I cooked a couple of racks of spares today, using the Original Charcoal
Co. Briquettes I bought at Home Depot ($5/20lbs). I loaded my Silver
Smoker with two chimney-loads of cold briquettes, then started about 1/2
chimney-load with newspaper, which I dumped on top of the cold briquettes.

The fuel gives off a nice perfume-like hardwood smell as it ignites.

As usual, I placed a couple of foil-wrapped oak barrel chunks on top
of the fire. Ribs went in around 130pm, after painting them with
plain yellow prepared mustard and rubbing with something I had on-hand,
Jack Stack KC Meat and Poultry, since I didn't feel like mixing up
what I'd normally use.

The fire wanted to run a bit hot at first, spiking up to 280F
and needing a little attention. It eventually settled down to
around 260F and needed little attention. At 645pm, I opened
the cook chamber and painted one of the racks with sauce (believe
it or not, KC Masterpiece) just for giggles. The ribs at this
point had a good red color from the smoke and were close to done.
I took the ribs out at 730pm, the fire was running around 240F.

The ribs are exactly what I'd expect from a cook with lump, on
the money. I never added fuel and 2 1/2 chimney loads of the
OCC Rancher briquettes worked perfectly for a 6-hour cook, it
could have gone a little longer. The ash in the cook chamber
is comparable to what lump would have left.

The Original Charcoal Co. claims these briquettes work just
like lump, and I have to say my first experience completely
agrees. Great stuff, with mild hardwood smoke flavor, perhaps
a little milder than some of the less-carbonized lump I've had,
but very similar. I always add some smoke wood anyway.

Unlike the 40lbs craft bags of lump I use, there were no rocks
in the briquette bag :-).

Dana