Amount of charcoal in PBC

[Anthonyf]

Do y'all fill up the charcoal basket to the brim every time and remove some to light in the chimney starter? Have y'all tried filling the charcoal basket with fewer charcoals for certain cooks?

When I cooked St. Louis Ribs last week, I cooked for about 4 hrs 35 minutes total and still had plenty of charcoals left. I just just left the top open and let it burn out and it took maybe an hour or so going really hot.

For ribs or even shorter cooks like chicken, does doing the same lighting procedure except filling the basket 3/4 or 1/2 instead of full of charcoal make much of a difference in the cooking process? I was thinking of trying it out to save some briquettes because a full basket of briquettes seem to be a lot for shorter cooks.

[Huskee]

I usually fill it lighter for quick chicken cooks, I don't see the need to waste all that fuel. You just have to watch that the drippings don't extinguish the fire if you build it too small.

[Spinaker]

When I do a cook, I fill the basket up all the way. Then I take out the middle of the basket and put it into a chimney of lighting. For ribs, I usually use a full basket.

For shorter cooks, like chicken, sausage, pork belly etc, I use about a half a basket, but I still use the same amount of coals to light the fire so the drippings don't extinguish the fire.

[JeffJ]

I put in only what I need. The first cook was ribs and I filled it all of the way and had a lot of unused fuel. I've been more of a miser ever since.

[RonB]

You could always dump the hot coals in a metal bucket with a lid and save for the next cook. They do come in different sizes. I would set the bucket on some bricks or cinderblocks until they cool.

[DWCowles]

After the cook is over I closed all vents and use the leftover charcoal for the next cook.

[FireMan]

👌🏼👌🏼 This much.

[jecucolo]

I have started using a brick on half and just filled up half. I cooked some ribs. It seemed to work ok. I didn't use a thermometer to check the temp.

[phoccer]

Sorry, chiming in late. There's a post around here somewhere with the amount of coal to put in for specified times. I've only done two cooks with less than a full basket but from that posting the rule I end up following is 1/2 basket for cooks < 4 hours otherwise full. The posting also mentioned to push all the coals to one side when you cook with less than half a basket, that worked well for me.

[phoccer]

I bookmarked that other thread! Here are the amounts and times.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for that link, phoccer . I had been looking for it as well. You saved me a bunch of searching.

Kathryn

[RobertC]

I bookmarked that other thread! Here are the amounts and times.

Here are Brewmaster's amounts and times:

More than 6 hours--120 in basket, 40 in chimney
Between 4 & 6--80 in basket, 40 in chimney
Between 1 & 4--40 in basket , 40 in chimney
Less than 1 hour--10 in basket, 40 in chimney

There are 18 Kingsford Blue Bag briquettes per pound (that's 25 g per briquette for metric users, or 40 briquettes = 1 kg). For planning purposes I've been using the rule of thumb of a pound per hour above and beyond what's in the chimney to achieve an equilibrium pit temp of around 275 deg F. The exact burn time will depend, of course, on ambient temperature, how tightly or loosely the briquettes are stacked, the load in the barrel, etc., but that rule of thumb seems reasonably close.

[Edited to add] BTW, a KBB briquette is about 25% ash, so a single briquette has about 19 g of pure carbon. Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, oxygen has a weight of 16, so burning a single briquette produces around 70 g of CO2 and a pound of KBB briquettes produces about 2.75 pounds of CO2.

[tjguidry]

I guess you could by the charcoal basket for the new smaller PBC and use it.

[RobertC]

Or, you could stick a couple of bricks along the inside of the standard size basket. If you were happy with that, you could do something a bit more permanent like insert a heavy wire grate ring.

[PappyBBQ]

Yeah. That's what I do to "reduce" the size of my basket.