Fire Management for Reverse Sear - Low Temp Help Needed

[efincoop]

Hi All,

Can someone point me to some information on how to get my Weber Kettle set up for the low temp portion of the reverse sear technique? Every time I try I seem to wind up way over 250 degrees. I have tries smaller amounts of of charcoal, I have played with the vents, but can't seem to make it happen. On my Vision Kamodo, this is easy. I light a cotton ball soaked with alcohol and as it coasts up I regulate the vents to settle in at 250. Can I use that same method on my Weber? While I use Lump charcoal in the Kamodo, I use Kingsford competition in my Weber.

[Jerod Broussard]

Kingsford Competition is some HOT burning stuff.

Do you have a Slow N Sear for the kettle?

[Breadhead]

efincoop ...

When I do a reverse sear on my 26" kettle with the slow and sear I light 25 briquettes and when they are gray with ash I dump in a canister of unlit briquettes knowing the fire will travel along the briquettes slowly as the 250° cooking temp is controllable. When the IT of my steaks reach 115° I blast my fire with my BBQ Dragon to get all of the briquettes Warp 10 hot. That takes about 1 minute. Then I transfer the steaks over to the direct heat side of the Slow N Sear. That works like a champ for me.👍

TheGrizMan ... This is a picture of the BBQ Dragon on my BGE. It's pretty much a high velocity hair dryer.😆

[TheGrizMan]

Breadhead What is a BBQ dragon?

[TheGrizMan]

Breadhead Thanks for the picture and showing me what a BBQ dragon is.

[Breadhead]

I'm enabling your MCS... 😎

[David Parrish]

I would start with 20-25 briquettes for the low and slow portion of the cook. When the steaks hit 90 F light a 2/3 chimney of Kingsford Competition/Professional charcoal. It should be fully lit around the time your steaks are ready to sear. Throw the charcoal in the kettle and sear the steaks. Works like a champ!

If you don't have a Slow 'N Sear you should use fire bricks, Weber baskets, or something similar to keep the charcoal together.

[JPP]

Dave, about what temp will the weber run at with 25 briquettes in it?

[David Parrish]

Depends highly on vent settings and ambient conditions, but you should be able to get 225 F long enough to warm up a steak.

[JPP]

Thanks Dave... I use an oak log from the wood pile to keep the charcoal close together. At some point (not this year, in order to promote domestic tranquility) the S-n-S!

[efincoop]

Kingsford Competition is some HOT burning stuff.

Do you have a Slow N Sear for the kettle?

I do recall reading on the site that the competition burns hotter than the blue bag. Is it really that simple? I do not have the Slow n Sear.

[GadjetGriller]

Doing research on the difference between blue and Comp I was surprised to learn that the comp stuff is really Lump that has been shaved down to look and act like briquettes. Meaning you get a consistent burn time out of each one.

[efincoop]

I would start with 20-25 briquettes for the low and slow portion of the cook. When the steaks hit 90 F light a 2/3 chimney of Kingsford Competition/Professional charcoal. It should be fully lit around the time your steaks are ready to sear. Throw the charcoal in the kettle and sear the steaks. Works like a champ!

If you don't have a Slow 'N Sear you should use fire bricks, Weber baskets, or something similar to keep the charcoal together.

I do have the Weber baskets, I'll have to give that a try. Following that method should then get me around 250?

[David Parrish]

225 to 250 F should be very doable. Add more charcoal if needed.

[David Parrish]

I do recall reading on the site that the competition burns hotter than the blue bag. Is it really that simple? I do not have the Slow n Sear.

Competition (now called Professional) burns quite a bit hotter than blue bag IF you give it all the air it can handle. If you have good air control it's no problem to keep the Professional briquettes running low and slow.

[RonB]

Are you getting a lot of smoke coming from around the edge of the lid? That "extra" air might be enough to keep the temps too high. If so, a gasket might help:

https://www.amazon.com/LavaLock-Performance-gasket-smoker-STICK/dp/B01F9FE60K/?tag=amazi0a8-20

(This is the AR link that Meathead gets credit for.)

[efincoop]

Are you getting a lot of smoke coming from around the edge of the lid? That "extra" air might be enough to keep the temps too high. If so, a gasket might help:

https://www.amazon.com/LavaLock-Performance-gasket-smoker-STICK/dp/B01F9FE60K/?tag=amazi0a8-20

(This is the AR link that Meathead gets credit for.)

You know, now that you mention it I did notice smoke leaking out around the lid last night. I have never noticed that before, so I'll have to run another test. Thank you.

[RonB]

If you could post a photo of the leak(s), that might help.

[efincoop]

efincoop ...

When I do a reverse sear on my 26" kettle with the slow and sear I light 12 briquettes and when they are gray with ash I dump in a canister of unlit briquettes knowing the fire will travel along the briquettes slowly as the 250° cooking temp is controllable. When the IT of my steaks reach 115° I blast my fire with my BBQ Dragon to get all of the briquettes Warp 10 hot. That takes about 1 minute. Then I transfer the steaks over to the direct heat side of the Slow N Sear. That works like a champ for me.👍

Breadhead, when you dump in the unlit coals are you dumping them alongside the lit coals so they are just touching the lit coals? Conversely I suspect you could dump the lit coals alongside the chimney full of unlit coals, correct?

[Breadhead]

efincoop ... Sorry I missed your question before now. I put the lite coals all together toward the back of the SnS. Then I dump in the unlite coals to fill the rest of the SnS. Just so they will only burn in a chain like action. Then when I want them all hot I blast them with the BBQ Dragon.

[Voltron15]

I just did this with the SnS and some steakhouse burgers last weekend. I'm new to the kettle world but I had a ton of leakage around my lid and could just barely keep the temp under 275° with my top vent fully closed and the bottom vent mostly closed. I got a gasket for my lid and no more leakage problems.

[billg71]

efincoop , I posted a couple of comments to David Parrish 's post above but I should have made it a reply instead. So here we go:

First of all, quit worrying about starting temps for the reverse sear. As long as the burgers don't sizzle and turn dark brown 10 minutes after they hit the grill you're OK. Choking down the vents to keep a full load of lit charcoal in the 225-300 range will just get you lots of not-so-nice smoke and a nasty taste in the meat. If you reduce the first charcoal load to an amount you can get good airflow with but not excessive heat you'll get a better cook. A small Weber chimney works for me, holds about 22-25 briquettes just like David Parrish suggested.

The reverse part of the sear is both temperature and time related, it's a lot easier to adjust time than temps as long as you don't overdo either.

Next step is to watch temps and note times; if you start with refrigerated burgers(which you should), look for an IT of around 90 at which point you want to flip. Note how long it took. Start the next small or large chimney of coals(depending on how many burgers you're cooking) now. The next milestone is an IT of 110-115 for medium-rare, it should take a little less time than it took to get to 90 from refrigerated. Start temping around 5 minutes before the cold-90 time, check every minute after. Write down the elapsed time.

Once the burgers hit 110-115, open the grill, move them off to the side and dump in the hot coals. Give them 5 minutes to stabilize and heat up the starter coals, set your timer for 5 minutes and start searing. After a minute rotate 90 degrees. Another minute and flip, a minute on that side and rotate. Check temps now, you should be in range. If you're low give them another minute, you'll be a perfect medium-rare and nicely charred, if not move them to the side and drop the lid until they temp out where you want them. Write it down, again.

Next time refer to your notes, rinse and repeat with minor adjustments. After 4-5 cooks you'll have it down. It ain't rocket science, it's just learning your cooker and what you put in it. And keeping a record of what you did and how it turned out.

Have fun!

P.S. Split off a 1/4" thick piece from a chunk of your favorite wood and throw it on the coals when you first put the burgers on. You'll be glad you did.

[David Parrish]

I would suggest flipping every minute when searing. You'll have thinner tan bands and more wall to wall red.

[efincoop]

Thank you all for your advice and input. I will put your advice into practice and post my results, including a photo of any smoke leakage as suggested by RonB.

[efincoop]

I am also seriously considering purchasing the Slow N Swarovski for my Weber.

[bbqstud]

What is that?

[bbqstud]

Many years ago when I was cooking with Willingham and his crew I was taught to NEVER use the top vents of a cooker i.e. Weber kettle, to adjust temperature. The thought was this creates a large amount of unwanted smoke and other by-products which are kept in the smoker and cause the meat to taste bad. They always use ONLY the bottom vents and number of briquettes/lump/wood/etc. to control temperature. Any comments? BTW I've used this method with all of my rigs for over 25 years and have had nothing but good luck EXCEPT for one time when a novice was helping me at a catering job and thought the temps were too high so he closed off the chimney vent! When I discovered this the butts were really smoked and the fire was nearly out. I was able to save the job but learned a lesson...keep an eye on the Rookies!...lol