My PBC cooks at 225...should I be worried?

[HJS]

Hey guys. I have a brand new PBC and I cooked 6 racks of St Louis ribs yesterday and today I have two whole chickens cut in half hanging. I got a Maverick 733 in there about center of the barrel and cnter of the PBC height hanging straight down.

I followed PBCs lighting instructions per the directions and put my meat on right away after 40 coals went for 15 min.. Iknow it's supposed to cook at 275-300 normally. Should I be worried that it's too low? I know I have a lot of meat in there and I know maybe having the probe pointing down may not be the way it's designed to measure.

​​​​​​No complaints if my particular cooker cooks at 225, just want to make sure there's no operator error for the next time I have people over to cook for them. Don't want to finish too early or too late.

[RonB]

Did you set the lower vent for your elevation? That could cause low temps.

[HJS]

Yeah, should have mentioned I'm at 800 feet so I have it set to 1/4 open. Next cook I'll tweek it and see if it does anything. But seriously if it cooks at 225 no complaints at all.

[EdF]

Seriously! Go with the flow!

[RonB]

If you like crisp skin on your chicken, you need to be able to get to at least 350*, so a little experimentin' might be beneficial.

[Huskee]

fzxdoc (Kathryn) has a fantastic post all about lighting and maintaining temps on the PBC. I suggest you use her tips before using PBC's own tips. From personal experience I can testify hers are plain better and more accurate. You can find her post here: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...g-temperatures

[52Merc]

I had a temp problem, I thought, on Friday. Filled the charcoal as directed, planned a 20 min. salmon cook to be followed by 2 chickens, split. After the salmon, which was perfect, and I put the chickens on, the PBC temp was a bit over 250, but gradually fell to about 225. I did put about 10 Kingsford briquets on the burn and left it until breast temps rang the alarm at 160. Total chicken cook time was 2:40, I probably should've left them on for another 20 min., but overall was still good and juicy. BTW, the salmon was cooked on the flat side of Grill Grates, skin side down. In retrospect, I feel that I should've judged the cook more by meat temp and less than barrel temp.

[Nate]

You can always crack the lid for a while and get it up temp wise.

read the post Huskee mentioned

give your intake a smidge more opening like Ron mentioned

[steve_woolston]

I have an "S" hook I hang on the lip of the barrel to raise the lid a bit when I want the temp hotter. For a lot of meats, 225 is fine. I like 300 - 325 for poultry.

[fzxdoc]

You should only be worried, HJS , if you want to cook at higher temps. If you're content at cooking at 225°, then enjoy it.

It will take a couple more cooks for you to get a feel for how your PBC likes to cook with the lighting method that you choose to use.

I prefer to get a good burn going in the PBC before adding the meat. I do this for two reasons.

1. Right after pouring the coals, you can get that awful charcoal smell (if using KBB, for instance) for a short while until some of the unlit coals start to burn and the barrel temperature rises. You also get some "bad" smoke--too gray or heavily white for my preferences. Both the smell and the "bad" smoke can cause off flavors in the meat. This goes away quickly--in 5 to 10 minutes. So waiting a bit between pouring the coals and adding the meat has always worked well for me.

2. The PBC is happiest (as in cooks more consistently) when it gets a good light to the coals. Sometimes adding the meat right away and closing the lid does not let the coals get a good solid light to them. I like my PBC to burn reproducibly each time, so that's why I use a lighting method different from that recommended by the PBC folks. FWIW, I started out using their method, but the consistency of my cooks was all over the place. That's when I began to use a different method to get a good solid light on those coals.

If you want to cook at higher temps, I don't recommend that you change the vent position from the one recommended for your altitude until you try a different lighting method, like the one recommended in Huskee's post. To save you from scrolling, here's that link again:
https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...ures#post12614

Congrats on being a new PBC owner! You're going to love cooking on that little beast.

Kathryn

P.S. Hanging your thermometer about halfway down the length of the hanging meat like you did is a good idea. Make sure it's a couple of inches away from the meat as well so it reads the barrel temp more accurately.

[HawkerXP]

Take out one of the rebar if you want a higher temp for like chicken.

[fzxdoc]

...and place the remaining rebar on the diagonal so you have more room for multiple chicken halves.

For chicken, I use thin steel rods purchased at Lowe's so there is more air flow through the rebar holes. For lots of chicken, a thin steel rod in each set of rebar holes. For not as much chicken, one thin steel rod placed on the diagonal, leaving the other two rebar holes open.

K.

[JeffJ]

The PBC cooks at whatever temperature it feels like. This weekend I smoked a pork butt and mine was running at 370 (I lit KBB but the unlit coals were Western lump $6 for a 30 pound bag). I ended up plugging 2 of the holes with tin foil until the temp came down to 260 (over the course of an hour) and once I removed the foil the temp settled in at 280. It was the only tweaking I did. I use Kathryn's lighting method and it works like a charm. As mentioned above, if you need more heat you can always crack the lid.

Congrats on your new acquisition. It's a nice cooker, I've been happy with mine.

fzxdoc

[MBMorgan]

A while back, I reverse engineered the Pit Barrel Company's vent opening recommendations into a spreadsheet that calculates the "exact" opening for any altitude. At 800 ft., yours should be set to approximately 3/8 open ... which looks a bit like this:

[Sasquatch]

I have had trouble getting the standard PBC operating temps (270) I've had to crack the lid intermittently through my cooks. Using an extra PBC hook to crack the lid works great. Crack lid of about 10 mins let temp climb, close lid and check in an hour or two. This 4th I wanted to sit at the beach while the PBC cranked along with two 7 pound pork butts so I broke down and bought a PartyQ. Set it for 270 and 8 hours later had two butts ready at 195 with no crutch. Pulled pork was great and no complaints. Two minor problems. The 8 hours with the fan killed the batteries and if I needed to go any longer I would have had to add more charcoal. Did a 2 pound chuck last sat. Left one rebar out, PartyQ barley turned on and that was only toward the end of the cook about 6 hours. I got the chuck up to 180(slicing temp). It was excellent. My friend who is a self proclaimed food critic couldn't stop completing the chuck. My next experiment will be the thinner stainless rods that Kathryn recommends. But for turning your PBC into as easy as a pellet cooker set and forget the PartyQ really works wonders. But if you do long cooks every weekend you may want to buy stock in energizer and Kingsford!!! lol

[RichRybak]

Unfortunately, everyone's experiences are different. You have to find what works for you. That takes 20ish cooks lol.

For me, I light the coals for 15 mins....pour in....

I let the fire start burning...get the meat....put it in (usually 3 mins later)....leave lid open a little....

this way i get up to temp (i cook around 290 300). I close lid at 310 and temps settle and hold for at least 6 to 8 hrs without any touching.

i use B & B....and have maintained 300 for 22 hrs!!!!

[Troutman]

Sounds like a lot to know about such a simple cooker, but hey what do I know ??? Any last minute instructions before I fire up this little baby ????