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kingsford

BBQchef33

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Phil
BBQ TV tonight on the food channnel. A show on kingsford charcoal. they say..............

Kingsford is made with firwood, cedar and alder. ( 2 of 3 woods we shouldnt use for smoking. Go figure).. every piece of the tree is used.

The wood is roasted up to 2300 degrees, to form what they call a "wood char". Its and then mixed with coal.. to make.

Char-coal.


go figya.
 
Yeah,
I saw that too. Makes me think that maybe char-coal is alright for grilling, but not the best thing for us to use in low & slow.
Grilling uses much higher temps. (uh, am I preachin to the choir?) That show also did a segment on the Weber restaurant in (Yes, Bill we know :lol: ) Chicago. They use direct temps of up to 1,500 degrees & offset temps of, up to 600 degrees. So, the meat doesn’t stay on the grill very long to soak up the bad stuff. On the other hand, what we cook takes considerably longer.
Probably the best way to go is, if your gonna use char-coal at all, just start a good bed with it and then go with all pre-heated wood.
Or, then there’s lump (if you can afford it).
I know this subject has been brought up a time or two, but I thought it would be good to reiterate for some of the new folks.
 
Cooking with briq is a bit like eating a hotdog, great if you don't think too much about what's in it. I'm a big fan of both.
There are pros and cons to every type of fuel. Wood and lump are harder to control temp with, briq contains ? and produces a lot of ash. I think it comes down to personal preference as to how much or how little tending you want to do, and fuel cost probably the two biggest considerations. I think the best quality product comes from all or mostly wood fires, however a lot of Q cooked in WSM's over briq places high and wins at contests. It's easy to get pointed away from briq, but before swearing off it entirely one should closely consider that its very predictable and cost effective, and when combined with quality wood yields excellent finished product.
 
There more to it; at least in my brotherly opinion. So excuse me because it is wth difficulty that I'll try not to rant too much but:

BBQchef33 said:
Kingsford is made with firwood, cedar and alder roasted up to 2300 degrees, to form what they call a "wood char". Its and then mixed with coalcoal.. to make..Char-coal.

Funny they didn't mention the wide array of fun-filled flavor enhancing trace elements like mercury that is in coal. Yum!.....mercury! And uranium; Remember "It's not just for breakfast anymore."

To me, smoking is about minimizing life's complications and the quest for Zen-like advancement of our craft... and part of that is eating both well + healthy.

I'm not saying Kingsford kills or any $hit like that. But why needlessly add to the wide range of toxins most of us are unwittingly exposed to on a daily basis. Don't wait till you lose your health to value it.

Sure, you can save some time and effort just using briquetts. So why not just use gas and just grill instead? That's right; it just isn't as good is it?. And charcoal just isn't as good as wood either. So using all wood is really part of the art and quest for perfection.

Yeah, I know getting suitable wood for smoking can be a feat in Parker CO and elsewhere. If this applies to you, and you can't relocate to a region more supportive of this art, I send my condolences. I'll send you the wood too if you'll pay the shipping.
 
Mark said:
There more to it; at least in my brotherly opinion. So excuse me because it is wth difficulty that I'll try not to rant too much but:

So using all wood is really part of the art and quest for perfection.

Yeah, I know getting suitable wood for smoking can be a feat in Parker CO and elsewhere. If this applies to you, and you can't relocate to a region more supportive of this art, I send my condolences. I'll send you the wood too if you'll pay the shipping.
Been there, done that on the shipping, Ouch! :lol:
But, that is what Brothers are for!
I am on the "quest" and blessed with lots of quality Oak.
I am sure Kingsford works just fine.
I just gotta save my nickles to resupply BigAl.
TIM
 
Here is the list of ingredients that Kingsford lists offically, I have found this list at a number of different sites.
http://www.cbbqa.com/wood/Kingsford.html
The list of what woods are used will change by location of the plant. Back east you will find possibly oak or hickory, in another of the country it coulb pecan or in another fruitwoods. I have not found any source that names firs or cedar as a wood they would use. I didn't see the program Phil is talking about.
 
But why needlessly add to the wide range of toxins most of us are unwittingly exposed to on a daily basis. Don't wait till you lose your health to value it.
Mark, you act as though green leaves on a tree are somehow a certification of purity. A lot of the same toxins you consider so undesireable in briq occur naturally in wood, not to mention herbicides, peticides, fertilizers and a plethera of other contaminants that trees extract from contaminated ground water. Your crusade against Kingsford leaves me thinking there is something in all wood smoke that causes paranoia.
 
Scott:
Your crusade against Kingsford leaves me thinking there is something in all wood smoke that causes paranoia.
Ouch!
I just did not read it that way--sorry Brother :lol:
Also, I would also be paranoid if that were true--But I am not--All the guys trying to get me are real! :lol:

TIM
 
Mark
The coal your are talking about is not the same coal that is used in Kingsford. The most harmful thing most come up with is sodium nitrate, sound familiar, same stuff that they use to cure ham,bacon and sausage.
Your choices are straight wood, when you burn wood it release around 4500 different compounds, or you can go with lump charcoal, ever really looked at what can come out of a bag of lump.

What this gets down to is what amount of exposure are you willing to submit yourself and family to. There is no one answer. It is now advised to eat farmed salmon only twice a month and wild salmon no more than 1 a week, Salmon is good for you right?

Understand that more Kingsford is sold in the US than most of the other charcoal products combined. If I'm trying to break into that market innuendo is much better than the facts, and in the case Kingsford there is a lot of misinformation out there.
There is an engineer that teaches at Wayne State Unv that has a paper out on the evils of Kingsford, only a couple of problems Wayne State doesn't have instructor with this guys name or an engineering school.

In my case carbs in my diet are much more harmful than the charcoal I cook with. It's all about choices.
 
Sorry if I accidently pissed on anyone's choices. I'm not trying to wage a crusade against Kingsford but I sincerely doubt that Kingsford or anyone else has found a way to extract the trace elements (heavy metals and such) that occur in coal to varying degrees. If someone did, the EPA would deem it Best Available Control Technology (BACT) and require its use by coal burning electric generators. Scrubbing the exhaust is how electric utilites manage stuff like that; but it is a process that occurs after combustion. There's an old thread on here somwhere that cites a Kingsford representative saying that they use "high quality" coal. All that probably means is they use high Btu anthracite instead of lignite.

I concede that wood can also produce unhealthy chemicals; especially if incompletely dried and combusted, formaldehyde being just one of them. However, with properly dried wood of the proper species for smoking coupled with proper technique, I think I have minimized any health risks, real or perhaps just in my paranoid imagination. That's my choice and I don't mean to force my choices on anyone, just to share some facts about what I know is in coal (devoid of marketing spins). Should I produce a statistically representitive sample of coal proximate analyses? I can if it would do any good. Or else you can simply take it or leave it. That would be your choice. Fair enough?
 
Mark
I apologize if you think I'm busting your chops, not my intention.
My intent was to simply give out the information as I know it.
I have no problem with others choices but I always want to have as much info on a subject as I can get.
I appreciate your willingness to give us your thoughts.

One of my character flaws is I like to debate please forgive me.
 
This may not be right in view of everything else said, but I base my choice on: 1. What will give me best results. 2. What can I afford. 3. What do I have on hand.

I recently bought a 40lbs bag of lump, and so far have only pull lump outta the bag. I still use the brickettes when I want to start the fire, or getting late, and fire is dying. It is easy for me to toss a few bricks on the fire.
 
No hard feelings on this end Jim. It would take a lot more than this thread to piss me off. Besides, I also like to debate. In fact, some day, I hope to graduate to masterdebater status. Now wouldn't that be credentials to be proud of? Just think of how it would impress co-workers and business client when they see that diploma on the wall! :roll:
 
PS:

And now that I'm back on my medications, I realize that major U.S. corporations never really:

added chemicals to cigarettes to make them more addicting
substituted kangaroo meat for beef in hamburgers
added sawdust to bread for "fiber"
bilked consumers for billions through bogus energy trading

Yeah, I see now I was just imagining all that. Luckily, I've got a coupon for a 2-for-1 special on a lobotomy and chip implant so I scheduled an appointment. I know I'll feel much better soon.
 
Mark said:
PS:

And now that I'm back on my medications, I realize that major U.S. corporations never really:

added chemicals to cigarettes to make them more addicting
substituted kangaroo meat for beef in hamburgers
added sawdust to bread for "fiber"
bilked consumers for billions through bogus energy trading

Yeah, I see now I was just imagining all that. Luckily, I've got a coupon for a 2-for-1 special on a lobotomy and chip implant so I scheduled an appointment. I know I'll feel much better soon.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you......

:shock:
 
racer_81 said:
Mark said:
PS:

And now that I'm back on my medications, I realize that major U.S. corporations never really:

added chemicals to cigarettes to make them more addicting
substituted kangaroo meat for beef in hamburgers
added sawdust to bread for "fiber"
bilked consumers for billions through bogus energy trading

Yeah, I see now I was just imagining all that. Luckily, I've got a coupon for a 2-for-1 special on a lobotomy and chip implant so I scheduled an appointment. I know I'll feel much better soon.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you......

:shock:

And Mark, I honestly believe that we meat eaters are in more danger of the steriods that cows, pigs and birds are on to make them grow faster than any bad effects of wood or charcoal smoke. And the oldest person
that I know of in my family tree was my Mom's Mother, she died around 95 after raising 12 kids. She used to say that a lot of people died early because they worried way too much about death because of the way they lived their lives. I don't think she ever attended any school, but was very very wise.

40 years of KingsFord and still going strong....PS I lost my hair at 18 long before I ever Q'ed the first time.
 
BigAl said:
40 years of KingsFord and still going strong....PS I lost my hair at 18 long before I ever Q'ed the first time.

Uh huh. Lost your hair at 18.....
 
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