Minion ????


 
it's a method of lighting charcoal

basically, you're lighting a big pile of unlit charcoal (full ring in the WSM if you're planning a long cook) with a few pieces of lit charcoal (I use 20-25).

the lit pieces cause a chain reaction and light the rest of the charcoal over a few hours.

I also bury a few pieces of smoke wood in the pile of unlit charcoal.

works great!!!
 
No worries Bob. Minion refers to Jim Minion who started his smoke a specific way which was dubbed "The Minion Method". Basically, you have a load of UNLIT charcoal in your smoker (or grill), you light some in a chminey starter and once those are ready, you dump those ontop of the unlit coals. Give you a long, slow burn.

Here is a link for you to check out.
 
I love the minion -- it works great for just about every type of cook -- for shorter cooks, I just use a greater percentage of lit coals to unlit coals. The big advantage to the minion is that the cooker temperature stays very stable.

A while back I started putting a good fist-sized chunk or two of smokewood in the chimney starter with the briquettes. I wait for the chunks to get black on the outside and just smolder. I think it starts the smoking process right from the git-go. I can usually get a nice 1/4" to 3/8" smoke ring in a brisket this way.
 
I love the Minion method too. I use it exclusively in the WSM. Sometimes on the grill, I will do the "reverse Minion" where I pour out a bed of lit charcoal, and them dump some unlit on top of it.
 
A minion is a small onion.
icon_biggrin.gif
Hahahahaha!
 
Doug D gave me a suggestion concerning this awhile ago. Don't know why I didn't think of it
icon_rolleyes.gif
. Turn your chimney starter upside down. Fill it to the top with charcoal or count out as many briqs' as you like then light.Sooooo much easier to dump on your unlit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top