Beef Ribs on my new Hasty-Bake, with Questions

[IowaGirl]

ecowper -- You betcha! I bought a Hasty Bake this past Christmas when they had their 20% off sale.

I chose the Continental model -- the baby brother to the Gourmet. It's a petite little thing, but there's plenty of grill space to cook pretty much whatever I want -- 15 pounds of pork shoulder in one cook and an 8 pound ham plus sides in another. The downside is the firebox capacity is on the small side for a long cook.

I'm still trying to figure out how to build the fire properly to get the temperatures I want. I can get a 3-5 hour cook at 275-300F, but sometimes I'd like to run a little cooler -- maybe 250-275F. I tried a fuse burn once, and it went okay, but it took a long time to come up to temperature. I need to practice the fuse burn technique more.

[ecowper]

The great thing, of course, is that is a lifetime cooking machine :-)

[ecowper]

IowaGirl I think the Continental is great .... funny it takes a long time to come up to temp, though. Couple things you might look at, if you haven’t already.

1. DId you seal the firebox door? Just use good old lavalock to put a seal around where the door hits the body. Makes a big difference on airflow.
2. Once you do that, you can do a fuse and open the vents, which will pull air across the coals really well. I open the door vent and the left hand vent at the opposite side to get the convection airflow
3. I generally light 1/3 of my charcoal in a chimney and 2/3 goes in unlit. I pile the 2/3 in the middle of the firebox, put my wood right up against the pile and then dump my lit coals into the space that remains. DOing that, with the deflector in place and a water pan at the far end of the box, I get 240’ish in about 20 minutes. And can maintain that for about 6 hours. I
4. If the cook is going longer, like brisket or pork butt, I can add unlit charcoal as the cook progresses down the firebox and keep reasonable temps

[IowaGirl]

See my comments below...

[JGo37]

No one likes mesquite? That's my go-to for flavoring beef ribs. I however only use one fist-size chunk at a time and burn two or three during a cook.

[flashpatrol]

Thanks guys, I have an official HB griddle but haven't had a chance to use it yet

[IowaGirl]

ecowper -- Thank you for the suggestions -- very much appreciated.

1. DId you seal the firebox door? Just use good old lavalock to put a seal around where the door hits the body. Makes a big difference on airflow.

I have been working on getting the lid for the cooking area sealed better. Even after getting the worst of these leaks stopped and removing the grease thingy and closing the flaps where it normally goes, I've still had to close the vents almost entirely, especially during the middle-late part of the cook. I've got lavalock and will attack the firebox door next.

1. Once you do that, you can do a fuse and open the vents, which will pull air across the coals really well. I open the door vent and the left hand vent at the opposite side to get the convection airflow

Gotcha. That's roughly the way I set the vents for the one fuse burn I tried. But practice makes better, as a friend says.

1. I generally light 1/3 of my charcoal in a chimney and 2/3 goes in unlit. I pile the 2/3 in the middle of the firebox, put my wood right up against the pile and then dump my lit coals into the space that remains. DOing that, with the deflector in place and a water pan at the far end of the box, I get 240’ish in about 20 minutes. And can maintain that for about 6 hours.

When you say 1/3 lit and 2/3 unlit do you mean an arrangement something like my (bad) sketch below?

I haven't been lighting my charcoal in a separate chimney -- just been following the HB advice of using their liquid firestarter under the charcoal in the firebox. But I've thought about trying a chimney.

I have come to the conclusion that the size and location of the firestarter puddle is important. If I make one 3-4" puddle of firestarter in a corner, the fire starts off real slow. If I put fire starter in two 3-4" puddles centered along the front edge of the firebox, the fire takes off pretty good and heats up quicker, but then temps tend to overshoot. I've experimented with putting the firestarter toward the back of the firebox rather than near the door, but don't have a lot of experience to have an opinion about this.

I realize some of these troubles will go away as I seal more leaks and learn how to adjust the vents better.

I haven't been using a water pan for longer cooks, but you and Bill P have both made this suggestion, and I need to try it. You put the water pan IN the firebox in the space not covered by the deflector, right?

I've been getting 3-4 hours of useful cook time (not counting the first 20-30 minutes of getting the fire going) from about 80 briquettes with temps in the 275-325 F range and about 7 hours from 160 briquettes, also at 275-325 F.

1. If the cook is going longer, like brisket or pork butt, I can add unlit charcoal as the cook progresses down the firebox and keep reasonable temps

That's what I've been done too -- gently adding new unlit briquettes at the end of the lit ones to maintain the burn.

[IowaGirl]

I will be real happy if I can reliably get the HB to to settle in the 250 F range. I'm not interested in getting much lower than that. I will seal the fire door before my next cook -- I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference!

I started using this cooker in sub-freezing temps, and realized a LOT more liquid was dripping down through the cabinet onto the decking than was caught by the grease trap. It doesn't seem to work well for me, so I took the trap out and haven't missed it a bit.

[IowaGirl]

Also if I want to raise the firebox to sear, the grease trap channel thingy prevents the firebox from being raised those last several inches to be directly under the grate. When the grease trap was still in place, a couple of times I needed to remove that awkward, hot piece of metal and find a safe place to set it down. Too much hassle for too little benefit.

[ecowper]

IowaGirl without the grease system and with grill grates installed on the direct side, I can get 900F according to my IR therm :-)

[tenphases]

They have a great series on how to get a long burn, yes you need wood. Pbc and my bhc are the only cookers in which I dont use wood.

https://youtu.be/Mby_BifueOY

[ecowper]

Interesting technique. Might try it, although for my really long cooks I prefer the WSM

[IowaGirl]

Since I don't have a PBC or WSM, I'm kind of stuck using the HB. I always use a few wood chunks.

I've been focusing on learning how to manage the fire for short to moderate cooks, but I eventually want try a long burn setup like what they describe in this video.

I'll have to special-order the B&B char logs (or maybe the large Weber briquettes?) or look for them on a trip to a larger city (usually we go to La Crosse, Wisconsin). My local stores don't stock this stuff.

[ecowper]

I used thee HB for 7 or 8 years before getting a WSM. I've gone as long as 15 hours with a brisket on the HB. Longest burn before needing to add charcoal was about 8 hours. Thinking that we ought to start up a thread specific to setting up the firebox and getting good burn, etc

[IowaGirl]

I agree. I'd really appreciate the chance to discuss how to fire up the HB, and I have to say this thread is probably not the best place to do it. I'm the guilty party for taking this thread waaaay off topic.