

Due to the extrusion process, which subjects coconut husk char to intense pressure and binds it into a log, these logs burn quickly in an open setting and leave behind a veritable mountain of ash when compared with traditional wood charcoal. In a ceramic grill, extruded charcoal has a long burn time, even temperature, and low smoke production-but it's terrible in an open grill like a Weber. This kind of charcoal is perfect if you’re cooking with a ceramic oven or ceramic grill such as the Komodo Kamado ceramic grill or the Big Green Egg in fact, it was originally designed for the ceramic ovens that are popular in Southeast Asia. Usually made from the shells or husks of fruits like coconut or rambutan fruit, extruded charcoal is big in Southeast Asia.

We also dismissed extruded charcoals like those sold by Komodo Kamado. And with its uniquely identifiable flavor and smell, it’s been a key component of plenty of barbecuing-championship victories around the country every year. Kingsford is one the cheapest charcoals around, however, and you can find it for sale everywhere. In our tests, Kingsford charcoal cooled off and burned out faster than the better charcoals we found. All of those substances add up to a lot of ash toward the end of your cook and weaken the overall performance of these briquets in competition against simpler briquet formulas. Kingsford Original briquets contain substances such as mineral char, mineral carbon (coal to you and me, though Kingsford processes it in an oxygen-controlled environment, and we really could say it’s “pure carbon”), limestone, borax, sodium nitrate, and sawdust. While Kingsford Original Charcoal briquets are cheap, consistent, and perfectly adequate for most basic grilling needs, they simply didn’t work as well as other charcoals we tested, which burned hotter for a longer period of time.
