Best charcoal stacking approach for low 'n slow in a small grill to maximize grill area

[Henrik]

Hi all,

so I'd like to get the Pit's opinion on the best way to stack and light charcoal for a low 'n slow cook in a small grill. Yes, I'm gonna use the PK 300 grill in a few weeks.

One thing I've been pondering is how to best smoke a brisket in a PK. Can it even fit in there? Given that you normally have to stack briquettes/charcoal somewhere the usable grate area starts to shrink, making it hard to fit a brisket.

But then I had an idea: this is done in the Weber with some kind of circular sheet metal disc covering most of the charcoal. The same is done in the Kamado Joe Kettle Joe with the SloRoller insert. Basically the direct heat is blocked by having a large deflector plate covering most of the charcoal (with a 2" gap all around for air circulation). That means the entire grate area is available!

So, let's do this. I ordered a second grate with legs on it from Amazon (PK99020 raised cooking grid).


And I also ordered a generic drip pan that is 2" smaller (width x depth) than the grates.



So, with that setup I can simply fill the entire coal grate with briquettes (ignore the burn shop basket in the photo below, just focus on the fuel).



So I would fill the bottom coal grate with unlit briquettes, covering the entire grate. And...

...now to my question:
I have two (?) ways of starting up the charcoal:
1. Set 12-15 briquettes on fire in a chimney starter, and then dump them along the blueish line in the photo above.
2. Do the same, but just scatter them across the rest.

I figure option no. 1 would effectively create a wide snake, slowly moving from one end of the grill to the other. Option no. 2 would potentially light more fuel than I want to, but should except for that work as planned.

Which option do you guys think is the best? Would you add the lit fuel along one end to let the fire move across slowly? Or would you just scatter the lit charcoal on top of the unlit charcoal covering the coal grate?

Since it takes about 2 weeks to get the products delivered I figured I'd ask and see what y'all's experiences are.

[radshop]

I’ll be interested to see where this goes, because I stopped trying years ago to optimize the burn pattern in this way. I rely on air flow control. But happy to learn if it really does make a difference.

[HawkerXP]

I'd start on one end as we do with the SnS for what I assume would be a more controlled burn.

[Jfrosty27]

You’re a mad scientist. I’m sure you’ll get it figured out and have perfect results as usual.

[grantgallagher]

Fire is its own beast but i think starting it with defined "route of least opposition" burn path makes sense. Doesnt always work the way you planned but thats the way i would go. I always remind myself that the snake method on a kettle works pretty damn well and its stupid simple despite all the ways we try to address a problem that doesnt really exist.

That said, with a raised grate and full load i might actually play around with the scattered approach in order to get more consistent heat across the full cooking surface. My gut says that would work better but you will need to use less coals and replenish more often for a long consistent cook.

[Henrik]

Thanks, your point about even heat is really good, will take that into account.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Like HawkerXP said, I might just start 8-10 briquettes in the back corner, place my wood chunks on the bottom then when the charcoal has ashed over dump my remaining unlit in? I've never cooked on a PK but I'm going assume once up on temp it doesn't use a ton of fuel?

[Henrik]

Correct, it doesn’t use much fuel. I like the idea of dumping charcoal in the corner.

[RonB]

A third option would be to prepare a space in one corner large enough to hold the lit briquettes. That will give you performance similar to the SnS.

But the only way to know is to try one method at a time until you get the results you want.

[Henrik]

Yes, think I will have to try both.

[LA Pork Butt]

Dumping the coals on the top would be like the Minnion method which I used successfully on an old bullet water smoker. I’ve used the snake method successfully on a Weber kettle. I am not sure the snake method will burn like a snake in your set up. I am thinking either method will work as long as you can stop the air flow down to maintain the target temp. I cook on a Big Green Egg and with the vent in the front the fire tends to burn from front to back and minimally burns from where the fire started to the front although it does. If you vents will feed the snake first then I would go with number 1. Otherwise I think I would go with number 2.

[Henrik]

Thanks, good points. I’m gonna use a fan that will blow from the short end of the grill. Didn’t mention that. Will try both and see.

[jfmorris]

Henrik this reminds me of how I used to do indirect on my gas grill to do turkeys and hams, for the years I was not smoking them. I needed higher heat like 350F, my old gas grill had left to right burners, so it was hard to setup indirect. I finally learned I could put a large sheet pan on top of the flavorizer bars, under the grate, to act as a heat deflector, and give me a central indirect zone. Much like you are doing, and much like a kamado does. It worked well back in those days to do the Christmas turkey or ham when the wife needed the indoor gas oven for other dishes.

In fact - what you are doing is really the same as a kamado, with the charcoal fire under a heat deflector.

What I am thinking is this.

First, on a kamado, the heat deflector is thicker (ceramic). I am wondering if you can add water to your drip/deflector pan to act as thermal mass and help prevent radiant heat through the metal reaching the meat. I used a big reverse flow offset once that was made to let you fill the deflector pan with water, and then drain it after the cook (along with your grease).

Second, I think you can do the fire either way, i.e. burn across from one end to the other, or even start in the center. Think about how you would light a kamado, then add the heat deflector. Same thing here. You are turning your PK into a kamado cooker.

[Henrik]

Thanks Jim, great feedback! Yes, I am turning it into a kamado, want to see if I can fit a brisket in there. Just for fun, otherwise my offset does a stellar job. But I gotta try :-)

[TripleB]

I can't get a picture to load, but I guess I do a version of the snake method in my PK. I use a large soup can, cut out both ends, stage it at one end of the grill, put my coal fence in place and pour briquettes around the can. Light up some briquettes and pour them into the soup can and than using tongs, remove the can. I've kept 225-275d no problem for 3+ hours. If you did the whole coal grate with briquettes, I would imagine you could get 10-15 hours. But since you are almost covering the whole cooking grate, I wonder if that would effect ventilation and temp .

[MBMorgan]

Henrik, you might want to think about adapting Spinaker 's "OCD" method. It should improve the likelihood of a controlled, even burn of your briquettes from one side of the PK to the other.

It's described in post #8 here: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...pbc#post814216

[Henrik]

Yes, that Spinaker fella always has one up his sleeve, right? 😄. Actually, I like it! I can do a version of this in my PK and clock it to see how long it burns. OCD? Yeah, you know me 😁

[ILMsmoke]

My PK is due to arrive Saturday, but I’ve had great success with long cooks in a kettle using the snake/fuse method with the charcoal.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I like the idea, but what I've found in experiments with my PKGO (smaller than what you're playing with) is that lump is actually better than briquettes. The tradeoff is slightly higher initial heat, but you get a MUCH longer run time. With lump I've been able to get 6+ hours of actual smoking out of my little PK vs 2 hours with briquettes. I usually have to fabricate some sort of barrier with foil for either fuel.

Obviously in my PKGO a second tier rack wouldn't work, but a fabricated heat shield/fuel holder would still be very helpful. I've actually considered making one that goes 75% height of the grill shut, with a grate attached to the other side to close the gap between grates. Just haven't had money or time to pursue it.

I think if you made something like I'm talking about for the normal size PK it would be a killer application. Vertical fuel would give a lot more usable space for a 2 zone cook.