I had a really good smoke last weekend minus some temperature issues that I attributed to using Kingsford. I ended up with a lot of unburned pieces that I believe were snuffed out by the copious amount of ash produced. This week, I went to Lowes and picked up one of the shaker baskets I've seen discussed here. I started my fire yesterday morning and struggled all morning to keep the temps up above 200 degrees. We had 15mph winds all day and I think that played a role. Around noon, I carefully pulled the basket out and replaced the bottom grate in the SFB. I dumped a load of Best Choice Lump in the SFB and placed the burning coals on top of the lump. Everything was fine from there on out. There was so little ash, I did not have the same problems as last week.
Interesting side note....if you ever pull your charcoal basket out full of hot coals, be careful where you place it! I thought sitting it on the concrete was and okay idea. It was for about one minute and then things started popping and exploding. After I placed the coals back in the SFB, I saw where the heat had caused the moisture in the concrete to blow of the top layer. I've seen that happen in the past and should have known better.
I think from here on out, I will just use the SFB as designed with the good lump charcoal. I don't think the shaker basket has enough volume to keep the temps up if there is any wind or low outside ambient temps.
Here is the pulled pork and chicken I did yesterday. I'll fire her back up around noon to do Dutch's beans, some ABTs and stuffed mushrooms.
Interesting side note....if you ever pull your charcoal basket out full of hot coals, be careful where you place it! I thought sitting it on the concrete was and okay idea. It was for about one minute and then things started popping and exploding. After I placed the coals back in the SFB, I saw where the heat had caused the moisture in the concrete to blow of the top layer. I've seen that happen in the past and should have known better.
I think from here on out, I will just use the SFB as designed with the good lump charcoal. I don't think the shaker basket has enough volume to keep the temps up if there is any wind or low outside ambient temps.
Here is the pulled pork and chicken I did yesterday. I'll fire her back up around noon to do Dutch's beans, some ABTs and stuffed mushrooms.
