3rd run on the PBC.....a little scary!!!

[slopoke76]

Soooo, for our 3rd run on the PBC, we decided to do some Lipton Onion Soup burgers (mix shipped via Amazon of course, recipe on the back). Well we let the coals burn down bout 30 minutes before adding the burgers to the grate, perhaps not long enough. They definitely got flame kissed with the sporadic eruptions of fire spewing out the top of the PBC, but managed to not burn the hell out of em, but just a bit on the well done side Good flavor tho, with the onion soup mix and the JD whiskey barrel chips, tho they did ignite on impact with the coals!!! Thankfully, we didn't have to use the fire extinguisher!!! Did the spuds in the toaster oven, thankfully. If we do burgers on the PBC again, allowing the coals an hour or more to burn down and/or lid on when not flipping. All in all, they wouldn't have won any awards, but were most certainly still edible!!! They are square shape coz we used our new Cave Tools burger press thingy, pretty cool tho, 1kg meat=6 decent size burgers or as we have also done, pork sausage (with a little help from AC Legg)!!!

[Jon Solberg]

GREAT cook, great post!

[fzxdoc]

Those burgers sure look tasty, slopoke76 .

I've done burgers a couple of times on the PBC by raising the fire basket up close to the grate. Worked fine but it's hard to use a spatula to get them in/out and flip them due to the sides of the barrel not allowing clearance. I'd have to lift the grate out, flip the burgers, then put the grate back in.

Wood chips in the PBC don't work for me--I've tried making aluminum foil smoke bombs, Mo's Pouch, and putting them directly on the fire--all three ways were great for making a heckuva fire but not for giving much smoke other than dense white smoke, which I try to avoid. I think MBMorgan uses wood chips in his PBC, so perhaps he'll chime in here and give you some good tips.

BTW I use the Jack Daniels Charred Oak Barrel chunks when I smoke brisket--delicious smoke flavor!

Kathryn

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[fuzzydaddy]

Great looking burger!

[rototiller78]

I do love me some onion soup mix burgers myself!

[abandonedbrain]

Boy, I haven't done that in ages! My wife introduced me to onion soup mix in burgers, who'da thunk it'd taste so good?!

[Mr. Bones]

Great Job, y'all!
Man, those burgers look Good!!!

[MBMorgan]

Wood chips in the PBC don't work for me--I've tried making aluminum foil smoke bombs, Mo's Pouch, and putting them directly on the fire--all three ways were great for making a heckuva fire but not for giving much smoke other than dense white smoke, which I try to avoid. I think MBMorgan uses wood chips in his PBC, so perhaps he'll chime in here and give you some good tips.

On occasion (rarely these days) I do indeed use wood chips in the PBC. When I do, I put a handful of dry chips in a double foil pouch, seal it tightly, and puncture only one or two small holes. Basically, I'm just making charcoal out of the chips by limiting the amount of oxygen that can get in and cause them to ignite and flare up while still allowing clean smoke to escape. Once my rather extensive chip collection is gone, I'll almost certainly switch to wood chunks like a normal person.

Edit: I should also mention that when I place the foil pouch on the coals, I do so in a place that avoids drippings. You want those drippings to vaporize in the PBC instead of just making a mess on your foil pouch.

[Mr. Bones]

I wanna be there with ya', when we finally find this 'Normal Person'!