Friday Butt - First Time w/Kingsford Competition (Pics)

Cooking a butt on Friday. Trying out Kingsford Comp as Costo had it on sale. With a coupon it was around $15 for 2 18lb bags. Figured I would give it a try. I've seen tons of discussion online about it with mixed reviews so I'm giving it a whirl.

I lit about 1/3 chimney and put it in my full unlit charcoal basket. Total I would say I have 2/3 of the bag in the offset with hickory and cherry wood chunks. I tried Stubbs last week and liked it a lot. It was the first time cooking in 60 degree weather so that was probably a big factor for maintaining temp a little easier than when it is in the 40's . It was cool this morning in the 40's, but will hit 65ish today.

So far from lighting the Comp to just about 20mins into the smoke it has been great. It seems to light a little quicker thank regular BK and once I put dumped the chimney in the smoker got to 225 quicker than normal. I know these are supposed to burn hotter so maybe that is why. So once it hit 225 I put the meat on and closed the vent to only 25% open. I normally have it 50% open to maintain temp so maybe again since it burns hotter I can keep it more closed. At 25% closed it had been holding steady at 235 so we shall see how it does throughout the cook.

Let me know if you have experience cooking with Blue Kingsford, Kingsford Comp, and Stubbs. Thanks!

Smokey Al Gold said:

Looks great so far! I love the coffee mug I love family guy! Anyway I've cooked with k comp and it did seem to light faster but my go to is regular blue k due to price. It is always consistent and burns very even and the price is right for me. I am going to try some stubbs here pretty soon but price wise blue k will be my go to charcoal. Looking forward to the finished pics!

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Family guy rocks . Yeah I really haven't had any complaints about regular BK especially for the price. It works great. I had a few time where the smoker struggled to stay above 225, but it was cold and the COS isn't too thick. So now that it is warmer I'm going through the rotations to see what I like. Stubbs was buy 1 get 1 at Lowes last week so I go 4 bags. I normally wouldn't get it because it costs more.

After almost 3hrs the Comp has been holding temp like a champ. Has fluctuated a little between 225-240, but never above or below. The vent is only about 15% open. My Q dog/gerbil has been keeping close watch. Not a scientific test by any means since cold outdoor temps has been a factor using regular BK and I'll be trying that again this weekend, but so far so good. I'd say ash seems pretty similar to BK.

Ok so after about 6.5 hrs there was only a little bit of K Comp left in the basket and temp dropped to about 205 so I fired up another chimney. I filled the chimney all the way to heat up. Once they were glowing I first put that last bit that was still in the bag into the basket first and then dumped in the lit. Temp camp back to 230ish within minutes. So we will see how this last dose of charcoal will last.

Butt temp after 6.5hrs (7.7lb) was at 155 and really haven't hit the wall yet. Sometime it happens later. I'll keep you posted.