lighting a uds

What's wrong with the minion? If you light it that hot & then back it off, I'm thinking you'll blacken the meat a bit. Just my experience.

Temp will spike, if you light the whole basket. Build slow and catch the temp on the way up. You will use less fuel, burn cleaner, and be able to control the temp. Even stickburners use a small fire, nothing raging.

hillbilly said:

has anybody ever tried to lite a whole basket of charcoal at once in uds and turn intakes way down to start with can you keep tempertatures down thanks just curious im still not shure if i like minion method:roll:

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That's an honest question, and here's what I think:

You'd need several large charcoal chimney starters full of fully lit coals to accomplish what you're describing. Probably about 6-8. After that, you'd dump all of the lit coals in your charcoal basket. Given that all the coals are lit, even with minimal airflow, your temps would go through the roof, then your coals would die out in 2 hours or less, with temps dropping very quickly along the way.

The minion method was the exact solution to this problem. Burn through your fuel source slowly and consistently to achieve long steady burn times so you don't have to keep reloading.

My suggestion:

Don't do it.

Moose said:

That's an honest question, and here's what I think:

You'd need several large charcoal chimney starters full of fully lit coals to accomplish what you're describing. Probably about 6-8. After that, you'd dump all of the lit coals in your charcoal basket. Given that all the coals are lit, even with minimal airflow, your temps would go through the roof, then your coals would die out in 2 hours or less, with temps dropping very quickly along the way.

The minion method was the exact solution to this problem. Burn through your fuel source slowly and consistently to achieve long steady burn times so you don't have to keep reloading.

My suggestion:

Don't do it.

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Well said and very true.

hillbilly said:

has anybody ever tried to lite a whole basket of charcoal at once in uds and turn intakes way down to start with can you keep tempertatures down thanks just curious im still not shure if i like minion method:roll:

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Just curious: What is it about the Minion Method you don't like?:?:

I throw a full chimney on top of a nearly full basket and spread it out kind of even. I wouldnt say the lit coals are fully gray. Or I swerll the weed burner around on all the coals. The trick is dont pass your target temp and keep the lid on.

Ask EATRBBQ (think that's right). I think this is how he does his.

ChiefOsceola said:

Ask EATRBBQ (think that's right). I think this is how he does his.

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Yuppers. I always flame the heck outta any brand charcoal before it goes in any smoker I use.

In the UDS I use 2 charcoal chimney's, flame em on the turkey fryer and then on top with a weed burner. I would just weed burner light them all in the charcoal basket for my UDS except I use an aluminum deep dish pizza pan as as ash tray and I'm concerned how long it would last with a 100k BTU flame thrower hitting it directly.

Gray up all the fuel in chimneys, then I load the UDS charcoal basket, then I lower it into the drum. I usually choked back airflow to next to nothing for the first 2 or 3 minutes allowing the fire to consume all the oxygen left in the drum.

So far I've tamed my temperatures down to cooking level within 20 to 30 minutes every time.

This process does not seem to cause my charcoal to flash burn and vanish as some have mentioned it might. I'm sure I cut some cook time off a load, but I also burn off any weird stuff they use to make briquettes.

Out of habbit and choice I light lump the same way.

I don't like that "white" smoke, bad bitter stuff it is, and by pre-lighting all my fuels I don't see it in my UDS runs until I throw some meats in, and really that white smoke is from the liquids via the meat rather than from the charcoals I use.

Additional thought/observation:

The typical winter experiences I've had with my UDS fleet has been the temperature spikes up when I load the charcoal basket rig. My thermometer is 1" below my lowest cook grate (roughly 22"+ above the bottom of my charcoal burn grate) leaving at least 12" between food and lit fuels.
The highest temperature spike I've seen with 1" air-intake open/2" exhaust at load time has been around 325 degrees.
Once I choke the temperatures down (often only takes 15 minutes) they have held consistently.

Now, in my reverse flow Meadow Creek TS250 we're talking about flaming/graying as much as 40# of charcoal at one time, then loading the firebox. I have a charcoal basket/box insert that slides in and out of the firebox and I often use a weed burner to just light it all in there rather than using 5 or 6 chimneys.
I get a heat spike in that smoker too, although all the steel warms up, sometimes as high as 350 degrees. The TS250 usually comes down to cooking temperatures via air-intake/exhaust control within 30 minutes as well.

Last time I lit off the drum a plumbers torch for 90 seconds on the lump for a little tiny fire. Let the temps climb to 225 +-, put on the meat and didn't need to play with vents at all for the entire cook. Me thinks a whole basket of fully lit coals will be way too hot and choking the fire down will result in bad smoke and possible creosote formation. Just my humble opinion. Try what you propose and let us know how it works for you.

Smokin' D said:

Last time I lit off the drum a plumbers torch for 90 seconds on the lump for a little tiny fire. Let the temps climb to 225 +-, put on the meat and didn't need to play with vents at all for the entire cook. Me thinks a whole basket of fully lit coals will be way too hot and choking the fire down will result in bad smoke and possible creosote formation. Just my humble opinion. Try what you propose and let us know how it works for you.

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There is actually another wick/Minion method thread going right now, discussing much of the same as the direction this thread is going.

My BBQ Widow (wife) had me post some observations we've shared since using our newer UDSs. When we flame/gray all the fuel and then load and choke it back? We don't get bad smoke - but the charcoal does often tend to self-extinguish enough to set up its own wick/Minion burn. I've gotten 12 hour and longer cooks from about 10# of RO Lump all pre-lit before going into the UDS, so I'm not seeing a big loss of cook times.


I've been a briquette user most of my life. Many years before I started low and slow smoking at all I had stopped using lighter fluid. I entered a back-yard grilling contest (wow, I think it was still during the 1980s) and some of the judge's comments were about lighter fluid and charcoal tastes, not in a good way. I started using chimneys and paper soon after. When I began the path to low and slow I read some online forums discussions (probably some here) where some of the "old pros" would never put raw, unlit charcoal in their smokers and I've done it since.

I took a 33/34oz coffee can and cut the bottom out and place it in the middle of the basket. I then surround the can with unlit coals. I then pour a well lit chimney of coals into the can and then pull the can out. This allow an even burn from the center out and get consistenly even heat and long burn times. I do this in a WSM 22 since I am not finished building my UDS but I feel certain it would work the same for both.