Comments on: New Kingsford Charcoal briquette

By: Silvrspur

Silvrspur — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:59:16 +0000

My husband and I have been using Kingsford Charcoal Briquettes for years. He has seen in the last year or so that the regular briquette bag of 20 lbs is now a bag of 16-18 lbs. and the briquette is thinner which does not burn as long. It’s understandably that a company these days is having problems with economic issues as well as the individual. But, to decrease the bag size, decrease the briquette size and then double the cost is stretching it. Everyone has a budget; and if we have to, we will find another briquette~~if there is one.

By: LO Cook

LO Cook — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:33:56 +0000

I have been bbqing for 30 years now and consider it as second-nature. This week with the new Kingford’s charcoal briquets which are suspiciously lighter in weight and burn much quicker, I have undercooked a chicken and overcooked lamb kabobs because they did not brown. Our Webber has a thermometer and does not heat up properly unless I use quite a bit more charcoal! Not a very “Green” concept. Perhaps this is just another ploy by a company to boost profits! I will be looking for a new source for charcoal.

By: DutchOven1

DutchOven1 — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:26:40 +0000

I tried the “new and improved” charcoal today, and I agree with the rest of you that it while it may be new, it certainly isn’t improved. The new version only burns half as long (if it stays burning at all) and completely disintegrates in half the time. I’d have better luck using well dried horse muffins than this crap (while this may work for dutch ovens, I wouldn’t recommend this substitute for grilling).

Why mess with a good thing? I’m completely disgusted and won’t be recommending kingsford to anyone.

By: Captain Ron

Captain Ron — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:01:36 +0000

I have to agree with BBQMaster. I purchased the new “Competition” charcoal at Costco this year and have tried it in several grilling situations. The ONLY time I was OK with the results was using it for hot and fast grilling of steaks and burgers. Using it for 2 zone cooking or low and slow smoking was a disaster. I did an 8 lb. pork shoulder last weekend that takes about 5 hours on my Fire Magic grill with an adjustable coal bed height. Using the old Kingsford briquettes I would typically add about 10-15 briquettes an hour. Using the new competition briquettes I was dumping in 15-20 briquettes about every 45 minutes.

I was used to adding smoke by using a stainless steel smoker box that I put right on top of the charcoal. Not with the new briquettes I’ve since learned. The new ones turn to soft ash so quickly they don’t support the smoker box so I found myself building a briquette bunker around the box to keep it hot enough. This turns out to be a pain as it is much harder now to open the smoker box lid to add additional soaked wood chips.

This weekend I’m going shopping for another brand or minimally the original Kingsford briquettes. I’ll dump the remaining competition briquettes in a bucket and save them for grilling steaks, if I can afford to buy a steak after all the money I’ll have spent on trying to find a good ol’ charcoal briquette.

By: BBQMaster

BBQMaster — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:58:01 +0000

I really liked Kingsford Charcoal. Now they came out with “competition” charcoal (junk). Same briquettes, label change only. I can only use it for grilling burgers, dogs or steak. It lights fast enough for me…sometimes to fast and burns out quicker. I gave up using it for my slow n low smoking. I had that down to a well oiled science before they changed the product.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they came out and said that (any of the following)’

EPA regs won’t allow the old mix

We were bought out by ‘Quick Bux Mfg” and found a cheaper mix

They were/are being bamboozled by some marketing firm from NY City.

or that the “greenies” are upset by the old mixes carbon footprint.

The Emperors New Clothes indeed!

By: Bones

Bones — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:34:43 +0000

Been grilling for over 20 years. Last year, I’ve been practicing with lump charcoal. This year I went back to Kingsford Briquettes because it was the the supermarket. What I’ve found is:

* Smokier after lighting.
* More ash, ash on food (like another commentor)
* Lower heat, shorter burning time
* Fragile briquettes. Fragile after ashing over and many half bricks and pieces in the bags.

Someone said they have a cook time of 88 minutes. Well, after 20-30 minutes after ashing over, I find they develop a thick coat of ash and the temp goes way down. If you touch the charcoals, move the grill, or even get a gust of wind, that ash ends up on your chicken or food. The last two bags, I’ve had to put unlit charcoals on the ashed charcoals to keep the heat going for chicken and brats. This is crazy.

It’s got me frustrated because Kingsford was the only brand I trusted. Now, it’s just junk. I’m gonna have to hunt down some specialty briquettes or that lump charcoal. The cooking time was less with the lump charcoal, but it was still better than the ‘new’ briquettes.

By: Buzz

Buzz — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:37:33 +0000

Just got a bag of the new, improved “starts faster, lasts longer” charcoal. Grilled a New York Strip from my favorite butcher and I got a whole lot of “not steak” flavor. I’ve been grilling on Weber grills for almost fifty years. Meat’s good, grill’s good, cook’s good, so the variable is the charcoal. This stuff might be ok for drying out workboots, but for grilling, it sucks. I think it must be adulterated with dog wham.

By: jodirt

jodirt — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:24:21 +0000

me and my buddy want to purchase a pallet of kingsford as we are sick and tired of always running out and it seems to be getting pricier all the time Im sure we could get a pretty good deal on quantity how do we do that??

By: Annie

Annie — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:40:17 +0000

I don’t know how anyone is getting this new coal even lit. After the starter fluid burns down it goes out on us. Match Light is the only one we can get lit for some reason. Anyone else having this problem??

By: AL

AL — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:42:19 +0000

I went to the Kingsford website. There does not seem to be a Link to contact them. Did I miss something? I want to send them my (negative) comments on the “new and improved”.