Kathryn's PBC lighting method revisited

[Alabama Smoke]

I have read and tried Kathryn's lighting instructions which do indeed get the smoker hot and the coals burning which reduces or eliminates thick white smoke prior to adding meat which is a good thing.

My question: I am wondering if the timing of the initial burn (I am defining "initial burn time" as the period of time after dumping the initial 40 hot coals onto the cold coals, prior to adding rebar or lid or meat) should be adjusted based on sea level???

Kathryn is located in Colorado if I remember correctly, around 6K feet up. I am located in Alabama at a little over 600 feet up.......a difference of 10 times. To light, I use approx 40 briquettes (using 35 or so seems to work well also) and heat them for 12 minutes and dump them on top of the others. I do not wait until all are ashed over.....usually the top few are still largely black. If I go 20 minutes before putting the lid on and the rebar in I will hit nearly 500 degrees and it takes a long time to get it back down. I am finding cutting the initial burn time to around 5 minutes works better for me, although I may need to wait longer to lose the thick white smoke....using less wood initially also helps with this.....this seems to support my thought that it would take less time for initial burn the closer to sea level one is because the air is thicker closer to sea level....

I would like to hear from those of you who have experimented with this. Please leave your altitude above sea level as a part of your discussion along with your comments as well as any other info you think would be helpful. Thanks to all who participate!

Tom

[fzxdoc]

Actually I live in the southeastern United States, Alabama Smoke , at 3700 ft elevation.

For me, at 3700 ft,

• The initial burn time in the chimney is dependent on the type of charcoal I use. KBB lights the topmost coals at the edges within 10 minutes. For Kingsford Professional, it's more like 20 minutes. B&B Briquets also take a bit longer to get a bit of ash on the topmost coals in the chimney. The 10 minute time is also dependent on the type of chimney you use. If you're using a Weber Compact chimney, the time required to get slightly ashed topmost coals may be longer.
• The second and third 10 minute increment intervals usually put my barrel up to about 400 degrees with KBB. (Kingsford Professional is usually higher than that, but then I use it for poultry cooks where I want cooking temps in the 350°+ range so I want to start with very high temps.) Then I add the meat and put the lid on. For KBB, the temp usually drops to around 300 within half an hour and settles in at 275ish shortly after that.

It's great that you are experimenting with that method under your own conditions. When you find what works for your PBC as far as getting a good enough burn going so that it will rock the cooking temp it likes best for hours, you'll have lots of more predictable cooks ahead of you. Happy cooking on that PBC!

Kathryn

[Alabama Smoke]

Actually I live in the southeastern United States, Alabama Smoke , at 3700 ft elevation.

For me, at 3700 ft,

• The initial burn time in the chimney is dependent on the type of charcoal I use. KBB lights the topmost coals at the edges within 10 minutes. For Kingsford Professional, it's more like 20 minutes. B&B Briquets also take a bit longer to get a bit of ash on the topmost coals in the chimney. The 10 minute time is also dependent on the type of chimney you use. If you're using a Weber Compact chimney, the time required to get slightly ashed topmost coals may be longer.
• The second and third 10 minute increment intervals usually put my barrel up to about 400 degrees with KBB. (Kingsford Professional is usually higher than that, but then I use it for poultry cooks where I want cooking temps in the 350°+ range so I want to start with very high temps.) Then I add the meat and put the lid on. For KBB, the temp usually drops to around 300 within half an hour and settles in at 275ish shortly after that.

It's great that you are experimenting with that method under your own conditions. When you find what works for your PBC as far as getting a good enough burn going so that it will rock the cooking temp it likes best for hours, you'll have lots of more predictable cooks ahead of you. Happy cooking on that PBC!

Kathryn

Kathryn, thank you so much for commenting. Sorry I got your location wrong. . Your points as to type charcoal and chimney are thoughts I did not have and I appreciate your introducing them as well as your true height above sea level. I have been using KBB and the PBC chimney exclusively. Following more or less the instructions on the PBC site, I usually get into temps approx. 275 after approx 45 minutes I think. I am finding that the number of starter briquettes and the time I heat them in the chimney sets me up for the temp I am likely to end up with initially but I am getting 250 to 275 with occasional spikes to maybe 310 later in the cook, which still gives me great results. That seems to be the best I can do with keeping temps low. I cooked chicken recently, 4 large almost hen size birds, hung as halves and the cooker was totally full. Even with the lid cracked, I could not get above 325 with the KBB. Thinking of trying the Kingsford Pro or B&B char logs for chicken. Thanks again for your input! Tom

[Michael_in_TX]

I have noticed this on both of my two cooks. With less meat in the PBC, it will run hotter. In fact, after removing the ten chicken thighs Saturday night, the thing jumped to 400+ degrees.

[Michael_in_TX]

Here is my data point from my last cook, when I first used Kathryn's method. I am at sea level -- 12 feet above it -- and the ambient temperature was in the high 70s. I used the Pit Barrel compact chimney and KBB.

I had a full level layer of KBB in the basket, and took exactly 40 out for the chimney. I lit the chimney for 10 minutes. I poured that into the basket (in the barrel), distributed the coals evenly as best I could and let it burn for 10 minutes. I had the lid off, but the grate in with a temp probe It was running 100-130 degrees, if I remember right.

After those ten minutes, I put the lid on, secured with two cast iron pans for weight. Temp got to around 270 and let it go for the final ten minutes. I then put the rebar in and the chicken. Cook was only for an hour, but it stayed around 325.

This was only my second PBC cook and my first using Kathryn's method as I said. I hope it repeats this weekend when I do another cook. I'll update!

[fzxdoc]

Tom, Alabama Smoke , nice to hear back from you with more ideas.

As regards sea level, some PBC folks have reported that they need to close their lower vent more than is recommended by the PBC people to get the fire to stabilize. Since I don't live at sea level, I've never tested that out.

As regards the PBC chimney, I don't own one but do have the Weber Compact chimney which looks, dimensionally, very similar to the PBC chimney. For the Weber Compact chimney compared to a full size Weber chimney (which my 10-10-10 method is based on), the compact chimney takes 5 to 15 min longer (15 to 25 min on the first step of the lighting procedure) to get the charcoal heated enough so that the ash begins to form on the topmost coals with KBB.

For that reason, I switched to a Char-Broil Half Time chimney which is cheaper construction than the nicer Weber Compact chimney but it is short and wide so it fits in my PBC and gets the coals up to temp pretty quickly. I wrote about it on this topic. Beware, though, that although my Char Broil Half Time chimney is still going strong 3 years later, others have reported that theirs have rusted out pretty quickly. I think the quality depends on which overseas factory makes the Char-Broil Half Time chimney at any one time, but that's just a guess.

As regards a fully-chicken-loaded PBC (4 chickens and 12-18 sausages), I've done many of these. No matter what brand charcoal I've used, it's tough to get and maintain 350° temps. I settle for around 280-300° with the lid cracked, and the time to get the chicken done goes up by 30 to 45 min. Usually my chickens smoked at 350°+ are done in an hour.

BTW, try smoking some sausages along with that chicken. Poke the lowest sausage in a sausage hanger and let it drip its grease on the fire as the chicken cooks. For my cooks, it adds a nice flavor to the chicken. The sausages only take about half an hour to get up to 180° internal, which I prefer to 165° internal because the skin is more crackly but the insides are still juicy.

Keep on trying new things with your PBC. It's one sweet cooker, as I'm sure you already know.

Kathryn

[Alabama Smoke]

Great additional insite Kathryn fzxdoc and thank you! I also like my sausage crispy on the outside! Interesting idea on the grease drip on the chicken, but then what does not improve with sausage grease!! I also have found that closing the vent (which does not come close to actually CLOSING it, sometimes helps maintaining a temp, but it has little to do with reducing temp......Again, thanks for your assistance!

[Michael_in_TX]

BTW, try smoking some sausages along with that chicken. Poke the lowest sausage in a sausage hanger and let it drip its grease on the fire as the chicken cooks. For my cooks, it adds a nice flavor to the chicken.

Wow, I must do this!