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High Heat/WSM/Briquettes ????


 
J

John Furdyn

TVWBB Pro
Maybe a Dum question.

Does anyone use "Briquettes" as opposed to "Lump" for high Heat Cooks with the WSM ?

I've done a few Chicken cooks HH with briquettes and an empty (foiled) H2O pan, with 2, 3/4 full lit chimmeys and had trouble shooting for 350 lid temps and maintaining it. I guess I could use more lit briquettes ?

I'm wanting to do a HH brisket, so any ifo appreciated.

Is the only answer Lump ? Thanks
 
John,

I have used both and have had much more luck getting and keeping the heat up with the lump rather than the Kingsford. This weekend, I did some chicken and heated up about 2/3 of a chimney of briquettes and dumped on a full ring of lump. I let it sit in the WSM unassembled for about 5 minutes to get it cranking and then it shot up to 300 pretty quick. In the past, when I use all briquettes, I have had to prop the door to keep the temp up but did not have this problem.

Bob
 
I've been out of lump for a little while now. Don't care at all for K but there is no lump to be had here (except for Cowboy which I can't stand).

Did spares a couple days ago (temps 350-400) and brisket yesterday (335-375) using K.

I do not use 'more lit'. I prefer to start with 20-30 lit, tops. I like a reasonable rise over a reasonable time. I dislike starting at already high temps. In both the above cases I started with about 25 lit. Adjust based on ambients in your area.
 
Kevin

I assume your using an empty foiled water pan, no sand or clay.

I also assume that you heat was higher with the spares probably because the weight less than the brisket ?

So am I correct to assume that with about 1.5 chim of fully lit, over about a .5-.75 chim of leftover unlit on bottom. I got about 2.5 hrs most of it @ 335-350, but douwn to 310 at the end (all B vent open and door opened about 3 in)
is normal ? Empty foiled H2O pan ?

When I do my packer (HH) probably around 10 lbs.
Start with a full ring unlit, 20-30 lit, all B. vent open whole cook. Once temp temp reach 325 plus (roughfly) how long about for the HH brisket again 10 lbs. Thanks
 
Empty foiled pan only.

I got higher temps because I didn't mess with the cooker after cracking the door--and, importantly, because I used large wood chunks. (The 400 was hit not long before foiling so it didn't go that long at those temps.)

I normally do spares lower (say 275, though I will go to 325 if I'm short of time), but this was a kind of experimental cook with purposely made problems. I will post about it later, probably later today, with pics. I am often asked about what to do if this or that problem occurs and so for this cook I introduced a few potentialy problematic variables so that I could write about them.

Packers of typical thickness, for me, take around 4 hours irrespective of weight. The 12-pounder I just did took a bit under that--about 10 min less. (I trimmed some, btw, something I rarely do. I'll be posting about that cook as well.)
 
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