Review of the Cowboy Lump Charcoal

by TC McRae

The past barbeque season gave us a chance to try several different charcoal brands. One of the brands that we were disappointed by its performance was the Cowboy brand.

It burns much faster than other brands so if you use it keep that in mind because you will have to use more. Although it burned fast it was also fairly inconsistent in keeping the temperature up. What I found was that there was a significant amount of scrap lumber that was used to make the charcoal. Scrap lumber is a poor choice for consistent barbeque.

When charcoal is made the wood is put into a large container or pot with a lid and cooked at high temperature with limited oxygen. The wood loses about a quarter of its weight in the form of volatile organic chemicals. Natural unprocessed wood already has a number of organic compounds in it that are vaporized in the charcoal making process. The problem with scrap wood is that it has additional chemicals in it that could be harmful.

My suggestion is to invest in good quality hardwood lump charcoal for cooking. You will be glad you did.