charcoal question

[Guest]

When doing ribs with lighting method described in the pages for the BRITU (one lit chimney followed by one unlit chimney and smoke wood, allowing the wood to be engulfed, but not consumed, then leaving for an hour after assembling the cooker) , does anyone elses' fire go cool after 3 hours, or do I just suck?

I got my temp exactly at 230 for 3 hours, which was great, but then I turned the ribs and the brisket flat, put the lid back on, opened all three bottom vents fully, but couldn't get the temp back over 200 degrees. It is Kingsford, which I've heard has staying power. If this is going to be a regular thing, I suggest you all buy stock in Kingsford. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

 

[Paul G.]

I use the Standard Method of lighting and haven't encountered this particular problem. You said you waited an hour and put the meat on. Maybe you had let the temp get down too low ? With that amount of meat, you should probably have started it when the temp was down to 320. At that point open the vents about 25% and monitor till you get to around 250 dome (I figure that's in the 235 range on the top cooking grate. Small incremental changes in the vents are better than waiting too long and going from nearly closed to wide open. It does take a lot of experimentation and once you get it down, something weird will happen.. just to let you know you didn't really have it figured out ! /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

HTH Of course maybe I misunderstood what you meant about leaving for an hour and I really haven't helped you ?

PRG

 

[Guest]

No, actually, that made perfect sense to me Paul. Thanks for the feedback. I tend to take things very literally, so I probably did wait too long to put the meat on. Iwill definately make an adjustment in that respect.

 

[Doug D]

In the BRITU recipe cook on the website, 2 Weber chimneys full are used. The Weber is a big chimney that holds 6 lbs. Others usually only hold about 4 lbs. 8 lbs. versus 12 lbs. of charcoal plus a brisket flat consuming energy could be a possible explanation. I use 2 Weber chimneys for most average cooks, and have cooked for 8-9 hours at 240 and had charcoal worth saving left over. How long did you end up cooking and how much charcoal did you have left when all was said and done?

 

[Guest]

That's hard to say actually, because in a panic, I threw a couple handfuls of briquettes onto the fire in hopes of heating it up, but that didnt' help much right away, at least by the time I had to take them off the cooker (company was over and we finished in the oven.