Cowboy lump charcoal from Costco

Czarbecue

Czarbecue

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Is this stuff any good? 40 pound bag for $19.99. Only reviews from bbq related sites are six years old and says they are full of fillers. They also had Kingsford competition stuff for around the same price/weight. Maybe a dollar cheaper.
 
I like the Kingford Competition that I get from Costco. With the Cowboy I've gotten crushed aluminum cans in a bag. Needless to say I don't buy it anymore.

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Well that's not good eats. Maybe I should wait to see if Walmart drops anything for their Labor Day sale.
 
I use Cowboy Lump. Many years ago it was a bad product full of construction scraps and fillers. After many bad ratings from many sites (including naked wiz), they changed their product.

I use the current Cowboy Lump product, and I select bags from the center of the pallet only to have large pieces of lump charcoal with little dust or crumbles. The dust and crumbles are caused by rough handling or throwing the bags around. Take from the center and you'll always have large lump which has not been broken. I have never had any fillers, construction scrap, or junk in any of my bags over the past 6 years.

Our Costco sells Frontier Lump, which is packaged by the same producer of Cowboy Lump and Stubb's Briquettes.


Also keep in mind that Cowboy is a lump charcoal and Kingsford competition is a briquette charcoal; they burn differently.

.
 
Most of the bags I've purchased were a lot of small pieces and dust so I didn't win the pallet lottery to get actual full lump as it's advertised. I only buy Royal Oak and on rare occasions I go with a bag of Fogo, which in my opinion is the best of the best. Their pieces are enormous. Seriously - they're the size of meteorites.

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Fogo-FHWC35LB-35-Pound-Hardwood-Charcoal/dp/B009P166SU/ref=sr_1_4?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1503234397&sr=1-4&keywords=lump+charcoal[/ame]
 
I bought a bag of Cowboy from Costco recently. Mine was mostly small pieces. I usually use RO, got 10 bags earlier when HD had them on sale. Trying a bag of Grove right now. Also want to try some Rockwood & some Timber lump.
 
I agree with my friend 93 confirmed

I bought one of those bags of Cowboy Lump and most of it so far has been very small pieces that either fall through the grate or burn up very fast. No low and slow from that stuff.
 
It's been years since I burned any Cowboy lump. I didn't like it. Small pieces and too much dust for my tastes. I never found any foreign objects. I've burned nothing but FOGO for the past few years. As 93 says above, it's the best of the best. Great size, non sparking, burns hot with little ash, burns clean.
 
I've used quite a few bags of Cowboy, mostly to get the offset fired up. While bags from years past did indeed contain furniture scraps, if the furniture was being made from good charcoal-producing wood I see no reason to find the practice suspect, by itself.

My bags didn't really contain any more way-too-small pieces than any other brands used, including "premium' ones, and a couple even housed small logs of charcoal that had to be broken up with a hammer.

The thing that we found less than desirable with Cowboy was the relatively short burn duration of the lump, when compared to many others.

All in all it did it's job, even if having a short burn time. When it is on sale for a great price it is still worth it.

Oh, and we've found foreign material in just about every "premium" brand of lump charcoal out there: I believe it is a result of the basic manufacturing methods common to most lump companies. Since we always sift through the lump a bit as it is poured into the cooker, it has never been a problem, regardless of brand.
 
Ya Its way better than it used to be and actually going to pick up a couple more bags today. No problems with my last 10 bags. Cooks well
 
IXL said:
The thing that we found less than desirable with Cowboy was the relatively short burn duration of the lump, when compared to many others.
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it, I did find that as well. Seems I have much less charcoal left over after a cook than with other brands.
 
Several years ago I gave up on Cowboy due to debris found in a few bags.


The online reviews back then pretty much agreed that Cowboy quality sucked outright.


Fast forward to the last year or so and I've tried it again with excellent results. Larger chunks that burn clean and steady.


My local Costco carries some big bags, too. Both the twofer Kingsford and the Cowboy bags are under $20.



 
Jason TQ said:
Ya Its way better than it used to be and actually going to pick up a couple more bags today. No problems with my last 10 bags. Cooks well
Click to expand...


I last used lump charcoal when I had my Chargriller Outlaw offset, which would be about 9 years ago. I used it mainly as my bed of coals since it could get the pit up and running quickly. It was Kroger brand lump charcoal. I honestly didn't know what I was doing back then. Even smoked with no temp gauge. Balls and no brains for sure.
 
I really don't get the odd weights with Cowboy. Why 34lbs? It's not even an even number in metric either.

Maybe it just so people think they are getting a 40lb bag. Even their 20lb bags are something like 18.8lbs. The last grocer where I bought a 18.8lb bag of Charcoal, actually had a sign that said 20lbs, so they got taken too.

Anyway, the costco price for the Cowboy is more expensive per pound than an actual 20lb bag of Grove Lump at an "expensive" supermarket near me.
 
McSpazatron said:
I really don't get the odd weights with Cowboy. Why 34lbs? It's not even an even number in metric either.

Maybe it just so people think they are getting a 40lb bag. Even their 20lb bags are something like 18.8lbs. The last grocer where I bought a 18.8lb bag of Charcoal, actually had a sign that said 20lbs, so they got taken too.

Anyway, the costco price for the Cowboy is more expensive per pound than an actual 20lb bag of Grove Lump at an "expensive" supermarket near me.
Click to expand...

The "20lb" bags of Wicked Good lump that we use are actually 22lbs each.
 
I use the Cowboy from my local BJs. I am assuming it is the same product, 34lb bag for 15.99-19.99 depending on sale. Each bag is its own mix of sizes and shapes. Some definitely bigger and smaller pieces and a fair amount of dust. But for the price and convenience I can't complain. I have 2 charcoal grates turned 90deg to each other in my fire basket of UDS and don't have too much problem with things falling through. I just tamp it all down a bit to get it as packed as possible.

Is it the best stuff out there, no. But I've tried just about every kind of charcoal in my local area and haven't really noticed a difference between brands of lump. Briquettes yes, Lump no. I prefer lump for the low ash and smoke on start up. But find Stubbs briqs to be the best of both worlds.
 
drallan81 said:
I use the Cowboy from my local BJs. I am assuming it is the same product, 34lb bag for 15.99-19.99 depending on sale. Each bag is its own mix of sizes and shapes. Some definitely bigger and smaller pieces and a fair amount of dust. But for the price and convenience I can't complain. I have 2 charcoal grates turned 90deg to each other in my fire basket of UDS and don't have too much problem with things falling through. I just tamp it all down a bit to get it as packed as possible.

Is it the best stuff out there, no. But I've tried just about every kind of charcoal in my local area and haven't really noticed a difference between brands of lump. Briquettes yes, Lump no. I prefer lump for the low ash and smoke on start up. But find Stubbs briqs to be the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

I've been a dedicated Stubbs user for a few years and after using the Weber briqs, I'm all-in on their bags now. They're slightly more expensive than Stubb's but larger, burn much slower and seemingly the same quality. Check them out if you haven't already.

*No, I don't work for Weber :wink:
 
Not a fan. The smoke is way overpowering when I use it with my eggs. I prefer something more neutral and add the smoke profile I'm looking for. It is also super sparky when trying to light it
 
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