Not your daddy's Cowboy lump!

I've made fun of Cowboy lump in the past. I've had my share of rocks, insulation, dead animals, and even a live (black) frog hopped out of a bag of Cowboy lump I opened a year ago. I saw him hopping around the patio for a few days until it rained and I couldn't track him anymore. I'm very familiar with the fireworks that often occur when I light the fire. I gave up on Cowboy over a year ago after a particularly awful bag. I took to using Royal Oak as I was commuting closer to some Walmarts and it was much better. Over the past year, I noticed the RO becoming more and more like Cowboy. The bags had more dust and I even found some rocks. I'd also read here a few people commenting on Cowboy lump improving(!) The last month I've been unable to locate any RO, or even any lump. I made a trip to Ace hardware last week and picked up a 20 pound bag of Cowboy (I was ecstatic they had anything, actually). Today, I cleaned out the Oval -- I had last tried a couple bags of "True 'Cue" I found at Home Depot that were the worst bags of lump I'd ever had. They were hard to light, and filled with dust and pebble-sized lump. I couldn't even get it all to burn out when I left the vents open! Worst of all was the smell! I filled up the Oval with the new bag of Cowboy:



Fark! look at that! Hardly any dust, and no small pieces! I've never seen anything like it from Cowboy. What is most remarkable is there is nothing in there that remotely resembles a 2x4 or trim. It all appears to be real, unprocessed wood. Heck, this is one of the best looking bags of lump I've ever had :shock:. Here's a closer shot:



You can see some of the pieces aren't wholey carbonized. I lit it up: no sparks, no fireworks, and NO FUNKY ODORS. :shock: Here it is after a full 10 minutes:



Yeah, 10 minutes, and I had the diffusers in place. I just removed the one to take the picture. The temperature was already above 200* after only 10 minutes and it was burning cleanly, no funky smells. I don't know if this was random chance, but if this really is the "new" Cowboy, I'm loving it. I will miss the free rocks and frogs though.

Ron_L said:

Interesting. Is there any marking on the bag that we could use to make sure we're getting the 'new' stuff?

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I don't remember exactly what the old bags looked like, but it looks the same as I remember EXCEPT this is a 20lb bag that I picked up at Ace, rather than the smaller bags at Home Depot. On the front it does have the words, "Now, longer lasting," but I couldn't tell you if they were there before. Granted, I haven't actually cooked with this yet, but I've never had lump look so good and get up to temp so fast. I'm only doing some country ribs, so that's really not any test on how long it lasts. With my luck, it will all burn out in 15 minutes. :laugh:

Moose said:

Well, Gore, sometimes things do improve for the better. Hopefully this continues. :clap:

My guess is someone in management re-allocated the budgets by diverting the funds previously used for the rocks and frogs into better product.

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The really sad thing is that I didn't learn what that frog was for until after they stopped giving them away.

RW said:

With Lowe's as my only source of Cowboy lump, does anyone think it would be the improved stuff that y'all are finding at Ace?

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Chriscw81 above picked up cr@ppy stuff at Ace, so I have absolutely no idea. Still seems a bit of random chance. :noidea: