Review: Old vs New Kingsford® Charcoal (tons of pics)

[MattG]

Great job.

 

[Alexa RnQ]

I'm such a geek, I found this riveting!

Will stay tuned for the blue bag v. comp report!

 

[momb]

Thanks for the review. Good info. Mary

 

[grillzilla10]

great review Do you think your elevation affect the results any ?

 

[pile-0-bones]

Being a dedicated lump guy it's unlikely I'll try the new stuff, but your report was really interesting. Thanks John.

 

[Steppenwolf]

You've already recieved a lot of kudos for your reseaech, but not enough for all that you did. Great job! Funny thing is that I had just heard about the new Kingsford, inas my winter supply is dwindling down, your info is very timely for me.
Thanks again!.

 

[Solidkick]

I think my next review might be "blue bag" Kingsford vs. their Competition (which I love). That would be interesting.

John

I can't wait!

I think your review helps explain the start up of my Spicewine a couple of weeks ago....getting up to cooking temp ran about 45 minutes behind what it normally takes, part of that may have been attributed to the cold conditions, but I had taken a weed burner and warmed the inside of both cabinets first.

 

[grossepellets]

Thanks for sharing! The whole process of producing charcoal is very interesting. My guess is that Kingsford figured out an economical way to produce a denser briquette ( longer burn time) while reducing the water ( hotter burn ) in it. A denser product will take longer to get up to speed but as your graph shows once lit will grow and grow outperforming its previous heavier composition. In addition - I don't know if they claim it on the package but its probably a cleaner burning charcoal. Some of you may have used or heard about coconut charcoal - made from the shell of coconut. I just read an article that stated the carbon in Coconut charcoal is as high as 88% compared to a high quality regular charcoal which registers closer to 77%. Thanks again for the post!

 

[Earl]

Finally got around to trying a bag of the "new" Kingsford. I know this is an older post but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is the smell of the new stuff when lighting. It smells like wood smoke coming out of the chimney, not a chemical fire.

I didn't like the smell of the old blue bag charcoal nor the taste it left on the meat. I'll give this formulation a try in the smoker in a few weeks.

 

[PatioDaddio]

Finally got around to trying a bag of the "new" Kingsford. I know this is an older post but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is the smell of the new stuff when lighting. It smells like wood smoke coming out of the chimney, not a chemical fire.

I didn't like the smell of the old blue bag charcoal nor the taste it left on the meat. I'll give this formulation a try in the smoker in a few weeks.

You're right, Earl. I should have mentioned that in the review. The new stuff definitely smells much more natural.

John