8
Critical Point:When the upper vents are set at 5/16”
and dome temperature is 230-240 °F, the water will be simmer-
ing (not a vigorous boil). Until you understand and are familiar
with your tools and how fast water evaporates, quickly check the
water level every 30 minutes. This is entirely precautionary; at the
5/16”–3/8” setting, water will last about 70 to 90 minutes. Open-
ing up the upper vents increases heat production and also evapo-
rates the water faster!
It is our observation that after about 1.5 to 2 hours, smoke
production will decrease with the Minion Method. We find that
stirring the coals will usually help smoke production. When this
doesn’t work, we add more wood to keep a light blue smoke vent-
ing from the dome.
We strongly advise that every hour you tend to the coals:
open the kettle lid and use the skewer to shift the coals.This ulti-
mately means a more even and controllable temperature. The first
hour the Smokenator™ cavity is still very full, but you knock the
ash off the charcoal and keep its surface area exposed to air. If you
have a one touch system, at about 4 hours, sweep the ash out of the
kettle. This can be done with the lid closed.
Many people worry about lifting the kettle lid and losing
temperature. We don’t worry about it too much. At the most, the
lid is off for only about 2 minutes. The food doesn’t lose tempera-
ture since it is mostly water. (Put a thermometer into a quart of
your hottest tap water and watch how fast the temperature drops in
2 minutes; it’s not very much). Kettle dome temperature recovers
in 5 to 10 minutes.
Shorter Cook Times and More Observations in Temperature
Management
We would recommend using the Minion method, exclu-
sively. If you cook only for a couple hours, closing off the upper
and lower vents will save your unburned charcoal and wood
chunks for the next time.
Youcan place fewer briquettes in the cavity for shorter
cooks at the start-up; just make sure there are unlit coals on the
floor of the charcoal support grill and proceed as the section on the
Minion Method outlines. Figure 10 briquettes at start-up plus 10
per hour, as a rule of thumb.
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