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a fuel question


 
J

Jennifer K

TVWBB Super Fan
My first cooks were big overnight affairs and I used a full ring and the Minion Method. Obviously I maintained a paranoid patrol of the temperature gauge and needlessly added more fuel throughout.

I had my first daytime cook this past weekend - ribs and more ribs. Since I knew I would only need about 6 hours of cook time, I started only a half ring and half a chimney of fuel.

Is that the right thing to do? Or is it better to use a full load every time? I ask because two things happened that did not occur during my long overnight cooks.

Midway through my weekend ribapolooza, big puffs of white smoke suddenly appeared. I've never seen that kind of smoke from the WSM. I cleared it by opening the lid and letting it disperse, and I shut down the bottom vents for about 10 mins.

Why did it suddenly do that? Any clues?

The other thing that happened was that the Minion method didn't seem to work very well because there wasn't enough fuel and too many bits of lump were just sitting unlit.


I had trouble keeping my WSM to temp. with all this going on.


Should I have lit all the coals at the start? Or should I have used more fuel to begin with?
 
I'm no expert, but I regularly use 1/2 a ring or 3/4 ring of unlit in my 18.5" with 15-20 lit briquettes spread across the top for shorter cooks. Unfortunatley, can't help out with the puffs of white smoke midway through.

When using a half ring of unlit, I try to group them pretty tightly toward the middle of the ring to prevent those stray unburnt coals at the end.
 
Jen it's your preference. You can fill it like normal and then just close all the vents when done and use them next cook or just use half to 3/4 and burn it up or again choke it out and save the leftovers. If you plan on not smoking till next week but grilling during the week, use 1/2 so you have fresh for the grill you know.

As far as white smoke half way through. Did you have wood chunks buried in the ring? What charcoal did you use? Did you have a temp spike at that time?
 
Jennifer, I agree with Chuck. I always use a full ring. For short cooks like ribs ,I use charcoal from my previous cooks along with fresh charcoal but always fill to the top of the ring. 15-to 20 for the Minion sounds right. The type of charcoal or wood buried in the charcoal might account for the smoke. What did the smoke smell like?
 
I'm with Paul. Full ring. You can always use the left over charcoal. Using a full ring also takes one of the variables out of the mix. You knew how a full ring acts, now you're guessing what happened with a 1/2 full ring. Use a full ring and you don't have that problem.

My guess on the smoke was that a piece of wood ignited, but can't be sure.
 
Jennifer, I have only used my WSM for 5 weeks but one thing I've found works for me is to use a full ring of unlit coal. I tried both ways and, like Jerry said, I introduced another variable. With a lot more experience I might change but for now I fill it up.
 
Jennifer, not everyone's WSM will choke out when you close the vents my doesn't anyway. so you may find yourself having to use less fuel so you don't burn up a full ring on a short cook.Check out this post by John Ford small basket I hope I did that right. Anyway it's in the mod thread.He made a small basket from expanded metal and trust me,they work.
 
Guys, very helpful, thank you. Derek, your comment about grouping them tightly at the center strikes a chord. I did the opposite, thinking that I must need to spread the fire around, since I had less coals happening. First mistake.
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Oh, and I didn't realize I could use the charcoal a second time. I've been retrieving the unlit bits and throwing the rest away each time. I guess the Wicked Good people LOVE customers like me.
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My usual system is a full ring of Wicked Good lump, and about 10 briquettes. I bury two little chunks of wood in the ring and add another two after the first two hours. Then I kind of watch the smoke and add the occasional extra piece. This time I used oak and hickory.

Chuck, when that sudden smoke happened, I'd had the lid off for a minute or two while I was hauling out the baby backs to foil them. I put the lid back on and the smoke suddenly started to pour out about 2 minutes later. There was a bit of a temperature spike.

I've never had that kind of smoke. It smelled really smoky, instead of smelling moist and meaty.

From what you've all said, it sounds like I should stick to the full ring - as Jerry says, I know how that acts. Hopefully I won't have to cover my face with a wet towel next time!
 
Jennifer when you took off the lid you added a lot of oxygen and allowed some of your unlit lump to start to smolder faster which would give you the white smoke, it could also have come from a piece of lump that wasn't fully carbonated ie still was a piece of wood. The WG Lump I've been getting recently has been fairly large chunks which I have to break up and I have found a bit of unburned wood in it.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don Reed:
Jennifer, not everyone's WSM will choke out when you close the vents my doesn't anyway. so you may find yourself having to use less fuel so you don't burn up a full ring on a short cook.Check out this post by John Ford small basket I hope I did that right. Anyway it's in the mod thread.He made a small basket from expanded metal and trust me,they work. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have the same issue with my 18.5 where I can't choke the fire out so it will burn all day and all night. For ribs I use just over half a ring and 10-15 lit. That should be plenty of fuel for a 4-6 hour cook.
 
Don, thank you for the link to the small basket and yours is really great. This seems ideal, so I'm going to bribe my beloved with a fancy dessert, wring my hands some, and wait for one to appear.

Bob, you nailed it, I think. In that cook there was a monster piece of WG lump. I used it deliberately thinking... well this sucker could keep the half-fire going all by itself! I even thought about trying to saw it in half but I don't know how to work power tools. How do you break it up... do you just whack it with an ice pick or something? Hahaha... me wielding an icepick... that would strike fear into a certain neighbor's heart! (the one who just can't stand that I am lighting up the WSM every few days )
 
Dom,
I actually do use less charcoal.The one pic of the charcoal basket mod in the thread I linked is mine. I wanted to keep the charcoal tight for the cook and the little basket definately works.
 
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