sudsandswine
Quintessential Chatty Farker
I stopped by Ace Hardware the other day to pick up some B&B lump charcoal and saw they had Jealous Devil brand “Chunx” on sale for $20/20lb. That was about $3 more per bag than the B&B I set out for so I picked up 2 bags to give it whirl. The reviews were always really good, just a matter of price and availability.
Everything stated here is very accurate. I often get quite a bit of sparking and popping from certain brands, the start up process to get the grill holding 300* was almost smokeless, whereas others were fairly smokey. The chunks are very dense and heavy, they’re all generally fist sized +/- 20% or so, no broken bits or unusable powder to speak of. I tilted the bag around and dug a bit and was able to get a fairly good lay of the land with regard to piece size. It comes in what feels like a plastic bag with zipper top, so it seems to do a good job of protecting from the elements and possibly sloshing around inside the bag during handling as well.
I decided a good trial cook would be a reverse seared cowboy ribeye. If the charcoal is going to give off any weird flavors or bad smoke they’d be evident in the final result after spending ~1 hour indirect @ 300* before being seared over direct heat.
Don’t worry I peeled off this hard fat before seasoning it
Getting the charcoal going for the direct heat sear step - it lights easily and responds to airflow adjustments well. I got the dome temp up to about 450* with ease - with the cast iron grates there’s no need to go nuclear with the heat.
Got a nice sear on both sides
I’d overshot my last few cowboy ribeyes by a little bit, so I made an effort to pay more attention this cook and pull from indirect heat when it was feeling rare on the touch test. I was much happier with this one.
Not pictured: salad
All in all, I was quite pleased with the results from Jealous Devil charcoal - no off flavors, a hint of smoke from only the cherry wood chips I used during the indirect portion, it started easily without popping and sparking, produced little smoke, and responded well to airflow adjustments. My grill is still running around 300* 4 hours later, and I only partially filled a half bowl on the left side of the grill. I could probably get 6-7 more uses out of the 20lb bag based on what I used today. So somewhere between $2-3 each time I fire up the grill, not counting reuse that is possible if you shut the vents right after you’re done cooking. I’m going to use it in my Clonesaker next, which will be another good test for someone that in sensitive to charcoal flavor. I will probably go back and buy a couple more bags if it’s still on sale, and consider using it in the future if it’s around this price. Based on this first use, I probably like it better than B&B all else being equal.
Everything stated here is very accurate. I often get quite a bit of sparking and popping from certain brands, the start up process to get the grill holding 300* was almost smokeless, whereas others were fairly smokey. The chunks are very dense and heavy, they’re all generally fist sized +/- 20% or so, no broken bits or unusable powder to speak of. I tilted the bag around and dug a bit and was able to get a fairly good lay of the land with regard to piece size. It comes in what feels like a plastic bag with zipper top, so it seems to do a good job of protecting from the elements and possibly sloshing around inside the bag during handling as well.
I decided a good trial cook would be a reverse seared cowboy ribeye. If the charcoal is going to give off any weird flavors or bad smoke they’d be evident in the final result after spending ~1 hour indirect @ 300* before being seared over direct heat.
Don’t worry I peeled off this hard fat before seasoning it
Getting the charcoal going for the direct heat sear step - it lights easily and responds to airflow adjustments well. I got the dome temp up to about 450* with ease - with the cast iron grates there’s no need to go nuclear with the heat.
Got a nice sear on both sides
I’d overshot my last few cowboy ribeyes by a little bit, so I made an effort to pay more attention this cook and pull from indirect heat when it was feeling rare on the touch test. I was much happier with this one.
Not pictured: salad
All in all, I was quite pleased with the results from Jealous Devil charcoal - no off flavors, a hint of smoke from only the cherry wood chips I used during the indirect portion, it started easily without popping and sparking, produced little smoke, and responded well to airflow adjustments. My grill is still running around 300* 4 hours later, and I only partially filled a half bowl on the left side of the grill. I could probably get 6-7 more uses out of the 20lb bag based on what I used today. So somewhere between $2-3 each time I fire up the grill, not counting reuse that is possible if you shut the vents right after you’re done cooking. I’m going to use it in my Clonesaker next, which will be another good test for someone that in sensitive to charcoal flavor. I will probably go back and buy a couple more bags if it’s still on sale, and consider using it in the future if it’s around this price. Based on this first use, I probably like it better than B&B all else being equal.
