first attempt psb question


 
Briant

Briant

TVWBB Member
I am thinking of doing a test run before I make a mass quantity for the 4th. Probably will use my 22 kettle instead of the WSM. I don't cook indirect on it often, so roughly how many coals will I need to keep 250ish for 2-3 hours?

Do you guys minion it?

thanks,
Brian
 
For sure minion it. I use lump and fire bricks to hold back the charcoal. You only need 5-6 lit to start with the kettle. You'll need to have the bottom vents almost closed maybe 1/8 open and partially close the top vent
 
Lots of variables such as outside air temp., wind, sun or shade, amount and type of food to be cooked and initial temp when you put it in, type of charcoal (lump, briquettes, which brand) ETC. With KB blue, I would probably use 15 or so unlit topped by maybe 10 lit Minion start and add more later if needed. Sorry for the indefinite answer but it's all a WAG anyway.
 
thanks guys. I split the difference and lit up 8, piled them on five new unlit and a bunch of recycled coals. Holding temp ok. Meat was 140 at 2 hours.
 
It was pretty good! My wife liked it a lot, which is what I shoot for. If you haven't tried it, I would recommend it.

The only ingredients that I changed, was I used one seeded jalapeno vs. three w/ seeds. Not a huge on heat, although my wife is (otherwise I would have left all the way out). Next time I will add in another seeded.

I did rush the cook though. After 3 hours, the outsides were 150ish and the middle was 145ish and the fire wasn't cooperating- I think because of the amount of smaller recycled pieces I had in there. Next time I will use more new unlit. I cheated a bit and opened the vents and took off the lid for a couple minutes, then once I got some good heat back I moved the roast to direct for 5 min each side. This brought me up to the upper 160's and I brought it in and foiled it with the veg. After 2 hours I shredded, but it wasn't quite ready- it didn't pull as easily as 'spaghetti' like the original post said, but it was close enough. I let it go another 30 min or so, but the liquid didn't reduce all that much, at least nowhere near half. But we were hungry so we went for it. It was very good, I'll just need to allot another 2 hours or so when I do it again.

I'll definitely put it over direct to crisp up the outside, as my wife said that was her favorite part. It got a green light to go in the rotation, so I was happy with the cook.
 
If you use the "snake" method, you can run a kettle between 225-250 for about 6 hours without touching it.
 
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