Charcoal Snake?!? (technique seen on Cooks Country television show)

[Cheef]

I wonder how this would work in a Ranch Kettle. I'm guessing it would have to be a wider snake? just a thought/excuse just in case.

[HawkerXP]

Congrats! Each and every cooker works just a little differently and we need to figure it out.

[brlteach]

So... After snaking it and trying the minion method multiple times each, I have to use the snake method in my off-set. Don't know why, but the minion method just will not burn slowly. It all ignites rapidly and the coals are consumed within an hour or so. Very odd. When I tried it the second time, I completely blocked my vent, same thing. It just does not want to burn slow. The snake method, on the other hand, was a bit too cool the first time. I beefed it up the second time and just poured charcoal all willy-nilly around the permiter of my tiny box, kept the water bowl in the center, and it kept the temp in the middle of my smoke chamber at around 250, give or take 10+-. I had to refill it twice during the 6-hours. Though one trick I had to learn about refilling, I have to put on serious grill gloves and clean out any embers along the perimeter so that they would not ignite all areas of the snake at once.

[jfmorris]

I use charcoal on my offset, and a 2x2 snake would never generate enough heat to reach cooking temperatures in the main cooking chamber in my opinion. I do a minion/snake when using charcoal where I light about 1/4 to 1/2 a chimney of charcoal, when going good dump it into the firebox and rake all the way to one side. I then pour charcoal in to fill the rest of the firebox, and it burns across. I throw some oak splits on top or some chunks of hickory for smoke. With this technique, I can get a few hours before I have to refuel, as it take 2-3 hours to burn across the firebox.

[brlteach]

holehogg Thankyou! I thought I had read the newbie stuff, but clearly I didn't absorb enough! Thank you for the feedback!

[holehogg]

brlteach

[holehogg]

If you are wanting to let a person know you are responding to something its best to first type the @ symbol directly followed by their username. Usually when you type the first couple letters a list will appear and you can click on the relevant person.
Not sure if what you doing goes to their message box.

[brlteach]

I had to look up "minion method," .Troutman. Since I had already set up the snake, I converted it to a Minion Snake.

Still waiting to see the results.

[Richard Chrz]

If I am cooking longer then 2-3 hours, my kettles get set up in snake. My smoker, it is minion method.

[brlteach]

Hmm... Thanks, Steve R.. I hadn't taken into account the reduction of temp in the smoke chamber as opposed to the kettle grill. We shall see, as I've already got it set up.

[Dewesq55]

That said, some folks use a charcoal basket with heavy gauge t-plates insider to set up a charcoal smaller in an offset. Lone Star Grillz sells the components good such a system (basket and t-plates) that fits in their firebox. I imagine that works fairly well.

[Dewesq55]

I agree with Steve R. I don't think my offset works every guy to, let alone stay at 275° (or 250, or even 225°) with that little amount of charcoal burning at any given time. I once tried a "beefed up" version using stainless steel mud trays connected up to contain the snake of briquettes. It was s huge fail - it couldn't really keep the temp and the fire managed to "jump" the walls of the trays and started burning in all 3 trays at once.

[Steve R.]

I think most of us here do this, or some variation of it. But it would take more charcoal than it's worth to run an offset smoker that way, if that's what you are asking.

[LA Pork Butt]

I have done it a few times on my son’s 26” kettle, and if I didn’t have a BGE for low and slow I would do it all the time. If you own a Vortex it makes the snake method even easier.

[Attjack]

Yeah, I do it all the time. It's part of kettle cooking 101. Works flawlessly.