Science of BBQ diagramed


 
James Lake

James Lake

TVWBB Emerald Member
I was searching for information on my "new" 1998 Weber compact kettle, when I came across this diagram taken from the BBQ Bible. There is still some information I can use here.



Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!
 
James, give the foil a try on the charcoal grate over the unfired portion. It really helps to control temps and saves on fuel too. You get the heat reflecting back off the foil and the air from the bottom vents has to pass through the coals.
 
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Gary S said:
James, give the foil a try on the charcoal grate over the unfired portion. It really helps to control temps and saves on fuel too. You get the heat reflecting back off the foil and the air from the bottom vents has to pass through the coals.
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Just tried this on my first cook on my brand new 26.75" kettle and I was very surprised how easy it was to hold temp. I cooked ribs for probably 5.5 hours and the temp on the dome stayed right around 300 the entire time. I played with the vents for a while to dial it in but it settled in and was really easy to control.
 
Ooh, that foil technique could be useful with a pizza kettle setup to keep the cool air feeding the fire instead of cooling off your pizza stone.
 
I'm firing up my kettlepizza for the first time right now. Here's my floor.

9322083667_7883e7d8a7.jpg
 
I got up to 700F air temp with this setup using 1/2 chimney. I'm hoping to get all scientific on it this weekend and compare with and without the foil using the same number of bricks and same timings.
 
That's great Michael. I really this this method for LNS but I have not tried it for high heat cooking as about the only thing I would do is sear a steak. Just started getting interested in pizza so I will be curious about your set-up and results.
 
Michael Werner said:
I got up to 700F air temp with this setup using 1/2 chimney. I'm hoping to get all scientific on it this weekend and compare with and without the foil using the same number of bricks and same timings.
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Hey Mike, how did you make out with your experiments?
 
Michael Werner said:
I'm firing up my kettlepizza for the first time right now. Here's my floor.

9322083667_7883e7d8a7.jpg
Click to expand...

I like this idea from Michael, initially I thought the fire would not get as hot because it was restricting the amount of air to the fire. Now I realize that there would still be the same amount of air but just directed towards the fire. When I set my kettlepizza up I build a bigger fire than this, so I would be curious if Michael completed his comparison between the two different methods.
 
I didn't get around to the experiment, but I did try to max it out and succeeded in doing this with this setup. It's definitely not hurting airflow.

This was with 1/2 chimney and 4 baseball sized chunks of hickory.

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