I just thought I'd follow up again on this post to tie up the loose ends in case anybody else with a Judge (or any other charcoal grill) is having some trouble.
I'm almost 4 hours into a pork shoulder. Not gonna go into the details of that because this post is about the temperature control. I think I've got it dialed in.
The key things for me:
1. Start with a cold grill. Don't dump a chimney full of hot coals into the grill. Stack the fuel for the fire in the grill, light it in the grill. Leave the intake and exhaust wide open. Since the judge has a front door to access the fire I also leave that open. It's much easier to make a grill hotter than it is to cool it down.
2. Use lump coal, not briquettes. It's so much more flexible, because you don't have to burn off impurities before cooking over lump. This means you can add cold lump charcoal straight to the fire when it's running low, instead of having to light another chimney of briquettes. You might now be saying to yourself, "What about the snake method?" I could never get that dialed in just right. It would either burn too hot or too cold, and making a snake in the square box of the Judge doesn't work so well. You end up running out of fuel and you're back at square one, lighting a chimney, and having to wait for the snake to burn off its acrid smoke, except now your food is on and it's getting it all. Another thing I've found about lump is that it's much more responsive to changes in air flow. If I choke off the exhaust to cool off the fire a bit it'll almost immediately react. Same in the other direction if I open things up.
3. Pay attention to where your grill is and which direction the wind is blowing. If wind is blowing in a way that it pushes air into your grill, it's going to run hotter than you expect. I've started putting my grill perpendicular to the way wind blows in my back yard, and behind my mango tree which breaks the wind up a bit, even if I don't have the grill right next to it.
Some things that don't seem to matter:
- The grill still leaks smoke from the sides. It's not a lot, but it's definitely noticeable. However, I'm not having any trouble maintaining temperature.
If you're reading this and you're having trouble, I hope this helps!
I'm almost 4 hours into a pork shoulder. Not gonna go into the details of that because this post is about the temperature control. I think I've got it dialed in.
The key things for me:
1. Start with a cold grill. Don't dump a chimney full of hot coals into the grill. Stack the fuel for the fire in the grill, light it in the grill. Leave the intake and exhaust wide open. Since the judge has a front door to access the fire I also leave that open. It's much easier to make a grill hotter than it is to cool it down.
2. Use lump coal, not briquettes. It's so much more flexible, because you don't have to burn off impurities before cooking over lump. This means you can add cold lump charcoal straight to the fire when it's running low, instead of having to light another chimney of briquettes. You might now be saying to yourself, "What about the snake method?" I could never get that dialed in just right. It would either burn too hot or too cold, and making a snake in the square box of the Judge doesn't work so well. You end up running out of fuel and you're back at square one, lighting a chimney, and having to wait for the snake to burn off its acrid smoke, except now your food is on and it's getting it all. Another thing I've found about lump is that it's much more responsive to changes in air flow. If I choke off the exhaust to cool off the fire a bit it'll almost immediately react. Same in the other direction if I open things up.
3. Pay attention to where your grill is and which direction the wind is blowing. If wind is blowing in a way that it pushes air into your grill, it's going to run hotter than you expect. I've started putting my grill perpendicular to the way wind blows in my back yard, and behind my mango tree which breaks the wind up a bit, even if I don't have the grill right next to it.
Some things that don't seem to matter:
- The grill still leaks smoke from the sides. It's not a lot, but it's definitely noticeable. However, I'm not having any trouble maintaining temperature.
If you're reading this and you're having trouble, I hope this helps!
