca in December and trying to get ready for it. My ribs this weekend, according to my guest, about 20, turned out terrific (and they were not drinking). Normally I can stabilize a WSM in less that an hour. I am going to try again this coming weekend.
 
Outdoorguy said:
Thanks for all your help. I used Royal Oak this pass weekend doing ribs and found it took about 3 hours to stabilize the temperature. I do 250 for slow and 275 for rib's and chicken. The Royal Oak bags are about 80% small pieces to very little pieces and with a few tennis ball size chunks. I can pack an 18" WSM with Kingsford and get a 16 hour run so that's were my question started. My 22.5 WSM is what I used for the first try w/ Royal Oak. I also use a BBQ Guru DX2 and/or Party Q which is worth there weight in gold for WSM's. I'm doing a Backyard event near San Diego, Ca in December and trying to get ready for it. My ribs this weekend, according to my guest, about 20, turned out terrific (and they were not drinking). Normally I can stabilize a WSM in less that an hour. I am going to try again this coming weekend.
Click to expand...

I haven't had that experiences (80% small pieces) with RO lump. I've also never had an issue stabilizing temperature. I pack in the lump, put in about 1/2 of a full size weber chimney of lit, leave it all disassembled for 10 mins or so, put it together, and I'm usually good to go in another 15-20 mins, and the temp holds steady for long enough to get through whatever it is I'm cooking.
 
17+ Pound bag of royal oak I bought last friday at restaurant depot in Milwaukee had enough barely "workable" pieces to not even get a a full packed ring on a 18.5" WSM....rest was total garbage... scared to buy another bag soon from there but it was probably just bad luck as I never really had a totally fail experience with RO
 
rocky2298 said:
17+ Pound bag of royal oak I bought last friday at restaurant depot in Milwaukee had enough barely "workable" pieces to not even get a a full packed ring on a 18.5" WSM....rest was total garbage... scared to buy another bag soon from there but it was probably just bad luck as I never really had a totally fail experience with RO
Click to expand...

I have had the same results in the last two bags. My UDS basket is an egg basket and have never had problems until the last two purchased, lots of small pieces.
 
I just sort of dump a big mound into the ring and then pull coals out of the middle to pit in the chimney.
 
Same here guys! Bought RO for first time On the cheap at Home Depot. Looked like a crushed bag of chips!! Not happy...back to wicked good for me.
 
Do you guys like Cowboy Lump? Every time I get a bag from Home Depot, it's full of HUGE pieces. I tend to keep getting it but was tempted to try Stubbs also...
 
I am a big fan of Cowboy lump charcoal. I like the big pieces, how long it burns. The pieces are heavy, compared to Royal Oak lump, and it burns a lot longer. It does produce a lot of ash for a lump charcoal, but since I have a WSM 22.5, ash has not been a problem. I've never had a problem with overnight cooks. I've had 15+ hour cooks with Cowboy.
 
I used to be dismayed at small pieces of lump. But now it's like the companies make it just for me. A bowl full in the mini green egg, a cube starter and it is a grand site to behold.
 
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