Minion Method and Lump charcoal

jorrflv · Feb 17, 2013

Does the minion method work with lump charcoal? I am planning on doing a pork butt tomorrow and my wife picked up lump instead of brick. It has been a while since I have used lump, but will it work the same in the UDS or will I have to futz with the temp more? Any advise from those who use Lump in their UDS's?

HeSmellsLikeSmoke · Feb 17, 2013

I only use lump and do minion most of the time. Works great.

Lump burns a little hotter.

landarc · Feb 17, 2013

I have used lump and it works fine. In my UDS, I need to be a little careful and not just dump the lump in, I need to pack it a little bit more.

gtr · Feb 17, 2013

Lump works fine, but you gotta be a little more careful when loading the basket than you do with briqs since the pieces aren't nearly as uniform. It burns hotter and faster, so it's good to keep an eye on your pit temps if you don't normally use lump, but yeah, it works fine and leaves a lot less ash too.

BobM · Feb 17, 2013

Lump will work fine, you might have to tweak the settings you are used to a bit.

Sent from my Android phone.

Hoss · Feb 17, 2013

My small WSM is chugging away now on a load of lump lit on top with a weed burner.I started it at 10 am it is 4 pm here now.been holding a steady 300 temp and still have at least 1/2 of the original load of lump remaining.

jorrflv · Feb 17, 2013

Thank you all for your advice. You confirmed my thoughts, but since we are having people over I wanted to make sure. So I will

1. Pack the coals in tighter to avoid large air pockets.
2. Start with a few less coals in the can than I usually do since it burns hotter.
3. Watch the temps a litter closer and will probably need to close my ball valve a little more than usual.

Anything I missed?

ButtBurner · Feb 17, 2013

jorrflv said:
Does the minion method work with lump charcoal? I am planning on doing a pork butt tomorrow and my wife picked up lump instead of brick. It has been a while since I have used lump, but will it work the same in the UDS or will I have to futz with the temp more? Any advise from those who use Lump in their UDS's?

all lump is not created equal.

What brand of lump is it? Have you opened the bag and looked at it yet?

jorrflv · Feb 17, 2013

ButtBurner said:
all lump is not created equal.

What brand of lump is it? Have you opened the bag and looked at it yet?

It was Royal Oak Lump.

What should I be looking for?

ButtBurner · Feb 17, 2013

jorrflv said:
It was Royal Oak Lump.

What should I be looking for?

thats a pretty solid brand

things to look for are foreign materials in it and the size of the pieces.

I bought a bag of Best of the West and it was 1/4 dust, most of it was very small pieces that burned up very quickly

It was not the Best of the West thats for sure!!!

Just a heads up, you want a nice selection of large, medium and some smaller pieces.

Bludawg · Feb 17, 2013

I pack the basket with lump in 4 layers: 1st layer lump, 2nd layer lump & 2 chunks, 3rd layer Lump & 2 chunks 90 deg out from the previous, top layer lump and 2 chunks, I use 10-15 briquettes to fire it up. I find that using the briquettes gives me a slight advantage in consistency to dial it in to my cook temp.

Minion Method and Lump charcoal

jorrflv

Knows what a fatty is.

HeSmellsLikeSmoke

somebody shut me the fark up.

landarc

somebody shut me the fark up.

gtr

somebody shut me the fark up.

BobM

Babbling Farker

Hoss

Quintessential Chatty Farker

jorrflv

Knows what a fatty is.

ButtBurner

Babbling Farker

jorrflv

Knows what a fatty is.

ButtBurner

Babbling Farker

Bludawg

somebody shut me the fark up.

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