When I set up my kettle to do a low and slow with the BBQ Baffle, I place aluminum foil over the charcoal grate under the meat and a drip pan under the meat. I also place a "loaf" size pan filled 3/4 with water above the charcoal.

I can get he temps dialed in to 225 fairly quickly and hold them at least through a rib cook.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken Irwin:
A question for those with a BBQ baffle: How close does the vertical portion come to the edges of the kettle?

I'm anxiously awaiting the announcement of a version for the 18.5" kettle.

thanks!

Ken,

A BBQ Baffle for the 18.5" Weber Kettle will go on sale next week.

Regards,

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
Minion Method
BBQ Baffle

HEY! They stole my idea. Actually they probably produced it before I even thought about it. I made one last year at work.

You may also want to consider the Smokinator which converts the 22.5" kettle into a water smoker.

http://smokenator.com/

I finally used my 18.5" baffle. I bought an extra charcoal grate so I could have one dedicated to the Baffle & one for grilling. I safety-wired the baffle in place & put a double layer of heavy foil on the other side of the baffle.

I've cooked a couple of times, beef roast, chicken breasts, salmon & pork loin. Good smoke ring & flavor. I started out with a single layer - about 10 - 12 unlit briquettes, added 8 - 9 lit ones on top, some smokewood and an empty drip tray. I had to choke my One-touch Gold down to about 25% on my eyeballed scale. I need to learn some patience so I don't open it up too much or too quickly and let the temp run away.

I'm happy with it, especially for casual cooks. I'm still hoping I find a WSM at a deal.

I'll try & take some photos next time.

Ken (from Atlanta)

quote:

I also think I'll add a second charcoal basket full of unlit charcoal to the other side. Once the first basket starts to run out of fuel, I'll transfer a few lit coals to the unlit basket. Theoretically, I should get at least 9 hours out of this set-up. The total charcoal used adds up to about a Weber chimney-worth of lump.

A year from now this will probably be known as "the Ridgeway method"

Seriously, this seems like a great way to make best use of the baskets and hinged grill openings of a Weber kettle. It should be possible to ping-pong between the baskets to keep a continuous burn going almost indefinitely.

I have seen a few comments that one nice side-effect of the Minion method is that the initial smoke from lighting the unburned coals doesn't seem to affect the food as much as adding unlit charcoal on top. This may be the same effect as a "top down burn" in a wood stove or masonry heater, where having the fire on top reduces emissions by burning up part of the smoke & creosote from the wood which has not yet fully burned.

That would be an argument for keeping the lit coals on top rather than at the side in order to get the least "acrid smoke effect" -- has anyone experimented with this ?

quote:

Originally posted by David Lohrentz:
I have no idea how this compares to the BBQ baffle, but I put a couple of fire bricks standing on edge as a partition between the coals and the indirect cooking area. I also use one fire brick above the coals as a heat sink. The temps are MUCH more stable this way than without, and much easier to hold a low temp. Yesterday I held at 250 for 8 hours without adding fuel and with very little temp fluctuation except for a spike when the sun hit my kettle.

Cost me about 5 dollars for the fire bricks.

David,

Where did you get the fire bricks? Any particular kind one should look for? Now if I understand this correctly, these absorb heat and therefore help keep the chamber temperature low and stable, correct? But don't they also radiate heat? Would having your brick on top of the coals on the cooking grate next to the meat tend to cook the meat next to it directly? Do you think foiling the brick on top would help at all, allowing the brick to still absorb heat, but cutting down on the heat that is radiated off of it?

Thanks,
Brad

Owners of the BBQ Baffle may want to consider this enhancement. I bought a section of aluminum dryer vent pipe and made a permanent grate cover to use instead of foil.

The vent pipe comes flat and is supposed to be rolled to make a pipe. I made a template with poster board of the grate-side of my Weber with the baffle installed. Using the template, I cut out the aluminum with a pair of scissors and also put some cuts around the edge so it would sit flat. It looked like this before its maiden cook (please excuse the camera strap).

That's a great idea. Looks much better than foil.

Here's the setup I'm trying today, based on all the good info in this thread. Two firebricks across a Performer, running front-to-back so I can pile charcoal on one side and still use the starter on the other side. The pile of unlit charcoal is mostly Nature's Own Basque lump with a few Kingsfords mixed in for luck; the lit charcoal is mostly leftovers from the last cook. I think lighting leftover bits is a bad idea in hindsight -- they're probably going to fall down inside the unlit pile and light in too many places.

Slathered a 3-1/2 pound pork loin sirloin with jerk seasoning -- no time to marinade but I poked lots of holes to get the seasoning into the meat -- and put it on around 10:45 AM. Started with top vents open and bottom vents at 50%... temperature immediately headed for 400 so I'm currently running bottom vents closed and top vents at about 25%. There's a fair breeze which isn't helping.

Just checked after 15 minutes; temp settling to 325 or so, which is probably about right for the sirloin. I'm using this as a practice cook for company tomorrow so will try to keep the temperature around 275 in anticipation of tomorrow's butt. I probably should have used Kingsford rather than lump, but this is my first time using lump so figured I should give it a try

Here's a pic taken while lighting the coals. You can see the gas pipe coming up from the bottom and stopping under the small pile of sorry looking leftover briquettes :



The firebricks were sitting around, left over from building a masonry heater. They measure about 8-1/2" long which is just a tiny bit bigger than ideal -- I would rather be able to slide them a bit towards the top of the picture (less coal space, more food space) but the corners of the bricks hit the kettle.

Anyways, wish me luck. Off to check the temperature again.

EDIT -- D'oh !! I was trying to decide whether to put water in the drip pan or add a separate water pan over the coals and did neither. No wonder it was hot. Just added a large foil pan over the coals with 1/2 inch of cool water.. that should settle things down a bit. The pan also blocks more of the direct heat from the coals (the firebricks handle some of the angles but the top of the roast was still getting direct heat) so should cook a bit more evenly as well.

Hey, there's a WSM smiley. Neat. Now I just need the real thing.



It will be interesting to see how many hours I get from a big pile of lump. Maybe we should have a prize for the best guess. Having zero experience with this, I'm going to guess 6 hours until it becomes pretty apparent I need to add more.

LAST EDIT -- after a bit over an hour the lid thermometer is solidly at 275 like it was welded in place. I'm afraid to lift the lid. Don't know how long this will last but right now it's looking pretty promising. Again, thanks to everyone for all the great advice, I learned something valuable from every post in this thread.

Is it worth stirring the coals with lump or is that really a briquette thing ?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

The pan ran out of water after about 90 minutes and the temperature started going up real fast, but came back down once I refilled the pan. Probably will use a narrower, deeper water pan next time although the big pan controls the temperature VERY well.

EDIT - at 3.25 hours maybe 1/3 of the coals are gone (very rough guess), lid temp holding at 275, internal ~150. I'm starting to feel like it might be safe to start around 4AM tomorrow and go back to bed for a couple of hours.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

Why don't you use a third fire brick on top of the coals instead of the water pan as David suggested? Seems if it serves the same heat sink purpose, it would be much easier than refilling a water pan.

Brad

I only have two firebricks

I will try to pick up a third firebrick tomorrow and give it a try. As with the sand vs. water debate, I think that the water does more than sand or brick (it stops getting hotter at 212F and sucks up energy to boil the water off, while sand & brick just keep getting hotter) but it may be enough anyways.

A big water pan seems like a brute force method of temperature control -- you can have too much fuel burning and the water pan will suck up the heat boiling off water -- but unless the humid air cooks better that heat is just wasted and you would be better off turning the heat down a bit. Having said that, at my level of experience brute force can be helpful.

BTW I had to run out for a couple of hours this afternoon and when I got home a few minutes ago the coals had gone out. There was a fair amount of unburned fuel left, it was just too spread out to light. I suspect that the lower vents were clogged with ash as well, but I forgot to check before moving the control. Internal temp was still 150F so put it in the oven to finish.

At least there was still a bit of water in the pan.

Next time I'll stay close to home or pile more fuel in before leaving.

Having a little "Minion + lump + kettle" disaster here, any advice appreciated.

Same setup as last time; coals piled to one side behind firebricks, water pans (2 smaller ones this time) over the coals, big pile of unlit lump plus a few chunks of apple, 6 chunks of lump lit and placed on top. Worked great last time -- steady 275 at the lid -- but this time I guess a chunk of lit coal fell through the unlit pile and started spreading at the bottom; now about 1/2 the coals are burning and it really wants to be 400F

Haven't put the ribs on yet fortunately.

Bottom vents were 25%, top vents were open. I closed the bottom vents and almost closed the top vents which gets me down to about 300 but short of hitting the coals with a water bottle or removing them from the kettle I'm out of ideas. I figure removing them from the kettle is probably better than wetting them ? Maybe the best approach is to try to separate lit from unlit and start over ?

EDIT -- of course -- close all the vents and hope the coals go out. Tried separating lit from unlit but nearly everything was lit. Fingers crossed.

Still more fun than gas

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

quote:

Originally posted by John Bridgman:
Having a little "Minion + lump + kettle" disaster here, any advice appreciated.

Same setup as last time; coals piled to one side behind firebricks, water pans (2 smaller ones this time) over the coals, big pile of unlit lump plus a few chunks of apple, 6 chunks of lump lit and placed on top. Worked great last time -- steady 275 at the lid -- but this time I guess a chunk of lit coal fell through the unlit pile and started spreading at the bottom; now about 1/2 the coals are burning and it really wants to be 400F

Haven't put the ribs on yet fortunately.

Bottom vents were 25%, top vents were open. I closed the bottom vents and almost closed the top vents which gets me down to about 300 but short of hitting the coals with a water bottle or removing them from the kettle I'm out of ideas. I figure removing them from the kettle is probably better than wetting them ? Maybe the best approach is to try to separate lit from unlit and start over ?

EDIT -- of course -- close all the vents and hope the coals go out. Tried separating lit from unlit but nearly everything was lit. Fingers crossed.

Still more fun than gas

Close all the vents down, my kettle goes out in about 20 mins. when your temp gets below your target, open up the top and see if it comes up, if not just crack open the bottom vents. If you did manage to completly extinguish the fire just light a couple of chunks and start over.

Thanks, Bill. I opened the top vents about 25% after 15-20 minutes and it seemed to come back OK. Ribs are on, holding about 275 right now. I have never been able to hold much below 275 even with a huge water pan so...

... oh crap, forgot to put the drip pan in. Back in a minute

EDIT -- miraculously, lid temp is now holding at 225F. I expect that means the coals will go out any minute... must not lift lid to check every 5 minutes... must not lift lid to check every 5 minutes...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

Sounds like you got it

John, I'm going with the same set up as you right now, about 4 1/2 hours into some spares. This is the first time I tried this method on a performer. I got three fire bricks this morning, and have one on top of the coals instead of the water pan. I have to say, I am very impressed with this set up so far. I have been able to nail 250 according to the handle thermometer the whole time. The bottom vent has been completely closed most of the time. But whether I open that a crack or mess with the top vent, I've been amazed at how responsive this set up is.

I also foiled the side of the charcoal grate without the coals, as they suggest you do using the bbq baffle. No filling a water pan, no adding charcoal...props to David Lohrentz for this firebrick method.

This *ALMOST* makes me think I should hold off on my imminent WSM purchase...ok, I said ALMOST...

Glad to hear you've got things under control...best of luck with your cook.

Brad

Thanks all. The cook was a success, although I had to take the ribs off a bit early 'cause I needed the grill for burgers. Another argument for getting a WSM

Brad, sounds like you have a great setup there. I'll have to pick up a third firebrick and give it a try. I'm going to stay with lump for the unlit but will pack it in more tightly and use briquettes for the initial lit coals. Hopefully those changes will minimize the risk of lit coals falling to the bottom and making a big bottom-up fire instead of a small, long-lasting top-down fire.

Are you using lump or briquettes ?

I use kingsford briquettes. I have never used lump, but would like to do some experimenting with it. I would tend to think in a situation such as turning your kettle into a smoker, charcoal might be better since from what I've read the you will be getting a more consistent long burn with less temp spikes. But then I can't say for sure since i haven't yet tried lump.

Yesterday was my first try with the minion method and it was so great not having to keep adding charcoal every hour or so.

Today I took most of the spares I cooked yesterday to a bbq and reheated them in foil with a little apple juice on the grill, then sprinled them with a little more rub and a thin basting of sweet baby rays on them, then just seared them on the grill. People LOVED them. This is the first time I've pulled off REAL low and slow bbq, and I'm hoping to repeat my success for my dad on father's day.

I've done several sets of baby backs, butts and a brisket with my Performer and the BBQ Baffle. I also did a fantastic 5 lb. pork loin roast the other day. I love the Baffle!

I use exclusively Grove Charcoal lump, and usually cherry or apple wood to smoke from my father-in-law. Hickory also makes an appearance for the brisket.

I don't do anything fancy for the cooks, just start a small pile of lump and usually feed a handfull or two every hour or two. Bottom vent is usally closed all the way or open no more than 15%. Top vent is adjusted as needed, but usually not open more than half. This allows me to keep a pretty solid 250F at the grate. I use a Fluke bead thermocouple clipped to the grate next to the meat to monitor temp.

I never use a water pan.

I'll have to try a Minion-style cook with the lump, but I'm afraid it will get out of control with all that fuel....

Chris