Question about adding unlit briquettes


 
B

Brian Dixon

New member
Hi,

Newb here, just got my 18.5 WSM, seasoned it, and made the 'Basic Chicken' beginner recipe per instructions. My feedback is that while it took about 1 hr 20 minutes to finish my chickens (5-lb chickens! And I like to finish chicken at 165 F in the breast), it took the better part of an hour just getting the charcoal ready! It's because you light a full can, dump it in, then add 1/2 a can and wait for it to become all gray before adding wood and starting to cook. I have a second Weber chimney for starting the charcoal ...why not light up 2 cans, each 3/4ths full, and dump them both in at the same time ...seems like it would cut the start-up time in half. I think even lighting the last 1/2 can in the chimney would be faster than doing it per instructions. I think I spent 3-1/2 hours before we were eating chicken ...'cuz I made the spice after splitting and rinsing the chickens (could've done that in advance!), and the light-up process seemed to take a long time...

Lesson: If you want to eat on time, then write down the total start to finish time for a cook and start that many hours ahead of time next time!

Thanks all ...just wondering if there was anything magic about the slow way of lighting things up...

Brian
 
as you suggest I've never understood doing it that way since you are basically burning out the first batch and wasting a decent amount of that fuel. lighting two chimneys works fine. I also will fill the ring halfway with unlit and pour a full chimney of lit on top of it and immediately put food in the chamber and get smoking. I find it starts and stays plenty hot.
 
I agree ...it seems backward to burn out those first coals while waiting for the second layer to light up. And upside down too. Seems like a recipe for what I observed ...high temps followed by a slow decrease. Mine went up to 400 at the grill height (just under - using a Maverick ET-733) then gradually dropped to about 295 by the time the cook was done. Just the opposite of what you'd expect with a big load of unlit coals that have lit coals added on top. Sometimes (all the time), you need to use intuition and not just follow orders. More chicken this weekend :)

Brian
 
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