A bigger better basket case

[HoosierKettle]

That works for low and slow. Also see above on my chuck roast cook. It worked great for low and slow


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[kemmons]

Thanks. My question is... how do you guys do low/slow with this? Pile up unlit briquettes and add a few lit ones (Minion) or use starter cubes?


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ive done  both and they both work well.    I prefer to put 6-8 lit coals though. 


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[kettlebb]

Vote one more for lit coals in the minion. Works great.


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[Daveb50]

I made one of these for my 22" and then donated it, and the grill too, to one of my Daughters. Just picked up another 22" for $22, and got another set of baskets to make another 56mpg tray.

[Speedster]

Awesome


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[Mike in Roseville]

Vote one more for lit coals in the minion. Works great.


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Ok...next question.

Minion on a basket like this : add lit coals to the middle or to one end?




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[HoosierKettle]

Yes. For low and slow. I also set top and bottom vents at half.


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[jrob0144]

I always light about 10-12 coals and dump on one end. Then fill the rest of the basket up with unlit charcoal. It burns long enough for me to do a small butt or a few slabs of ribs. Turns out some great meals. If you put an aluminum pan under the food it catches all of the drippings. You can even add water to it to act as a heat sink. Basically a cheap homemade slow n sear. Essentially it functions the same. All the matters is the food tastes good!


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[addicted-to-smoke]

Really neat idea.

Made a big one for my dad's DD-code flat top 26. There's no intention of using it for his Performer.

It's 21" across, and whatever around. I used four #10-24 stainless bolts/nuts, two for the front flat edge and the other two at the curve.



One day I may even cook with it, but probably not this trip. I'd like to modify it later with some expanded steel or something, to fill in the rear gap.

[56MPG]

Nice one! Now that I think about it, and see that top view, we all have spare, past their prime charcoal grates laying around. Why not cut one down to fit the crescent shape and wire it in? Agree the gap is not ideal, but only when it's time to lift out the spent (and unspent) coals after a cook. It's true for the 22.5 version too, but the gap is smaller. I may give that a try myself - I have a 26er version in the works.

[HoosierKettle]

Nice one! Now that I think about it, and see that top view, we all have spare, past their prime charcoal grates laying around. Why not cut one down to fit the crescent shape and wire it in? Agree the gap is not ideal, but only when it's time to lift out the spent (and unspent) coals after a cook. It's true for the 22.5 version too, but the gap is smaller. I may give that a try myself - I have a 26er version in the works.

Another clever solution I overlooked. I had been thinking about ways to close that in and never thought about cutting down a charcoal grate. I think brand new grates only cost $11.  (If you don't already have a spare)


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[addicted-to-smoke]

I don't have anything to easily cut through a charcoal or cooking grates. I find cutting expanded steel annoying also. I'd more likely be scrounging for scrap flat pieces made from anything that's not galvanized.

Or for $15 shipped from Amazon you can sacrifice a pair of Weber char baskets to creatively "fix" other setups like this.

[HoosierKettle]

Yep. Lots of ways to do it. I will say a 4.5" angle grinder is money well spent. I bought an inexpensive one for $30 years ago and it has been very useful for all sorts of home and automotive projects.


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[addicted-to-smoke]

LOL I have one of those and forgot about it. Pretty sure I used it to cut off the busted ash sweeps' nut on my old Performer years ago. Yeah it would rip through a grate. Need to buy a new cutoff blade for it; it's pretty worn down by now. Saved my bacon quite a few times.

[vwengguy]

I'm bumping this up because I want to keep celebrating this effective, cheap mod.  And also because I wanted to share some field data. 

Now the lid thermometer in my SSP isn't especially accurate, but here's what I've found so far:

1 chimney of KBB = at least an hour right at 400 degrees

1 chimney of Kingsford Comp. = at least an hour right at 450. 

The fire brick fence really gives a true indirect heat, and I've been thinking about some kind of 'catch' or 'keeper', because they are prone to falling down once I've got everything set up and I give the grates a quick scrape.  So far some wire bent into a U shape makes a decent clip, but I'll keep working on something better.

Just checking out one of the great posts here and I read about the fire bricks falling ...
What about the Weber Charcoal Rails that come with the 18” grills ?!? Sounds like a perfect fix, and cheap!


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