Kettle searing setup with charcoal baskets.

[Jonas-Switzerland]

So I've been searing some swiss beef, which is very lean for american standards. My setup is I fill the two charcoal baskets with lit lump, and then do a reverse sear.

That worked. And I feel like having a lump bunched up on top of each other gives me a higher temperature. Not sure though.

I have trouble with fattier meats. The lump is very close to the grates. Flareups burn part of my meat before I get an even crust.

Do you guys fill the CB for searing, or use them upside down as separation between hot and cool zone? How high do you stack lump?

 

[timothy]

Hard to tell but those look like big chunks of lump?

 

[Brett-EDH]

So I've been searing some swiss beef, which is very lean for american standards. My setup is I fill the two charcoal baskets with lit lump, and then do a reverse sear.

That worked. And I feel like having a lump bunched up on top of each other gives me a higher temperature. Not sure though.

I have trouble with fattier meats. The lump is very close to the grates. Flareups burn part of my meat before I get an even crust. View attachment 114986

Do you guys fill the CB for searing, or use them upside down as separation between hot and cool zone? How high do you stack lump?

Offset the CB to one edge of the kettle. This will give you more space for indirect so you can move between direct and indirect.

The fatty meats will burn so you have to move fast, or trim some of the fat off pre cook.

I have this challenge when doing rack of lamb, which I’ll be doing tonight. You just have to stay on top of it.

Also reduce the amount of coal used. That will help with less heat and less flare ups.

And yes, denser coal does reduce more heat.

 

[Brock Gingery]

Question for you Jonas, are you searing with the lid off, or closed?

Yes, concentrated coals will produce more heat, like a charcoal Chimney effect. It's why the vortex accessories work the way they do. My first suggestion would be to use enough coal to maintain at least a 33mm, roughly inch and a half space, at least under the grate, do one piece of meat at a time with the lid closed, only opening long enough to flip every 20 to 30 seconds. Also, no need to lift the lid clean off, more like a light slide to the side.

If your coals don't get hot enough, take the lid off for a few minutes with no meat on, put the lid on to extinguish flames, then as above to sear. I've been able to get temperatures north of 700F in my 22 doing this, but that was with my fuel and the conditions where I was at.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

So, did the birthday cook with properly fatty meats. I did a few changes which made things easier. I lid up the chimney until I had a big, red hot bed of lump, moved the charcoal baskets to the center, and made sure the lump was spread evenly across the basket. It gave me a bit more space between grates and baskets.

The low heat reverse sear was done on the WSM. Mainly for show.

This sort of fixed a few problems that weren't even on the forefront of my mind. I had super hot, and *even* heat across the two charcoal baskets. I never realized I struggled with uneven heat until now. I could flip the meat from one CB to the other, and come to a very even maillard reaction. This allowed the flames to die down on every flip.

I did cook it with mainly lid open. I am going to experiment with lid closed the next time. And honestly, with a less intense fire. Who needs a fancy IR burner when you have a kettle?! Man, the weber tongs were too short!

So I have it sorted out for big cooks, where I just want to use the kettle as a searing station. My previous setup was always with the CB put to one side, and the inside CB was always hotter than the outside one, and I was having hotspots/coldspots. I am not sure what I wanna do for smaller cooks, where I wanna use the kettle for a reverse sear. Having the CBs in the center feels like a hassle for the indirect part of the cook. I'll experiment with moving the baskets mid cook maybe.