You do not taste any charcoal flavor at all. Trust me!! I know we all have those childhood memories of gas flavored burgers but that is not the case!! The PBC is not a normal type UDS smoker. It cooks at higher temps and needs the complete top layer of coals fully lit before cooking. The Minion Method will not work with this barrel cooker.
I am calling on all the PBC owners here to let us know if you have experienced lighter fluid flavor if you followed Noahs instructions on lighting your Pit Barrel Cooker.
Second attempt at this question. Would the lighter cubes work on the PBC? Or do they only work inside a chimney as a paper replacement.
The lighter cubes will not work to ignite the charcoal in the PBC. Not that they wouldn't ignite the charcoal, the correct way is to follow Noah's instructions. The PBC cooks differently than a UDS type barrel smoker and runs at a higher temp. The trick is to get the entire top layer of charcoal in the basket to be at it's peak temp (which is 20 minutes) and also the lighter fluid has completely burnt away.
Trust me everybody, I have used torches and pine sticks and cubes to light my charcoal pits and would never ever think of getting lighter fluid near my charcoal cookers..........but it just simply works in the PBC!!