Troubleshooting First Cook

[Matachi]

Hi Guys & Gals

Got my PBC yesterday, and cooked a chicken tonight, which turned out just OK. Hoping for some help to do better next cook.

I followed the lighting instructions from the website (used a couple pieces of apple wood), except I left it uncovered after i dumped the hot coals for about 3 minutes before putting the lid on and food in. The temp spiked to about 320, then dropped pretty quickly down to ~280, but then climbed back up and hovered around 325 +/- for the whole cook. It was a pretty windy day, and the vent hole was facing the wind, not sure if that factored into the temp. Chicken was super juicy, had crispy skin, but it had a pretty strong charcoal flavor. I thought it was pretty good, but wasn't a huge fan of the charcoal aftertaste, my son loved it, but my wife was completely repulsed by the charcoal taste (she has loved all my other bbq).

- 325 was good for chicken (5 pounder done in an hour!), but would be too high for brisket or ribs or pork butts (right?). Any easy tips for getting it lower or ideas on why it settled so high? One of the main benefits is the ease of use, so not looking for constantly covering & uncovering holes.

- Is the strong charcoal flavor just part of the PBC experience, or is there anything to try to lessen it? I cook on coals a lot with a kettle, but have never tasted anything this strong. It tasted like the smell of the smoke when the chimney is first lighting...


- When doing a shorter cook, is it ok to not fill the basket? Seems like I wasted a lot of coals finishing in an hour...

Thanks!

[Voodoo]

Hmm... well sounds like you did everything fine. I really can't pinpoint what you mean about the taste of charcoal. Never had that thought with mine, but I can imagine what you're talking about. We love PBC chicken at our house. However, I suppose it might be a bit smokey for some. First of all, those temps are fine. That same cook with a big butt inside would probably drop the temps just about right. Also, as the lid starts sealing better (can weight it for now if you choose), it will come down to the upper 200's. But you absolutely can cook other meats at those temps. Just keep a closer eye because they finish much quicker. Second, charcoal (like wood) puts off the most smoke when it first ignites. A thought I'm having is that you could dump the lit coals onto the unlit, then put the lid on the PBC and wait until the smoke starts to settle down before you put your chicken on. That might taste better for ya. As far as lesser coals. I never put much less than up to the rim of the charcoal basket. The PBC needs a strong fire to properly incinerate drippings and hold temps and render flavor. What I will do is overfill that sucker for long cooks. Lots of meat dripping for a long time requires a stout fire. Lastly, I don't think people are very successful when they start babysitting a PBC. Doing things like plugging holes doesn't really serve a great purpose when letting her run and do her thing yields the best results and the most relaxing cooks. Hope this helps. Keep cooking on your PBC. It only gets better. Grill with it. Smoke. Veggies, seafood, steak, burgers, sausage, tenderloin, butts, brisket, whatever. Don't be afraid to try anything.

[JPP]

As I recall Noah's instruction video suggests letting the unlit coals catch for 20 minutes unlidded prior to adding the meat... @fyzxdoc 's sticky gives 10 lid off and 10 more with wood added and the lid on then adding the meat. I find fiddling with the temp as needed to be a lot of fun...