Re: [CH] [OT again] chimney starters
Dana Myers (dana.myers@gmail.com)
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:48:42 -0800
On 11/25/2010 9:48 AM, Jim Graham wrote:
> Ok, new ECB (modified per the standard 3 mods that everyone pointed me to
> a few months ago) question: To bring the temp DOWN while smoking, do I
> want to open the door on the side? Or will that make it hotter? It's
> sitting at 300�F with the water pan in the smoker (and water in it). I
> want to smoke the bird during a slow finish...not roast it with 300�F
> smoke.
More airflow == hotter fire, less airflow == cooler fire.
I'm pretty sure the ECB you're using has no adjustable dampers
which severely limits your options for temperature control. Basically,
you need to control the amount of fuel that's burning, by controlling
the amount of fuel in the cooker and how the fuel is arranged, because
you can't control the airflow.
I'd suggest something like arranging fuel in a ring, then igniting
a relatively small amount of fuel in a chimney and pouring it into
the center of the unlit fuel (google "Minion Method"). Still,
with no damper control, it's very easy for this fire to get away
from you and run hot since you have no way to control it. In
particular, let the fire come up to temperature slowly, don't add
a lot of burning fuel to kick it along. You'll never get it back.
You might use a pair of tongs to re-arrange the coals to slow the
fire down.
I've never tried this but you might try blocking the lower vents
on the ECB with some aluminum foil, but be careful to avoid burning
yourself.
Opening the door is a double-whammy - it'll let the hot air out
so the temperature will drop, but it will let cold, fresh air flow
in and the fire will burn (much) hotter when you close the door
again.
My experience with ECBs (or any other cooker that doesn't have
adjustable dampers and doesn't seal-up adequately for the fire
to go out when all dampers are closed) is this:
If the cooker wants to run at 300F, it's going to run at 300F
and that's the temperature you're going to cook at.
(I've probably mentioned before that I prefer the Weber bullets.
Expensive up-front but they just work. Add a power-draft controller
and they just work like an appliance, set the temperature and go to
bed or whatever)
> Oh, and my second round of coals and the transfer went almost flawless.
> As before, I had to light a second set of crumbled paper---the first
> batch just burns up in a heartbeat. The second bunch ignites the coals.
> Am I missing something? Or just not using enough paper?
Sometimes I need to use two batches of paper to ignite a chimney-load,
it depends on how long the charcoal has been sitting around soaking-up
humidity. Usually a freshly-opened bag of charcoal ignites easily
and a bag that's been open a long time doesn't.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dana