"Jim Minion Method" with a little twist.


 
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I use and like the "Jim Minion Method" very much. I have added a little "twist" to his method and I like it just as well. Purchase a can of beans or whatever in a 6 lb 12 oz can. Cut the top out and remove contents. Then cut the bottom out. Remove the paper from the outside of the can. Now place it in the center of your empty charcoal ring and create what I call a "charcoal doughnut (see red arrow)." Next add un-lit charcoal all around the can for as much as you think you need. Start your charcoal in a chimney and when white hot, pour into the can in the center of the charcoal ring. If you have another 6 lb 12 oz can, you can use it to measure the charcoal to light in the chimney.

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As soon as you add the hot charcoal to the can in the center (green arrow), reach in with a pair of pump pliers and remove the can. You are now off and running. This way, you burn from the bottom up and in a direction from the center out in all directions. I found that if I set my bottom vents (all 3) at about 1/4 inch(no more) or even 3/16 of inch, with the top vent wide open (and it should be all the time), I will hit a lid temp of 225 degrees and it will stay there throughout the burn. This is very consistent.

Take care.
 
Hey Bruce! That looks like a great idea you've come up with! I would like more info if you don't mind. You know I've got to ask these newbie questions. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

How do burn times compare with the "regular" Minion method? More, less, or about the same? Also, in one of the pics, it looks like some hot coals are in the outer area as well as the center. Have you tried some hot coals on top along with that center "core" fire? Any difference?

Thanks for sharing your information!
 
DeeC., as you can see in the bottom picture, I have a full can of white coals as well as some scattered around on top. So, this is very close to the "Jim Minion Method." The main difference in my way, is with the hot coals in the center, it will burn from the bottom and out toward the edge of the charcoal ring at the same time.

The big difference between this and the Minion method, is I found with the Minion method, I had to shake the coals down more often. With the doughnut method, I only shake them perhaps one time during a 12 hour burn.

This works very well for me and I thought I would pass it on for those who like to tinker with things. Keep in mind, the Minion Method works very well, not to take anything away from his method.

Take care.
 
Bruce --

This looks like a good twist. My question would be: what is your water pan setup?
Use it? Yes, No? Hot water, cool?

Thanks for your response and also for the great pics and explanation of your twist!
 
Hello Walt, I always use the water pan and add the hottest water I can. No need to heat it twice. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Take care.
 
Bruce,
Looks like a keeper! Great pictorial, and instructions. I am sure this method would work just as well with lump, my choice of fuel. You just need to add a permanent handle instead of using the channel-locks.
Maybe we could call this:
Kennedy's Kan!!!

Great job once again and thanks for sharing
Jim Morrissey
 
Bruce
Someone was doing something similar to this a couple of years ago and it should work fine, I believe because it is burning from from the bottom up it will not not burn as long if were burn from top down. Will be interesting to see the results.
Your right you would have to stir coals a less.
I'll tell you that I don't follow the Minion Method very close. The fire up is the same but I don't use hot water and I don't wait for pit to get to temp before putting on the meat. I dump coals put in the waterpan with cold water put on the meat and close the lid.
Normally I use only one of the bottoms vents to control temp. The two vents that face the wind I close.
There are many ways to make it work and I will vary the fireup to fit the cook and conditions.
The Minion Method was born out of the fact that Webers manual is so bad when it comes to fire control,that many folks could not make the cooker stay in the 200? to 270? range.
The knowledge base with WSM user has grown so much, we all feel comfortable enough to try new things.
I'll be interested in seeing how long a burn you can get with this method. Good work Bruce.
Jim
 
Hey Jim, good to hear from you. You said somebody might have tried this two years ago. That might have been me. The first thing I tried was the "race track system", something like the Jedmaster uses. I took the charcoal ring and installed a single piece of sheet metal that ran from one side to within 6 inches of the other side. I then fabed a 6" by 6" (something like that) in the corner between the attached sheet metal to the charcoal ring. I partitioned this 6 by 6 area off with a single piece of sheet metal that I could pull up and remove. In the 6 by 6 area, I would dump the hot coals; remove the partition sheet metal and the I was off and running. Of course I filled the remaining area with un-lit charcoal. The idea was to run from the corner area all the way around until done. Well, that did not work at all. The sheet metal that ran from one side of the charcoal ring to within 6 inches of the other side of the ring, became so hot, it started the charcoal on the opposite side on fire and thus it did not work at all.

That is when I started using the can method. You mention the vent settings. I have read where so many people have trouble with the temp control on the WSM. I think I must have a very good, tight fitting WSM because it does hold a very steady temperature and is very easy to set. I will say this, that I still think, dollar for dollar, you can not beat a WSM.

Oh, on how long of a burn? I have only tried one over night burn and that was the second time I used my WSM. I used your "Minion Method" and it worked well. At that time, I thought I could get a 12-14 hour burn on one load of charcoal. Gotta love em!

Take care and enjoy your BBQ
 
I'm with ya Jim!! I never let the WSM come up to temp unless it is very cold out. I throw everything in there right after dumping the coals on, fill with water and let her rip!

The biggest problem I had was lowering the temp once it got too high...hard to do. By doing the above, it helps to slow the climb up in temp and then it is much easier to stabilize at 225?(I tend to be pretty anal about keeping around 225?! LOL). Just start closing the vents back when around 190?.

Also, I will keep the few lit coals inside the "shadow" of the water pan..so in effect doing something similar as with the coffee can.

In the end..do whatever works for you and your circumstances.
 
Ron Lutz in his book "Watcha Need to Know to BARBEQUE Like a Pro" describes the same method for the WSM using a large coffee can. He does not go into much about burn time or stirring the coals. He uses this method with all hardwood briquetts or lump surrounding the can with 30 or so lit briquetts in the can. He is not a fan of mixed w/clay briquetts like Kingsford. If I could find a source of all hardwood briquetts or oak lump I'd try them. So far Kingsford has never let me down and the Minion method has sure given me some remarkable burn times.
 
Must be my geographical location, elevation, climate etc.,....but I always have to keep all 3 bottom vents wide open and the lid vent wide open. Works perfect every time this way and the temp in the lid stays at 250. If I close 1 vent, the temp drops too much. The only time the temp gets hotter than 250 is when I open the door.

When I first bought my WSM's and fired them up, I was going by the 2 vents open, 1 closed method and I could never get the smoker up to 250. I have read many posts from people saying that they have to close vents because their temp is too high, but I hardly ever read posts from people with similar situation as mine. Maybe the mountains, elevation has something to do with it.

This can make it more difficult for me if it is windy outside, because I can't close any vents...but I always keep the smokers in front of the garage under the overhang to block the wind and that seems to work great.

Anybody else have to always keep all the vents open? Just curious.
 
Bruce
I do remember you talking about the raceway.
Stogie
Not to let any secerts out but putting on the meat at the very start also gives you a larger smokering, not something that is to be considered in judging but I keep hearing judges mention that this entry or that had no or very small smokering. Go figure.
I also will wait to put on food or change the lite up if I'm going for a higher temp cook.
fjt
It's got to be lump deal just hasn't proved to make any difference in the end product.
Jim
 
Rocky, I have been thinking about this all morning, about what Jim has said about his vents. What I said about my vents is exactly the way "I" do it and it works from me. Now, I used to live in Puyallup and Graham, Washington and did so for 10 years. So I know what weather conditions Jim is talking about - lots of cold humidity, wind and rain. On the other hand, I now live in Tucson, Arizona and believe it or not, I do not have to contend with cold, humidity, rain and especially the wind. For some reason, we get very little wind where I live, so wind is not a problem with my vents.

You might be on to something about "local conditions." Perhaps some of us might take some measured readings when cooking with the WSM and report back. Like weather temp, humidity, opening of vents, lid temperature, local elevation, brand of charcoal (I do think the kind of charcoal used makes a big difference), etc, etc.

It is clear there are "many roads to Rome" and it is clear we all seem to do things differently and that is good. It would be boring if we all did it the same and had nothing to talk about.

Take care and enjoy your BBQ!
 
Hi Bruce,
Yeah, there has to be some kind of condition that affects the use/non-use of the vents. I have had to leave all the vents open for every cook I have done on my WSM's. So, I don't think the outside temp or humidity had alot to do with it because I have cooked during hot weather and cold weather as well as dry and humid....and still always have to keep all the vents open.

I only use Kingsford charcoal in my WSM's and using new or old bags didn't seem to make any difference either (except for how long the coals took to light completely).

In a way...I am glad that I have to leave all the vents open...because I never have to adjust anything. I also load the meat as soon as the lit coals are added on top of the unlit coals, and I fill the water pan with cold water (I use the Brinkmann 2 gal. pan). The smoker is up to 250 within 5-10 minutes after putting on the smoker lid.

My brisket, beef ribs and sausage all turned out great....those fresh Kielbasa and Bratwurst are really good. I chopped up some green bell peppers and onions and put them in a small metal bowl with some olive oil...and let them smoke/cook alongside the sausages as they were smoking.
 
I just checked my altitude here where I am, just south of Albany. It looks like 275ft. above sea level. I keep the cooker well out of the wind, on a two sided outdoor porch with roof. The open sides of the porch face North, and West. Like I said I use lump exclusively, which will run a bit hotter than charcoal, and I cannot think of anytime that I had the bottom vents more than half open, when using the water pan. I run my cooker a bit hotter, usually at 250-270 for most things that I cook. But on another subject, if my cooker starts to spike, as is sometimes not unusual with lump, I do not hesitate to ease the top vent closed. At the same time, the bottom vents are also tweaked individually, equal-distance to the closed position. Contrary to what the Owners Manual says, this has provided a fairly quick, and safe way to start bringing the temperature down. I know there is some disagreement on this subject, but if done carefully, you can continue to keep the fire burning cleanly, and at the same time get the fire under control.
A bit surprised on the topic of putting meat right on the cooker at start up. I was not happy with my results doing that. I start with cold water, and let the cooker get to 225? before putting anything on. I'll do a few test runs on the other method, and see if my tastes have changed.
 
The elevation here is 3,000 ft. Maybe that has something to do with having to keep my vents open.

With my Klose pit, I keep the intake vents (firebox) between 1/4 to 1/2 open....and I keep the exhaust vent cut back about 1/3 to 1/2. I have a big 8" smokestack on this pit.
 
Rocky, Please accept the following as straight forward advice with no flames intended.

I read your last post in this thread and noticed you mentioned that "With my Klose pit, I keep the intake vents (firebox) between 1/4 to 1/2 open....and I keep the exhaust vent cut back about 1/3 to 1/2. I have a big 8" smokestack on this pit."

Dave Klose recommends that the only time the exhaust vent cover should be used at all is when the unit is not in use. The cover is there to prevent rain/moisture and possibly animals and insects from entering the cooking chamber when it is not being used.

I had a chance to cook with Dave and his team at this last year's American Royal. Dave does not burn straight wood in his cookers either. He uses mainly lump charcoal for heat and adds wood for smoke flavoring every 90 minutes or so, but the majority of his heat source is lump charcoal.

But I too have had times when I have had to run my WSM with the vents wide open to get the WSM to a cooking temperature of 250F on the top grate. I have found this occurs when one or more of the following take place: high winds, ambient temperatures of less than 30F or a large amount of meat on the cooker.

Beers to you,

Juggy D Beerman
 
Hi Juggy,
That is kind of odd, because when Dave delivered my pit, I specifically asked him about this. That almost everybody says that they keep the exhaust vent wide open all the time. Dave said...NO...Quote "Keep it cut back about 1/4 -1/2". You can ask Dave why he said this if you don't believe me.

Works great for me anyway.

I have tried it both ways, and the exhaust vent wide open or partially shut didn't seem to affect the temp at all.

When people mainly use lump in their offset pits, do they add unlit lump to the lit stuff? Or do they start a chimney of lump and add it? Or do they keep a big grill around to light a big batch of lump and just scopp the lit stuff out and add it to their firebox's?

Most of the times I used my WSM's, it has been pretty cold out, but today it got up to about 60 degrees outside, and I still had to keep all the vents of my WSM wide open. Didn't have a huge load of meat smoking either, just a 5 lb Butterball chicken on the bottom rack, and 5 lbs of country-style ribs on the top rack. wasn't windy out at all today.

I don't mind keeping all the vents open in my WSM, actually..it makes using it really easy...lol...I never have to adjust anything.

The chicken was done around 2:30 pm 4 hours

The ribs were done at 3:30 pm 5 hours

Added a finishing sauce to the ribs 30 minutes before taking them off.

The lump worked great, but I would have had to add more if I had been smoking brisket or butts. I'd say the coals lasted about 8 hours though. Not bad for Lump.

Thanks
 
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