Can you tell the difference? I could!!! LOL!

I'm with you. I can tell the difference or at least I think I can.

To me its hard to match a stick burner. I love my egg but can't produce the same ribs/brisket on it that I can on the stick burner. Now effort sometimes gets in the way and I'll take what I get off the egg!

What kind of charcoal did he use? I think to be fair he would need to use an all natural briq or lump. To me it is easy to taste lighter fluid and kbb but as Smitty puts it...I have sissy taste buds.:heh:

Propane, charcoal, wood. I can taste it. I use all three at times as I have units that use all three. Most people who eat my food can't taste the diff but I can. Idk. Let's eat.

Can you tell the difference if lump charcoal was used? Isn't that what logs reduce to once they are on the smoker? I can smell and taste the difference when briquettes are used.

I can easily taste the difference in briquette cooked/smoked meats compared to lump or wood. Nasty flavor IMO.

I don't use briquettes for anything anymore. Not even as a fire starter.

There are some folks out there who have a charcoal burning cooker and briquettes work better for them than lump but even with all natural briquettes such as the Kingsford Comp. briquettes there are still binders (starch and borax) used in the making process and when that stuff burns it definitely gives off a smell and flavor. The natural briquettes are IMO much better than regular briquettes but still noticeable.
As for me, I don't have a cooker that MUST use briquettes and for several years now I've used strictly lump since I'm either grilling with it or building a fire in an offset. Since lump is nothing more than carbonized wood there's no chemical/petrolium smell or taste to worry about, it burns hotter and leaves less ash.:-D

Put enough Sweet Baby Ray's on there and nobody can taste the difference...

Imagine Sweet Baby rays cut with white grape juice and 1/3 honey?

I would have never agreed with this until i started using my stick burner. I feel theres a difference between sticks and charcoal and lump. I used to think there was little to no diff in the taste (actually i think its more the smell) between lump and charcoal. After burning sticks it changed my perspective. Ive cooked in my cinder block pit with prelit coals from charcoal briquettes and some chunks and it was very close to the wood fire to me. I never thought id say this but maybe the minion method is slightly inferior. I was actually gonna start a thread like this one to discuss the topic but looks like bamabuzzard beat me to it. I tested my theory using kingsford last cook and lump last night. Both had a raw charcoal smell to them but lump was almost minimal. In all cases i burn a clean fire, with my stick burner sometimes it could use more smoke. You almost never see any visible smoke from my exhaust be it on the kettle, wsm or offset. i do agree this is a very slight difference and only a bbq nut could tell. Again i never thought id be saying this as i never considered myself a fuel snob before but the truth is what it is. This is humbling as i am eating my words, admiting that i have completely changed my stance on a subject. For now on kingsford is for grilling. I may even throw the minion method out with the bath water.

Wow that was therapeutic.

I don't know if I can tell the difference between briquettes and lump, if done totally blind. I think I would know the difference between briquettes and wood, especially in an offset versus cabinet comparison.

It's easy to tell when something has been cooked with propane or not. I'm not sure my taste is sophisticated enough to tell between charcoal and wood but I'm a bit new to the BBQ world.

Does anyone know the ratio of charcoal cookers vs. offset cookers at major competitions and how they place? I know someone posted the other day that 4 out of the 5 top teams used a certain cabinet smoker. Might be apples and oranges to compare backyard cooks to competition cooks though...

What's interesting is I've been told a couple of times that "average" folks like my BBQ better off the UDS than they do the stickburner. I consider that complete blasphemy but that's what I've been told!!

I believe I could tell the difference

I like kingsford charcoal. Works great. I use it for grilling and in the uds. The stickburner gets a few lit coals to help with initial start up sometimes,.. and sometimes not. I have used B+B lump a few times. It stunk, both figuratively and literally. Worked fine once fully lit in the weber,.. but did not last half as long as kingsford, same with the uds. I guess we just like what we like. As far as taste I agree with just about everybody, wood is best etc.... I would just rather cook on a cow pie than lump ! LOL... :laugh: and don't get em' in a wad lump users... I'm just razzin ya. Merry Christmas !