i cook all my food in the kitchen or with gas grill outside. no experience with charcoal.

just bought a smokey joe silver because i want that charcoal taste and i cook for 2 to 3 people max. i also bought a chimney starter and some kingsford charcoal so i am ready to go this weekend.

as i understand it, 20 to 30 brickettes to one side of grill for direct heat, the other side will be for indirect heat side.

place lid on with the vents on the opposite side of the charcoals. correct?

p.s. i know i will need to learn the bottom and lid vents with dif cuts of meat or vegetables and believe me, i will start a thread on that. im going step by step.

ive seen many videos and posts that are conflicting.

many recommend layering the charcoal all across the charcoal grid. but, then many folks recommend layering the charcoals on only half of the charcoal grid, for indirect heat. as you can see i am very confused.

if this thread is asking too many questions please post a couple of links that will help.

Brandy -

Sounds like a great weekend! On the SJS, there is one vent on the bottom of the grill and one on the top of the grill.

I leave the bottom vent open and control the heat with the top vent.

The SJS is so small I don't really do indirect cooking on the SJS. I pretty much cover the charcoal grate with coals (and I usually use briquettes instead of lump in the SJS because I don't have an extra charcoal grate to put on top of the original to keep the smaller pieces from falling through).

Just remember that practice makes perfect and that with charcoal, you don't get that instant heat control like you do with gas.

Have fun!!!

Pat

quote:

I leave the bottom vent open and control the heat with the top vent.

What he said is good advise. Manage your temps with the top vent. This grill can do alot including indirect, if you have a way to bank the coals. Otherwise, using the vent has a quick effect on temp control.

Just fire her up and go for it...it's easy to use. Have fun!

read all the posts here on the sj's. more info than you want. i just went to lump and love what it does in the sj. most cooks are gonna be so quick that no vent control is really needed unless doing a longer indirect cook. i love cooking on the sj's but i have a feeling that you will be looking for a 22.5 " kettle rather quickly for the great q you can get from them. only way is to cook, cook, cook.