Greetings from Florida

[Big Dawg]

May try to look you up during my next trip down.





BD

[Bart57266]

I used 3/4 pan of Kingsford original, purchased a couple of months ago, and stored outside in humid Florida weather - but inside a deck box.  Lighter fluid is also Kingsford, odorless.  I soaked it pretty good outside the PBC, then immediately placed it inside and lit it.

One thought I had was about the initial burn. It takes a lot of air to support that much flame, much more air than the side vent can supply, so I'm imagining a downdraft of fresh air on one side, feeding the fire. Maybe that downdraft was strong enough to prevent flames from reaching that side of the charcoal pan, so those coals never ignited.  That's why I asked if anyone else had experienced this.


 Maybe I'll light the vent side first next time and see what happens.

[Bart57266]

Well, I haven't sold my PBC yet, and there have been a couple of suggestions I hadn't tried, so I did one more cook with the same meat (chicken leg quarters). This time, however, I changed a whole list of other factors, and guess what? Most of the problems went away.

Here's what changed:
 - Humidity was only 47%, compared to 90%+ in all previous cooks.
 - Bottom vent was open wider (a little less than 1/2, according to PBC instructions).
 - Charcoal pan was lifted 3/8" on small scraps of ceramic tile.
 - Used brand new bag of Kingsford Original, never opened, stored indoors.
 - Used lighter fluid lighting method, lit at four points around outside edges of grate.
 - Two large wood chunks added, between charcoal grate and edges of PBC.
 - Burn-in time was 20 min with lid off, and 80-90% of coals ashed over during that time.
 - Coals were so hot when lid was added, flames were rising from the middle.

And... What I think was the most important change:
 - I trimmed all extra skin and fat from chicken prior to hanging.

There was no excessive dripping or sizzling from the chicken during the cook, no thick white smoke (just thin blue), and NO greasy taste to the chicken - a first for me.

Here's how the barrel temps went:

Hit 311º peak temp a few minutes after adding lid, then it quickly fell.
0:15  272º
0:30  246º
0:45  232º
1:00  227º

Probe was moved to a chicken thigh at this point, and it read as follows:
1:00  159º
1:15  160º
1:30  163º
Cracked the lid (slid sideways) to crisp up the skin
1:45  165º
1:50  169º and a lot more smoke was rolling
Pulled it for dinner

It was delicious, and a lot closer to what I was expecting when purchasing the Pit Barrel.

Bottom line:

 - I think the barrel temps are still dropping too fast, but would like to hear some opinions.
 - Trimming the chicken skin & fat made a huge difference. Less grease drippings = almost no grease taste.

So that's the chicken you've all been raving about!

I've posted these issues in a couple of other threads, so this will be duplicated in them, as well. Hopefully it will help others.

[TwoPockets]

Welcome from Alabama.

[fishingbouchman]

welcome from sw washington