Question for Stoker users with KK

[hOTSAUCE]

Me again, I omitted to ask about partial fire starting on my last posting.

I understand what the minion method is, I googled it and got educratereded .

Here is how I thought I would start a small fire for a long cook and why. I thought I would pile charcoal in basket with large chunks in the bottom and small on top and also intermingle a few pieces of wood for smoke. I would than start several lumps of coal in a chimney to put on top of the pile in the KK. My reasoning is shouldn't charcoal be well and completely lit ( all grey ) before cooking with it. My other concern even with well lit starting charcoal on top, will not the charcoal underneath when first igniting produce a nasty black sooty smoke?

[Firemonkey]

Hey Hotsauce, Your proposed method is exactly what you want to do. Just be careful with how much lit charcoal you pour on top.

Making sure that charcoal completely ashes over before using it only applies to briquettes, since they have binders and additives that must be burned off or they will give an off flavor to your food. Since you are using lump, which is just pure burned-up wood, you dont have this issue.

[ThreeDJ16]

FYI Hotsauce, maybe if you are not using a forced air device it might be more important, but I have never worried about my charcoal stacking too much. I try to have some big pieces on the bottom simply to keep the small ones from falling through or choking the air, but in general, I just dump the bag in push down the smoke wood in three locations and fire it up! I think using a Guru or a Stoker, since the air is moving faster for the burst when it runs, makes it easier for the fire to transition from piece to piece. Anyway, I am trying to remember, but I can really only think of once I had a fire go out (and that was on my metal smoker and my Guru let me know).

-=Jasen=-

[WoodieB]

And pardon me if this is not quite on topic, but I recently did a 24 1/2 hour low & slow on my KK with no Guru or Stoker. I cleaned it out completely, stacked big pieces on bottom, medium filling in, smaller on top. Nothing too anal, but a little more careful than just dumping them in. I put a few chunks of hickory on, and lit the lump in 3 places with a Mapp torch, about 1 minute at each spot. When the temp hit about 200 I closed the top vent down to 1/4 turn open, bottom damper door closed, dial open about 1/8". This setting stayed around 220-230 the whole time. There were one or two occasions when I had to make a minor adjustment, but I went to bed, slept all night, temp at 220 in the morning. The 14.5 lb. of butt hit 190 after 24.5 hours and rivaled anything I've had from the big pits where I grew up in KY.

So.......

Don't know if I was lucky or if this is just a testament to the quality of the KK, but for now, I don't see any need to get a Stoker or Guru. And I really dig the "analog" nature of checking the temp, making a minor adjustment, drink another homebrew..........Next time may be different, but for now, I'm going full manual control. I did do a much smaller, 8-9 hour low & slow to get the hang of it first.

Hot, I'd try one without electronic aid first to see how you like it before you make the leap. But that's just my $.02

[hOTSAUCE]

Thank you everyone, this has been a great post, many informative replies

with good sound advise from experieced KK cookers. Should be helpful to many novice cookers beside myself.

So for the time being I am going to postpone purchasing a force air device and play around with manual settings and see if I can the hang of it.

[Greg_R]

The main point of my original post is that you shouldn't get one of these and think that the KK is going to act like an oven all of a sudden. Proper coal setup and management is still a requirement. In other words, learn to use the Minion method and the draft settings. The Stoker (or Guru) is a nice backup option for overnight cooks / peaceful sleeps but it does not replace basic use know-how of the KK (or any cooker for that matter). Example: if I light my lump with the gas attachment then I will never be able to keep the temp low enough in my KK (to much stuff is lit).

[ThreeDJ16]

The main point of my original post is that you shouldn't get one of these and think that the KK is going to act like an oven all of a sudden. Proper coal setup and management is still a requirement. In other words' date=' learn to use the Minion method and the draft settings. The Stoker (or Guru) is a nice backup option for overnight cooks / peaceful sleeps but it does not replace basic use know-how of the KK (or any cooker for that matter). Example: if I light my lump with the gas attachment then I will never be able to keep the temp low enough in my KK (to much stuff is lit).[/quote']

Others experiences may differ from the one above. I never worry about charcoal placement, just dump and go using my Guru. Also never had an issue using gas and lighting from the bottom provided you only use it 90-120 seconds. And using both of these techniques (or lack there of - hehe) I have not had any issues with an overnight or maintaining low temps. Always remember when using a Guru, let it do the work.

-=Jasen=-

[PaulR]

Others experiences may differ from the one above. I never worry about charcoal placement, just dump and go using my Guru. Also never had an issue using gas and lighting from the bottom provided you only use it 90-120 seconds. And using both of these techniques (or lack there of - hehe) I have not had any issues with an overnight or maintaining low temps. Always remember when using a Guru, let it do the work.

-=Jasen=-

Hi Jasen, I reckon you have your burner optimized a bit better than mine. But a 15 minute blast gets mine to 250F (it's winter and bloody cold here) after which I stop the gas and let it come up to temp (or not... for a slow cook); and yep use the guru and set the top to 1/4 open....

[ThreeDJ16]

Others experiences may differ from the one above. I never worry about charcoal placement, just dump and go using my Guru. Also never had an issue using gas and lighting from the bottom provided you only use it 90-120 seconds. And using both of these techniques (or lack there of - hehe) I have not had any issues with an overnight or maintaining low temps. Always remember when using a Guru, let it do the work.

-=Jasen=-

Hi Jasen, I reckon you have your burner optimized a bit better than mine. But a 15 minute blast gets mine to 250F (it's winter and bloody cold here) after which I stop the gas and let it come up to temp (or not... for a slow cook); and yep use the guru and set the top to 1/4 open....

Yeah, but I am not using the burner to get it up to temp, I am only using it to start the charcoal. I usually have the lid open too. So the 90-120 seconds is just to light a small amount of charcoal on the bottom. But yeah, my burner is definitely tweaked...hehe.

-=Jasen=-

[PaulR]

Yeah, but I am not using the burner to get it up to temp, I am only using it to start the charcoal. I usually have the lid open too. So the 90-120 seconds is just to light a small amount of charcoal on the bottom. But yeah, my burner is definitely tweaked...hehe.

Just checked today and it reached 200 in ten minutes...

Stopped the gas at 15 minutes and at the 25 minute mark the thermometer hit 400. Kept the lid closed all the time but had the top opened 3 turns and the bottom fully opened (including an open guru port).

Do you get similar times or is it really quicker to have the lid fully opened?

PS Got an aussie rub in Cairns and used it today.....pretty good

[ThreeDJ16]

Yeah, but I am not using the burner to get it up to temp, I am only using it to start the charcoal. I usually have the lid open too. So the 90-120 seconds is just to light a small amount of charcoal on the bottom. But yeah, my burner is definitely tweaked...hehe.

Just checked today and it reached 200 in ten minutes...

Stopped the gas at 15 minutes and at the 25 minute mark the thermometer hit 400. Kept the lid closed all the time but had the top opened 3 turns and the bottom fully opened (including an open guru port).

Do you get similar times or is it really quicker to have the lid fully opened?

PS Got an aussie rub in Cairns and used it today.....pretty good

Don't really know as I only experimented using the gas and tracking the temp that one time. Every time I use it for cooking, I simply hit the gas for 90-120 secs for a low temp or 4-5 minutes for a high temp (lid open either way).

Now, when I experimented with gas/temp temp stuff. Naturally it will get hotter faster with the lid closed and damper only open 1/2 turn (holds in the heat and just enough open for exhaust flow). But generally in lighting charcoal, I just leave the lid open out of habit.

-=Jasen=-