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

[Sandpaper]

stickbit - see my post #299 just above. If you want to keep your temps in the 270 range, try the PBC recommended method: light your chimney and let it burn 12-15 minutes, dump it in the basket and start cooking immediately.

[pkadare]

There really isn't any need. I don't even check the temp in my PBC any more, just set it and forget it as it is designed. There really isn't going to be much of a difference of 10 to 20 degrees. I guess if you really wanted to you could try plugging up the rod holes with tin foil.

[stickbit]

fzxdoc comment and question...i tried your starting method with stubb's briquettes and it worked like a charm. spiked around 388-405 and settled down to 290-300 after maybe 30 mins. or so and stayed there for a couple hours before dropping a bit. Since I was cooking 3 chicken halves it worked out perfect. Question - any suggestions or thoughts on how to dial in the PBC for a bit lower temp close to 280 or so for ribs?

[Sandpaper]

Following up on my post (#290). Following the official PBC lighting instructions got me exactly what it says on the tin: a steady 260-280 for 6 hours. It wasn't my favorite cook and my ribs didn't bark up the way they do at higher heat. I have a baseline that I can play around with now, at least.

[HawkerXP]

I tried the center way and didn't care for it. I'm with you with spreading around on top. If it will be a long cook I'll even throw some unlit on top of the lit ones. Yes you'll get nasty smoke, I wait until it diminishes then put on the meat.

[Bobmcgahan]

An observation from now having used the Pit Barrel on about a dozen occasions. I'm finding more and more that my PBC settles in at around 300-310 degrees. I'm now plugging two of the rebar holes with foil and letting the temperature drop to 260 degrees or slightly less. Remove the foil plugs and the temperature goes into the sweet-spot range of 270-285 and will hold there for the remainder of the cook. YMMV.

[fzxdoc]

Spinaker arranges his PBC coals in what he calls the OCD method because it looks so precise. Perhaps he’ll weigh in here to tell you about it, Michael_in_TX .

Kathryn

[phoccer]

I haven't done a ton of cooks on my PBC, maybe 15-20, but I haven't found how I arrange or dump the coals to make any difference in how well or long my coals burn.

[Michael_in_TX]

Anyone have an opinion on arranging the lit coals on top of the unlit coals? What I have been doing is fill the basket level, remove 40 KBB, and then re-level the basket of unlit coals.

When my lit coals are ready, I dump them in the basket and more-or-less try to evenly distribute them atop the unlit ones.

I've seen some videos where people try to concentrate the unlit coals in the very center of the basket (perhaps even going to far as to make sure the middle of the basket is empty of coals before dumping the lit ones in), trying to promote an inside-out vs top-down burn.

Does this seem make much of a difference?

[Bobmcgahan]

Report back on how things work out. BTW, for doing chicken, I would still recommend the method devised by fzxdoc as you want the temperature hotter in any event. Good luck.

[Sandpaper]

Bobmcgahan - I am going to play around with it. I think I owe it to PBC (and science!) to try it their way once. I will give your 15-10 method a try as well. Also 15-0-10 with the last being lid on rebar out.

[Bobmcgahan]

Sandpaper, a couple of observations, thoughts and a suggestion: first, I’m not crazy about the "official" PBC way because I think (or, at least the rest of my family thinks), that food comes out "too smoky" and can have an acrid flavor to it. I prefer @fzxdoc’s method as it lets the coals burn down without all of the "white smoke" you have when using the PBC method. A modification to Kathryn’s method is what I call 15-10. Let the coals burn in the chimney for 15 minutes, then dump on the basket and let burn for ten minutes with the barrel uncovered, then add rebar, hang food and cover. I find using this method the temperature starts out at about 325 and then will drop to the right temperature of 270-280. This last weekend I was smoking two chuck roasts and, after the temperature dropped, it unexpectedly climbed to 310 and wouldn’t come down. I stuck foil and closed up two of the rebar holes. When the temp dropped down to 260, I removed the foil and it climbed back to the 275-280 range and held for the rest of the cook. The chuck roast was great. As you note, though, YMMV.

[Sandpaper]

I used the LavaLock 1/2 inch and the wires were run through the rebar holes.

[fzxdoc]

Another question, Sandpaper , are you running your remote thermometer probes over the top of the barrel or through the rebars? Just curious.

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

It's a good thing that you are going to try another lighting method, Sandpaper --perhaps it will provide you with a solution. Please report back to us after your next cook with the new approach, to let us know.

FWIW, I didn't have a lid leak when I first bought my PBC. It developed over a year after I had used it, pretty heavily, in the area between the rebars where the barrel's seam is. Like you, I began experienced abnormally high cooking temps, even though I had used the same x-10-10 lighting method from the very beginning.

I verified that the lid leaks were the problem because if I crimped a skinny length of heavy duty aluminum foil on top of the lid, wrapping it around to the underside of the barrel's rim in the area where the smoke was coming out, the smoke would stop coming out and the pit temperatures would stabilize. That's when I decided to insert a gasket into the indentation of the lid's rim, and my wispy leaking smoke problem (and concomitant high pit cooking temperatures), went away for good.

May I ask, how is your gasket installed, and which gasket did you use?

Kathryn