The 5 Best Charcoals We’ve Cooked on This Summer
We've been recipe testing and grilling all summer long. Here are our 5 favorite charcoals. Which one fits your grilling style?
So far this grilling season (which started about a month early thanks to lockdown) I’ve cooked through about 100 pounds of charcoal. I used to be one of those people who thought charcoal was a pain to cook with despite its flavor benefits: It’s too messy, slow to light, tough to control, and too inconsistent for easy weeknight cooking. Better to leave it to the parties and weekends. Or so I thought. But lockdown has yielded many surprising lessons and the ease of charcoal is one of them, and now cooking over coals is a routine weeknight affair. Once you get into the swing of it, stock up on fuel, come up with a reliable go-to lighting strategy, and learn the arc of how your charcoal burns in your grill over time, you start to cook with the charcoal rather than against it. It quickly becomes second nature and you’ll find yourself in the flow with the coals, and with much better tasting food as a result. But not all charcoal is created equal, and every kind, just like every grill, has its quirks. Here are the five brands of charcoal I’ve used this summer and what I’ve learned.
Cowboy Hardwood Charcoal
This charcoal comes in fairly uniform pieces and produces a steady and predictable heat. It doesn’t smoke too much and while every lump charcoal made from real pieces of unprocessed wood (as opposed to manufactured briquettes) throws off some sparks during the lighting process, Cowboy charcoal isn’t overly sparky. It’s super dependable, clean, and consistent, and I’ve cranked out many a burnished steak over its glowing embers. Bonus: It’s made in the U.S. from wood sourced from the South.
Big Green Egg Natural Oak and Hickory Lump Charcoal
Another great product, though it’s on the pricey end of the range, is the lump charcoal from Big Green Egg. The aroma of this wood during the lighting process is unparalleled. Made from American oak and hickory that you can see in some of the pieces, this charcoal can actually be used to lightly smoke your wood much like adding chips or chunks will do if you time it right. I’ll frequently get a two-zone fire going, and while the smoke is abundant during the lighting process I’ll put bone-in chicken pieces on the cooler side of the grill and let it pick up some of that wood flavor before the charcoals turn red.
More Videos From Sunset
El Diablo Mesquite Charcoal
This charcoal is appropriately named as it sparks and smokes like the devil. During the lighting process I had to put on protective glasses to keep the July 4th pyrotechnics from flying into my eyes. That said: Once it calmed down El Diablo provided some of the hottest embers I’ve ever cooked on. It’s not for the faint of heart, but at 17 bucks for 40 pounds it’s by far the cheapest of the charcoals out there. If you’re expecting consistently sized chunks and shards, be warned this charcoal comes in thick sections of branches and near stumps that need to be broken up as they burn down. It’s high maintenance stuff, but pretty fun if you’re a bit of pyro.
Kingsford Hardwood Charcoal
Kingsford is the tried and true brand for a reason: It’s one of the most consistent charcoals on the market. Once you’ve cooked on lump, you might find the smoke during ignition a little much, but you could almost set your watch by its predictability. There’s something incredibly nostalgic about loading up a Weber kettle grill with some Kingsford and grilling burgers and hot dogs. I swear I’ve never been able to get quite the same blistered, “well-done” charred hot dog effect on any other kind of coal. Their hardwood charcoal marries the flavor of lump with the consistency of briquettes.
Lump Oak & Hickory Charcoal
Unlike charcoal briquettes that can be made from wood pulp, paper, or sawdust, with lump charcoal what you see is what you get. And what you get is whole carbonized chunks of wood that burn superhot and produce a natural-wood smoke flavor. Fire & Flavor’s almond-wood charcoal (from ($13/8 lbs) comes from sustainably managed forests and is ideal for getting that perfect crispy sear on a steak or crackling skin on chicken.
The Latest
