RustyWedges: I use my
Pit Barrel Cooker for St Louis Ribs, Buffalo Wings and Salmon -- the rest of the stuff I cook on a Lang, with the exception of Chicken, which my wife cooks on a Weber 22.5. I was skeptical about the method Noah suggests for those 3 products, especially the ribs, but decided to give his method a try (check out the video's on their web site). They came out perfect and the were the best I've cooked -- same for the wings and salmon. This is no surprise since Noah spent a lot of time testing his product to determine what works.
Fanning206: I use Lump along with wood chunks in my Lang. Lump burns hotter than regular charcoal. I don't like using regular charcoal because of all the junk they put in it to act as a binder. Competition has a lot less junk. With that being said, I decided to stick with what Noah suggests for the same reason I provided to RustyWedges -- Noah extensively tested the charcoal and knows what works. I'm not saying not to use lump but since it burns hotter you're cooking times will change. I don't cook by time but by temperature so if I used lump I'd have to carefully monitor the product so as to not overcook it.The
PBC maintains a temp around 280* to 295*. Lump and competition will push the temperature over 300* so you'll have to watch what your doing and experiement.
This is unrelated to the topic but one thing I do is load the
PBC charcoal basket with an amount of charcoal appropriate for what I'm cooking. In other words, St Louis ribs is a long cook but wings and salmon are a short cook. The
PBC will cook for 5, 6 or 7 hours on a full charcoal basket, which is a waste of charcoal on a short cook.