Light my (PBC) fire: tips on lighting and maintaining temperatures

[2-7]

Thanks for the reply.
I had 60 briquets in the basket,1/4 comes to 15. Just seems too few, but 40 was too many, volume-wise.
I know I'm over-thinking this, but we'll see how they (B&B) work out. I'll be sure to post the results.

[fzxdoc]

I reached out to the PBC help by DM; they replied to stick with lighting "1/4".
I'll probably weigh them out to see what 1/4 is.

2-7

From their website, here is the PBC recommendation on how to light their PBC products:

Lighting Your Pit Barrel^®
Fill your charcoal basket level, remove 1/4 of the briquets (this is approximately 40 coals for the PBC and 20 coals for the PBJ) and place in chimney, light the coals with the lid off and let burn for 12 minutes for elevations between sea level and 2000 ft (All other elevations will let your coals burn for 20 minutes). Dump the lit coals into the charcoal basket and start cooking immediately.

You can see that 1/4 refers to the # of briquettes that you remove from the basket to put in the chimney for lighting.

No need to weigh them. Not an exact science. The key is to get a good light on the coals in the basket before adding the meat.

HTH,
Kathryn

[2-7]

I reached out to the PBC help by DM; they replied to stick with lighting "1/4".
I'll probably weigh them out to see what 1/4 is.

[2-7]

Using the B & B briquets (large w/"B") for the first time for baby back ribs.
Should I still take out 40 to light, or 1/4, which by weight comes to about 15?
Thanks in advanced!

[fzxdoc]

RonR , 40 briquettes in whatever size chimney you use. My shorter chimney is wider (Char Broil Half Time Chimney) so it still holds 80 briquettes when full.

Kathryn

[RonR]

Kathryn - when you say "half a chimney" of KBB, are you referring to a standard size (Weber, etc) or the smaller PBC chimney?

[RonR]

Thanks for all the feedback folks - reassured I wasn’t doing something wildly wrong. The cook went fine - stayed around 290 very steadily. I like the idea of using the smaller KBB as starter - easier to distribute evenly on the base of B&B.

[RonR]

Re: elevation. Sorry, should have mentioned in original post. Low, about 80-ft., Central Florida.

[fzxdoc]

For my first PBC cook ever I’m using B&B briquettes it seemed to take much longer to get the PBC chimney full of maybe 25-30 briquettes going than reported for the recommended start methods. I ended up using two Kingsford tumbleweeds and dumped after ~20 minutes with the top layer still having no ash on the edges. Had the chimney sitting on the cooking grate inside the PBC. Light breeze but not gusty. Any experience with B&B briquettes in the chimney? (At the 20-minute mark looks like I’ve settled in around 290, so cook seems off to an ok start…)

I use B&B briquettes a lot in my PBC for long cooks. They really go the distance. I don't use them for short cooks because they're harder for me to get than KBB, and, for me, KBB is fine for short cooks.

Whenever I use B&B briquettes, I fill the basket 3/4 full with them and use half a chimney of KBB to light them. The KBB lights faster and get the B&B briquettes up to temp much quicker. I do the same for the few bags of Weber briquettes that I'm still hoarding for the same reason. Like B&B, Weber briquettes take much longer to get a good burn going.

FWIW I always use 2 starters under the chimney regardless of what charcoal is inside it. Call me impatient.

Kathryn

[hoovarmin]

What's your elevation relative to sea level?

[Finster]

Yup.
What Jfrosty27 said.
I think because they have less additives/binders than kbb

[Jfrosty27]

B&B always takes longer to start up for me. No matter which cooker. I think that’s just the way they are. Trade off is much longer burn time.

[RonR]

For my first PBC cook ever I’m using B&B briquettes it seemed to take much longer to get the PBC chimney full of maybe 25-30 briquettes going than reported for the recommended start methods. I ended up using two Kingsford tumbleweeds and dumped after ~20 minutes with the top layer still having no ash on the edges. Had the chimney sitting on the cooking grate inside the PBC. Light breeze but not gusty. Any experience with B&B briquettes in the chimney? (At the 20-minute mark looks like I’ve settled in around 290, so cook seems off to an ok start…)

[MsTwiggy]

This exactly happened to me too. I have had much better results and temp control using the 15-10-10 method fzxdoc shared. I do love B&B if I can get it but fond KBB works just fine using the 15-10-10 method

[MsTwiggy]

I love B&B, thats what the PBC folks recommended to me when I reached out to them about charcoal and lighting it. Sometimes I can get it at my local Ace. If they don't have it I make a pilgrimage to a hardware store about an hour away and buy 10 bags. It's hard to store more than that.