"Stabilized" temperature too high...

[abandonedbrain]

OK, so I'm cooking my way into my fourth season with my PBC, given to me for Christmas 2016 by my wife and kids. Michigan means change, weather-wise, and it's been fun plotting all of my sessions in each type of weather (rain, snow, wind, dry, humid, hot, cold, cats, dogs...). Now that I've got at least 30 sessions under my belt (at least 12 of those with pork shoulders), I have a feel for how the PBC is going to react based on these changing conditions.

One thing I've found is that, using the 20-10-10 chimney lighting method with 40 Kingsford Blue briquettes in the chimney, my temps will spike above 400F and will stay high for at least an hour into the cooking session. The cooker then likes to stabilize around 295F-310F, way too high for my tastes. I then play the choking game for a half hour or so, putting foil into all but one rebar hole, and I can then drop it to 260F. Once I hit that temp, I can pull out one foil stopper every 5-10 minutes or so, and the temps will only fluctuate 5F or so, then settle back down to around 260F. With all stoppers pulled and the cooker running normally, 260F is the new stabilized temperature for pretty much the remainder of the session, and I can get an average of about 9 hours on a slightly heaping load in the basket (just a bit over the rim of the basket, but not up to the handle) from start to finish before the coals finally go unstable and run cooler (230F), plateau for an hour, then die out.

I've done a couple of "let it ride" sessions, where I just left it to chance but monitored the temps with my Smoke, with and without meat in the cooker, and if I don't choke the cooker when it's riding above 295F it'll stay in that range for 6 hours or more. But if I choke it down to 260F, it'll stay in that range for 6 hours or more. Why do I want to stabilize at the lower temp? Duration of the cooking session. At 260F, I've gone over 10 hours on a load of briquettes (no special stacking, no counting out briqs). At 300F I burn through a load in about 8 hours, with no food on for the last three.

I know I've got the damper set to about the perfect opening (just under 1/4), and my "grease gasket" on the lid is built up quite nicely (though I still drop 50lbs of rocks on the lid to make sure it's not leaking air too much). The question is: what's the next thing I should try, to get the stabilized temp (the "sweet spot" for my PBC) down below 295F? Playing the choking game is annoying and time-consuming, and doesn't show off the "set it and forget it" capabilities I like to mention to my friends when talking about the PBC.

My first thought is to drop the number of briquettes used when starting the chimney, going from 40 down to maybe 32-34.

[kmhfive]

I don't use a PBC, but with my kettle, dropping the number of lit briquettes will drop the stable temp.

[Pirate Scott]

Exactly what I do as well, less fuel is less heat.

[Spinaker]

Brian,
I am not sure how many briquettes I use when I am starting my PBC. I would say that it is about a half to a quarter chimney. I drop them into a hollowed out hole in the basket. (you don't have to do my OCD method, just fill the basket with charcoal and pick out the center, and light that.)Then it burns out from the center, through out the cook.
If your lid is not leaking, damp the bottom down. Even if it is below what PBC recommends. Every situation is different. If the temps are running too hot, damp it down.
I make sure that the coals are red hot. I always shake the chimney vigorously before dumping them in the basket. Then the ash is pretty much gone and they are roaring hot! That small, hot fire will allow the fire to burn out but not too hot. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Spinaker]

Yep, then I lower it down into the Barrel. JimLinebarger

[JimLinebarger]

I was thinking about your OCD method, and it looks great, but I see another benefit with it. Airflow. The ash drops down in the middle and works its way out which allows the outer coals to light faster and better because the air is not blocked. Since I am using a BBQGuru PartyQ, your method would help tremendously. I wouldn't have to turn the basket like I have to sometimes.

[Spinaker]

Yes! I feel I get better airflow. Just make sure to stock the briquettes vertically to allow air to enter the bottom of the basket. JimLinebarger

[phoccer]

Oh man, that 295-310 range is right where I want to run. I run Kingsford Professional in mine and was getting high temps and in emailing the company they mentioned to things to try for lower temps:
1. Fewer briquettes as you mention
2. Decrease the amount of time you let them burn before adding them to the basket.

[abandonedbrain]

Spinaker You are definitely starting fewer briqs than 40, by the looks of that bottom pic. I'm going to try starting only 30 for the next couple of sessions, see how that works out. As for the OCD stacking, I've sworn to myself I'll try that, but I'm both OCD and impatient as heck, so I end up always saying "Next time, for sure!"

[Spinaker]

It is a little bit more work but not much.

[rototiller78]

Yes, try 30 lit briquettes and 12 to 15 min in chimney and that should work out.

[gdsim1]

I've been trying to crack the cook temp code for a while now also, and recently I've come up with a method that's working well... but still a bit mysterious. Here's the history, and my results.

When I first got my PBC about a year and a half ago, I used the basic setup that comes with it and following the lighting instructions on the website. Results were (in my opinion) insufficient lights, which led to extended cook times. While the end results were still incredibly flavorful and juicy meats, the cook times were always significantly longer than what the videos on the PBC website said they should be.

Then one day I stumbled onto this website and discovered fzxdoc's lighting method, which is different than the one on PBC's website. VOILA! Instead of half the coals on top being ashed over and half not using PBC's recommended lighting technique, ALL my coals on top were ashed over! What's more, the cook times were significantly LESS than the recipes on PBC's website should be... win-win! So long as I checked the meat using an instant read thermometer, everything still came out tender, flavorful and juicy.

Still, to a nerdy engineering type mind this was a curious thing. So this past spring I took the plunge, bought a Thermoworks Smoke, and started tracking my results. This allowed me to keep a constant eye on not only the meat, but for the first time I could see what was going on with the barrel temp as well. Ahhhhhh - NERDVANA! Lol

What I found was that the barrel, when first covered after hanging meat, would spike to an ungodly temp of around 425 before settling down to stabilize around 300-325ish after about a half hour. This of course terrified me (as I'm a proponent of low n slow cooking), but as I said the meat still came out perfect every time - no harm, no foul, but still curious.

Heres where it gets weird, and it's going to take someone smarter than me to explain the science behind it.

Being the the lazy bum that I am, about halfway thru summer I bought the ash pan attachment. The first cook using it, temps were significantly lower - spike to about 325, then stable during the cook at around 260-275.

I. FREAKED!!!

After getting accustomed to seeing the 425 spike and a 300-325 range during the cook, I felt these new temps were far too low! The next few cooks were spent fiddling with rods, the vent, the lid, all trying to keep the barrel temp where I had been seeing it previously, largely without success.

About a a month ago, I saw a YouTube video where the dude said he was shooting for a barrel temp of 250. Hmmmm I thought, while still higher than the 225 I used to shoot for in my (pre-PBC) side fire box smoker, that still pretty close... screw it, let's see what happens! :-)

in order to try and keep the temps down, I went back to the PBC video method of lighting the coals - still produced about a half-ashed-over, half not mix of coals on top of the basket. Lid temp spike after hanging the meat went to just above 300, and with a bit of fiddling with the bottom vent (ended up being just a bit less than the 1/4 open suggested by PBC for my elevation) the temp then settled down to a stable 245-260 range during the cook. Cooking times are now spot on with the times listed in the videos on the PBC website and folks - the meat I'm pulling out now is GOD OF 'QUE level perfect! :-)

I'll leave it up to those smarter than me to figure out the how's and why's of my results... I'm just gonna take the gift of perfect meat and rave reviews from those I feed. :-)

[fzxdoc]

You've received some great advice here, abandonedbrain. My recommendation is to try one at a time per cook and see what happens. With my PBC, the temp usually settles down from the peak temp to the sweet spot I want within half an hour after adding the meat. If yours isn't doing that, then it's time to change a variable on your next cook. Personally, I'd start with closing the lower vent a bit and see where that leads.

Kathryn

[JohnInLA]

I've wrestled with these issues (and others,) and what I'd realized is that the apparent simplicity of cooking with the PBC is really simple only because it's operation and limits were well thought out researched and tweaked by Noah and company long before they were put in those near perfect boxes and shipped out.

My first cook in my PBC was just stunning in results (I think) because I printed out the instructions and followed them fearfully. My next few...not so much. I decided to experiment and that was a good thing because I started understanding why the instructions were what they were. When I went by the book -- including the opening the vent at 1/4 open, making sure both rebar rods were inserted, loading the basket, taking only so many out to light in the chimney and putting them in when I was supposed to -- made using it a consistent and pleasurable experience.

There's always room for deviating; that's surely part of the fun of cooking with coals. But I think the PBC has become so spectacularly popular because, if you follow the guidelines, you almost can't not get great results. And it's why I've been an evangelist for them in the years I've owned mine. They are fun to cook with and that inevitably leads to wanting to try new things.

[abandonedbrain]

UPDATE: After a few busy weekends, I finally had some time Sunday to cook out. The only change I made to my setup was to start 32 briquettes instead of my normal 40. Instead of going north of 400F in the initial spike, I topped out at about 310F, then quickly watched the temp drop to 275-285F. 9# of pork butt (cut into two halves, one with the bone and one without) were dropped onto the grate. I watched the half without the bone using my Smoke, and pulled it at 202F when it turned gelatinous. That half took about 7 hours (normal for a 9# butt for me is 8.5-9.0 hours when NOT cut in half). Temps held at around 280F for most of that time, though toward the 6-hour mark temps slipped to about 250 but held. The last 5-8F of that cook took almost 1.5 hours, surprisingly.

I pulled the first half, and moved the probe to the second half with the bone in; temps showed 170F when situated away from the bone. I left it in to finish, and it stayed around 175F for hours. So the stall on the first half took about 2 hours to plow through, but the bone-in chunk took about 4.5 hours (or more)! My thought on that was that the first half was chugging away just fine until after the stall. By that time, the bone-in chunk was just hitting the stall, so it was pumping out moisture fast and damping the coals while the other was trying to finish.

I ended up finishing the bone-in second half at about 10.5 hours (midnight)! Long time for that small chunk, and I had to pull out both rebars to keep the temps above 260F for the last 2-3 hours (especially once the sun set, dropping about 30F ambient temp). But the briquettes held out!

So from what I saw, starting fewer briqs kept my initial temp spike way down, and let me hit the sweet spot in my PBC far quicker than ever before. With this, I think I can do ribs now without overcooking them initially.

Thanks everyone for the hints and support!

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the update, abandonedbrain . Good to know that reducing the # of lit coals in the chimney gave you the temperature profile you wanted for the whole cook. Sounds like you had one well-behaved pork butt and one problem child PB. FWIW, I try upping the PBC temp to power through a stall that lasts longer than 2-2.5 hours.

Kathryn