About my first 3 cooks (advice welcome)

[Ron Cross]

Hey guys! So if you saw my intro post you know I just bought my first kettle.  I'm in the learning phase, of course.

So for my first cook I smoked 2 slabs of ribs. I used the bank + bricks method. I had a bit of trouble getting the temp to settle in, partly because I'm so new to Kettles. But I'm also pretty sure I was probably not waiting long enough for adjustments to take effect. I was looking for somewhere between 225 and 250. I had the bottom and top vents both at around a quarter open. It it felt like it was taking forever for the temp to get above 200. It finally did though, and  stayed between there and 225 for the rest of the cook.

I wrapped them at 3 hours and the internal temp was around 150 then. They didn't seem like they were making much progress to me though, like they were cooking too low.  After two hours wrapped they were looking much better, pulling away from the bones and IT was around 190. I gave it another hour unwrapped and then pulled them off.  All in all they came out pretty good, but I felt like they weren't in the sweet spot long enough.

Next I decided to just take a day to experiment with some temp control using charcoal and no meat. I set up a snake method this time, two wide and two high. By then I had done some youtube searching and learned about the concept of only using the bottom damper to control temp and leaving the top vent wide open. So I got about 5 coals lit and placed them at the end of the snake. Then I just sat there making adjustments and watching how long it took.

This time I started with the bottom vent at a quarter open and the top vent wide open. Again it seemed like it was taking the grill grate temp a long time to get to temp, but maybe it was the whole "watched pot never boils" thing. One thing I noticed right away though was that with the top vent wide open the smoke was was much cleaner. It even smelled sweeter. There was definitely a difference that, at least for me, gave a lot of validity to the whole "stale smoke" thing. I used applewood chuncks both times and the smell was definitely different on this test run.

Anyway, so I kept fiddling with the bottom vent until it went up to 250 and stayed there for a while until I finally closed both vents to shut it down. Thinking I'd figured it out, I set out to do another cook. this time I'd smoke some wings. Using info I "thought" I'd learned from the first two attempts (lol) I set up another snake. I wanted to be around 275 for the wings so I thought adding another layer to the snake would do it. I went two wide, two high and then I put another single layer across the top.

Seeking to fix the whole "slow crawl to temp" thing I set the bottom temp wide open, thinking this would help it get to temp faster. Then I could just gradually back down. Well that didn't happen! It was really taking a long time to get to temp. It never got there in fact, and I had both vents wide open the whole time. I was losing time and lots of great smoke, so I put the wings on anyway and let them go for an hour to an hour and a half. After that I took them off and seared them a bit on the gas grill, since I really didn't have a hot side on the kettle.

They turned out great. Great smoke flavor, great color. But aside from the fact that the bank method is probably the one I'll be using moving forward, I"m not sure I learned much about quickly getting the grill up to temp and then maintaining it. I think I had more problems with getting it there though rather than maintaining it once it got there.

I'll be doing much more smoking than grilling on my kettle so this part is important for me to master. And FWIW, I'm definitely the set-it-and-forget it type. I don't want to fiddle with mine every half hour. I want to set it up, get it to temp then park myself on the deck with a nice drink and some good music, just watching the smoke roll and smelling the sweet aroma. Comments and advice welcome!

[1buckie]

Good show Ron!!

Nice idea just doing a test & playing w/the vents and watching what happens......

Only thing ( maybe) I can see you could try a little different is use just a few more coals starting up.......5 might be slightly too few to get things up & running smoothly.....

Example: The other day I had a good size pork butt I wanted to run thru pretty quickly ( instead of an overnite cook, a morning thru early afternoon finish)
I piled a snake up really heavy, like 5 deep & three across, piled about 15 or more lit coals on the right end & left all vents wide open..... the lit included some recycled coals from a previous cook so not as much as 15 full ones at startup.......
It ran up pretty high, like 300-325 most all the way thru the cook & came out fine.....I save the loose chip from lump charcoal that would ordinarily be too small & fall thru the grates & sprinkle them over the top of the briquettes to add some "burn insurance".......
Seems you're on the right track, maybe just get a tad bit more bold & ramp up the starting heat/number of coals a bit.....

Another thing you might check into or think about is what your outside air moisture & temp is....don't know where you're at, but if it's damp, that will have some effect.....both on the cooking process & even on stored charcoal which will suck up moisture like a sponge...

[Ron Cross]

Hey 1buckie, great advice! I was kinda thinking along the same lines. I saw someone comment somewhere that the snake method is all they use, for everything. So I figured making it bigger or smaller according to the temp you want would be the the way to go. But using more lit coals to start it was something I hadn't thought of. I used 5 because I kept seeing people using that number of coals at the beginning. But that makes perfect sense.

As far as the outside temp, I live in Texas. That particular day it was in the 60s I think, so not very hot and not much moisture. But humidity is definitely a think here during the Summer months. I'll try your advice next cook and let you know the results. Thanks for the reply!

[1buckie]

Howdy Ron....

Check into a thread by AJ328. called "rib basics".  I there I've got several pics of some coal sets including two short snakes running opposite directions, meat down the middle.....you just turn the grate a bit as the coals burn off & your goods are either above burnt down, or unburnt coals at all times.....

I can't figure out how to copy links on this fool iPad I'm using, so just do a quick search...other folks have some grate input there also.....

[michaelmilitello]

+1 on starting with more coals.  If I am doing a snake lns, at startup, I'll leave the vents all wide open till I get a little over 200 then start to close the bottom down to 1/4.  Tops stays wide open.  I can get a faster startup by slightly cocking the lid to get more airflow.   A metal skewer will also help prop the lid. 


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[MikeRocksTheRed]

+1 on starting with more coals.  If I am doing a snake lns, at startup, I'll leave the vents all wide open till I get a little over 200 then start to close the bottom down to 1/4.  Tops stays wide open.  I can get a faster startup by slightly cocking the lid to get more airflow.   A metal skewer will also help prop the lid. 


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This!!!!  Start with a little more coal, and run both vents wide open, then start shutting down the bottom as you approach your desired temp.  If you want to go back to banking the coals I'd start off similar, start shutting the bottom down as you approach your desired temp and also close off the top a little bit.  Since you have more coals around the lit ones, you have to shut the airflow down more than with the snake to keep your temps steady.  When I first got my slow n sear I had problems with temps going too hot because I didn't read the instructions about shutting the top vent a little bit.