Look What showed up at my house today!!

[GadjetGriller]

That Cute little Kitten!!...NOT Its a Pit Barrel Cooker!! Ok it a PBC in a box! (Un-Boxing Video to come!) Have to send a Big Shout Out to DWCowles he Donated this new Cooker to the GadjetGriller Channel!!! ITs a bit on the cool side here now. Really want to fire this thing up today and do the 3 slabs of Ribs I got. But tomorrow is suppose to be warmer. I have no idea how well it works in freezing temperatures (suppose to get down to 24 F here pretty quick but tomorrow should be around 70 F!) Ok I understand that the Ribs should only take 3 to 3.5 hours to cook. Wondering how long will a full tray of Coals last?? While picking up the Ribs at Costco they had some individual Short ribs on sale So was wondering would there be enough time left to cook those? Since they are single units (as opposed to connected) I figured I would just do them on the grate instead of trying to hang each one.
Suggestions highly appreciated!

[JeffJ]

Congrats! I'm jealous. :-)

[tbob4]

Congrats! The cat is saying "If you can put me out in 24 degree weather you can fire that thing up today to keep me warm!" As for the single short ribs - be the first person to drill a whole in the bone and just hang them. If it works you could have a new technique named after you.

[RonB]

Congrats on the new cooker. Just make sure the kitty is not inside when you light it up.

[GadjetGriller]

LOL I will he is a handful he would find the inside very interesting for a little bit.

[Jerod Broussard]

I'm cooking ribs in mine tomorrow (no You Tube Donation edition ). It is going to be 36 in the morning but I'll be looking for hogs that obviously don't exist. Ribs can come later.

I'm going to run just about a full basket if it is pretty cool (low 40's).

[lschweig]

Congrats. A half basket of coal will probably be enough, but I would go 3/4-full as it is your first cook and each PBC seems to have a mind of it's own. After a number of cooks you will be able to more accurately judge how much you need.

[GadjetGriller]

Ok Great thanks Ischweig! looking forward to figuring out this unit!! (well as much as I can)

[LA Pork Butt]

Congratulation!

[Spinaker]

Congrats!!! Very nice of DWCowles Don't worry about the weather. I use mine in below zero temps with out any issue. Those new ones are thicker than the one that I have. So it should be even more insulated from the cold.

Welcome to the PBC club!

[GadjetGriller]

Thanks Spinaker good to know! I'm forcing my self to hold off so they will be some left for the Big Game Sunday!

[EdF]

Simply beautiful! Enjoy!

[cgrover60]

Welcome to the PBC Cult (Club) GadjetGriller . Lots of variables on charcoal life but several have posted around 6 - 7 hours with a full basket which should be way more than you'll need. Cook on my friend.

[GadjetGriller]

That is Very good to know cgrover60. I hear tale that one can cook a brisket in 6 hours very nice!!

[hogdog6]

As all above said you'd be fine in the cold I cook in the teens all the time. I always go with a full basket and have 6hrs, over full for a real long cook. Welcome to the wonderful world of PBC.

[Brewmaster]

Welcome, your going to love it

[Danjohnston949]

GadjetGriller, With Christmas 10 Mo's Away How Lucky Can You Be? Did You get a Pic of It and DWCowles coming Down the Chimney? 👍👍👍👍👍
Eat Well and Prosper! From a Backyard Cremator in Fargo ND, Dan

[GadjetGriller]

No @Danjohnston9 It appeared out of a big puff of Diesel Smoke!

[abandonedbrain]

GadjetGriller Welcome to the club! As a new owner (Christmas gift from my lovely wife), I understand your excitement to just get going, while still being a bit anxious about how it's gonna turn out the first cook. I did two racks of ribs on my first cook, and here are some of my takeaways:

1) I'm in Michigan, so I feel ya on the cold temps. My first session was around freezing, a bit windy. The PBC don't care 'bout no wind. What it does care about is humidity. It gets quite humid in the PBC with the meat dripping all its juices on the hot coals and vaporizing them, but if it's higher humidity outside it's going to burn out your briquette load faster. Luckily the ribs won't be pushing you on that front.

2) Resist the urge to pop the top constantly. I'm still trying to make myself stay away from the lid while the PBC's running. This cooker is really odd compared to other grills and smokers you may have used. Because of the way the air circulates when the lid's closed, it stays pretty solid at temp until you start fiddling with vent holes and the lid.

3) Kingsford Blue (Regular) is your friend. Just get used to the PBC with Blue, get a bunch of cooks in, then start playing around with alternatives. I do like doing chicken with Kingsford Competition briquettes, as it stays a bit hotter (gets the skin nice and crispy).

4) For my first ribs, I found I cooked them too quickly at first, probably from "over-starting" my briquettes. This took my PBC to 420F at first, and I hung the ribs right away instead of waiting for the temp to fall. Made the ribs tough. Now I go a bit under the suggested 15-10-10 timing (I've done 12-10-5 recently with two racks of St. Louis ribs, and that seemed to work better for me, 28F with 10MPH wind, low humidity). I'm sure this will change when we finally climb out of the winter temps around here. Looking forward to semi-normal cooks in the summer! (If you haven't visited it already, hit the thread on lighting the PBC for more info.)

5) I left my first ribs full length, and they were about 2" above the coals; this burned the bottom two ribs. Recently I did two racks again, but this time I cut them in half, and spread them to four single hooks. Less weight on a hook = me not worrying about dropping the rack toward the end.

6) If you don't have one for your other grills, get some type of table to put next to the PBC. I found a small aluminum folding table on Amazon which can hold up to 110lbs., looks nice, and is about the size of an end-table. Just right for putting my sheet pan next to the grill to hold the meat while I fiddle around with the PBC (prepping the coals, adding more coals for longer cooks, moving meat around, holding my Maverick transmitter, etc.).

Good luck, and have fun with the PBC! You're going to love it; I sure do.

[GadjetGriller]

abandonedbrain Thanks for that wonderful write up!! I of Course broke a couple of the rules (dont tell!) I was gonna try and just let the cooker operate like it was suppose to. So I started the cook without the Maverick. But at the 60 min mark I couldn't stand it so I put the thermometer in. Much to my surprise it climbed to 241! I was good with that (I had heard they ran a lot hotter like 275 to 300) however about the 105 min mark (1: 45 into the cook) the temp started dropping FAST. It dropped all the way to 208 and stopped there. So I cracked the lid and guess what it fell even further to 145! So I replaced the lid and it quickly went back up to 208. I left it and it slowly over the next 60min dropped to 195. When the 3 hours was up the internal temp was right at 145!! Yay ME! looked at the coals and only a small section was still orange so I dropped a handful of wood chips in to see if they all or just some caught on fire. Sure enough only the ones in that small section lit. Either I didn't put enough coals in or the low humidity here in West Texas made it burn faster. I didn't feel like starting another chimney or what ever your suppose to do so I took them in wrapped them and put em in the oven. Gonna pull em when they hit 195. Then into the cooler hopefully they will be eatable!! (Ok I will eat them no matter what lol)