Stirring the coals


 
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I've read that it may be necessary to stir the coals to achieve longer burn times when using the Minion method. When I've even so much as bumped the coals I get lots of ash flying around. Do I need to partially dis-assemble the cooker and then stir?
 
'Morning Tom..although I'm a new VBWSM club member like yourself, I've smoked foods for several years and have always found that during any given 'smokin I have had to stir the coals some to keep the fire going.I find that I do this much less with the WSM. I can't remember, though, having any ash problem probably since I use charwood in lieu of briquettes. However, as I believe the real BBQ pros will respond and tell you, you really don't want to disassemble your smoker while cooking unless you have the remainder of the weekend to finish your meal!! Hope this is somewhat helpful and I'll monitor your responses from the veterans so that I can learn from the best.....John
 
Well, I'm not an expert either, but it's not Q without a little ash on it, is it?
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Seriously, I would never try to dis-assemble the smoker while cooking. Just stir carefully. Besides, if you fill the charcoal pan you should get 16+ hours. Do you need to go longer than that?

Doug
 
I use a fireplace poker and lightly move the charcoal, some ash flies but it's not a problem. The reason to do this is when your on longer cooks there is a peroid of time around 6 to 8 hours where the temp drops, this poking helps get the temp back up.
Cooking on a offset cooker there is a lot of air movement and fine ash is in that hot air, it's part of Q'n.
Jim
 
In Paul Kirk's first video, he talks about carefully removing the middle cooking section of a bullet cooker with the lid still in place in order to service the charcoal. He says something like, "your meat will never know it's off the heat", in other words you won't lose much in the way of heat or cooking time if you take it all off in one piece with the lid still on.

I have done this on occasion. You just have to be extremely careful when you do it, using heavy gloves to protect your hands from the heat, and making sure not to spill the contents of the water pan or dump the whole thing by accident. It's not for the faint of heart, but it can be done. (Not accusing anyone around here of being faint of heart, BTW
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Regards,
Chris
 
I take the meat off with its grill, stir the coals through the access door, wait a minute for the ash to settle, put the meat back on and watch the reinvigorated fire quickly come back to temp.
 
I just finished cooking two briskets using the Minion Method, and had to stir the coals at around the 11 hour mark. I didn't really "stir" them, rather just stuck a long pair of tongs in the coals and gently tapped and prodded around to get some of the ash to drop through the charcoal grate. Didn't stir up too much ash in the air, and my temp jumped up a good 20 degrees.

Regards,
Chris
 
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