Pork ribs on PBC vs. WSM

[binarypaladin]

Razor (continuing here because I think this might be too long for a comment):

1. Yeah, your findings are similar to mine and really good tips in terms of temperature control.

2. Another thing I learned is that I was stingy with fuel early on. I add a lot more now and it leads to more consistent fires. I don't mind having a bunch of half-burned briquettes when I finish because those can always be reused.

As for the fan...

I have a Flameboss 300 and in my kettle, I like it a lot. In my WSM, I've had some very mixed experiences. I've had a number of situations where it can't get the temp up fast enough after a drop and it starts pumping in the air so hard that the cooler ambient air from outside drops the temperature leading to a sort of runaway effect.

I was supposed to call Flameboss about this but just haven't yet. My guess is that it goes back to me not using enough fuel and that I think I need to build the fire differently with a fan involved—honestly, I didn't have a great rhyme or reason to how I built the fire. "No biggie! The fan will solve all problems." And it does... until it doesn't.

How do you typically build you fire for the WSM + a fan? I'll try it out on my next cook and see if I can go back to relying on that.

[Razor]

binarypaladin When I don't use the water pan (how I've been cooking my ribs and spatchcock chicken lately) I've been going with just 10 briquettes.

Takes a little while to get going but I'm busy setting everything else up while it's doing it's thing. When I use the water pan I put hot water in it and usually start with 20 briquettes in the chimney. Actually looking back through my last few cooks most of them have been without the water pan, but I think even 30 wouldn't be a bad number to start with.

The other thing I do is bury my wood. It smothers instead of burning when up on top. I think when it burns everything gets hotter and I think that throws everything off because it doesn't burn for long.

Finally, I was reusing charcoal but I recently stopped. I don't think you get as consistent results, and as I've been taking notes at the end I've done a much better job estimating the amount of briquettes I need. There's not usually a lot left over, and things seem to go better for me starting from scratch on a new cook. I buy it when it's on sale an I started thinking my quality of life is going down for all the trouble a few burnt briquettes are causing me, lol