Originally Posted By fredk
Its that cheap because its not 'food grade'. Food grade is marketing bs since there is no certification through the fda or similar organization.

In this instance, you would have to know how the manufactorer defines "food grade".
I wouldn't write off the concept entirely though. Having researched various charcoal brands, i found the Naked Whiz site to have great info in this regard (don't know if they do pellets or just charcoal).
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm
From personal experience (and i could toss up some photos of this), i ran some similar comparisons to the Naked Whiz reviews. The charcoal from a Canadian Tire bag of Kingsford was utter crap compared to Dragon's Breath or Maple Leaf.
Chunk sizes were small, more dust and numerous rocks, and even pieces of steel!
So, in regards to 'food grade', the initial evidence lends me to think that Kingsford cheapo bags include literally the scrapings off a floor in a sawhouse or from some outdoor pile of scrap wood.

Aside from that, on a full firebox, the Kingsford would give about 8-10 hours of cooking time (averaging 375F). I got more around 12-16 hours from the other two brands and less ash (needed to vacuum twice with the Kingsford and not at all with the other two brands after the firebox was burned out).

Quote:

There seems to be a range of opinion as to how much difference in taste various woods and blends make (except mesquite). At $5.00 for a bag, I'll give it a try./[quote]
Yes i've seen some opinions including one from a 'pro' chef who said the wood type doesn't matter; charcoal is all the same.
On a chemical level, that just isn't true though from a layman's perspective, it would seem logical that burned wood all become nothing but carbon.
Flavour profiles are actually fairly easy to distinguish. I had switched from one brand to another with the first bag having hickory and oak base charcoal, the second bag having maple, birch and beech primarily. The hickory/oak was a much sharper flavour and really overpowered shrimp. It was so noticeable on other lighter foods that we moved away from using it.
Lovely with red meats though.

Now could we possibly tell the difference between beech and birch? Probably not. But between hickory and applewood charcoal? Mesquite and maple?
Easily.

[quote]
As a side note, some companies selling 'food grade' pellets add 'flavour oils' so those apple pellets may not be apple. Others use mostly filler hardwood with some percentage of the wood named on the bag. Caveat emptor, read the bag carefully.

I've read that too.
You really need to know your supplier and what info they provide and how open they are to providing it.
Any company who doesn't want to describe how they source and prep their product is hiding something. You can easily omit proprietary methods while still informing the customer about the rest of the process.

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."