Struggling with temp - Help!

[bigriggers]

Hi all,

I'm trying to do my first pulled pork today in a cheap kettle BBQ I bought from Argos a few days ago (usually a gas man, arf arf). This one to be precise.

Anyway I'm having real trouble getting it up to temp and staying there. I'm trying the snake method with charcoal briquettes (bar-be-quicks), but everytime I get the first bunch of coals nice and hot, I put the lid on and they start to go out! Or more accurately, they climb to a certain temp (204F for my last attempt) and then start to cool down. I assume it is some airflow problem. My vents are fully open and there is no ash build up at this point, so nothing being clogged.

When I take the lid off the coals start to burn again after 10 minutes or so.

What am I doing wrong?

ps. I started a thread on the bbq brethren forum first - I didn't notice that my activation email for this place had gone into my spam folder... There are a couple of photos in the thread if that helps.

[Gary Morris]

Sounds like there's not enough air getting in, can you or have you got all the vents (if there are any) open to start off with?
I had a similar experience and found that by opening all the vents; worked, then you can partialy close them to get the desired temp. Have to say I'm a bbq begginer and someone is sure to give their advice.

I'm not sure what the 'snake' method is (well not regarding BBQ'ing ) I just fill the fire box with briquettes with a bit of a hump in the centre, place 3 fire lighters in the 'just off centre position' - light it, wait 20 mins, then put the lid on and go from there - the temp soon reaches 225°f - 250°f. Hope this helps.

Gary

[bigriggers]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, vents were all open although I did experiment with a few configurations, none of which seemed to work!
Ironically now it's still sat at 240F 4 hours later, after I shuffled some of the coals into a big heap on one side. Meat has been taken out for the oven though - I'd have left it in but it wouldn't have been done in time for my guests.

I think perhaps I should have left the lid off for longer after putting the hot briquettes on, in order for them to get going a bit more.

The snake is where you stack coals along the rim of the grate, also known as the ring of fire. I think the theory is that it takes a long time to get round the ring, so perfect for a long cook. Not a glowing recommendation given my experience above, but it was my first time and other folks have had success with it.

Here's my "snake".

[Gary Morris]

Nice one, thanks - I see what you mean. I think sometimes you just need to do it a few times and you get a picture of how it works / times etc. and what to do and not to do, most important thing is to enjoy it.

I have wsm, and is the same thing basically. My 1st try I followed the instructions on the sheet and filled the firebox thingy, it worked well with a constant temperature around 245°f average (ish). 2nd time I thought I was a pro, by now and only half filled it, the result was I couldn't get it up to temp and it hovered around 180°f.

I'm not sure if yours has one but if you fill the water bowl up, it says it will give a better temperature distribution and prevent it from getting too hot.

Mind, I've just remembered you said 240°f for four hours which is about spot on I think, so you just need to do the same next time and tweak it a bit. (only if you like tweaking though)

It may be blasphemous to say on here, but you can always finish it off in the oven / grill / microwave - if times are out a bit, and with experience this will become a thing of the past.

Gary

[bigriggers]

Yeah I think (hope ) practice makes perfect, which is good as I've cooked dinner on it for the past 3 days. I have after all got 25kg briquettes / lumpwood to test out.

God knows how but I managed to cook a stonking pizza on it the other day with some terracotta tiles. This was my "I'm a pro" moment, I tried to replicate it the following day and it was disastrous.