Hello, all...

Lately, I've been experimenting with using the Minion Method (from the
Virtual Weber Bullet website) with a lowly ECB. Last weekend, it was
ribs. This weekend, it was a 7+ lb Boston butt roast. I am here to
report that the Minion Method works great with an ECB! (Okay...not 10-12
hours of burn time, but...well, you'll see.

Last weekend, when I cooked the ribs, I was feeling a bit adventurous
and decided to try the Minion Method in my modified ECB. I filled the
fire pan almost full with lump charcoal, then added a chimney-full of
live coals on top of that. At first, the temp shot up to almost 400
degrees, and it took me a while to coax the temp back down to an
"acceptable" 275. After I added the ribs, though, the temp settled down
to a pretty even 250-260 degrees and held for over four hours! I've
never, on the best of days, been able to get more than about 3 hours
burn on a single load of charcoal before, and usually it's more like
2-2.5 hours, so I was pretty impressed with that. The ribs turned out
great, too - tender, juicy, and with a nice smoke ring.

This weekend, I got really adventurous. I wanted to cook a Boston butt
for Sunday lunch, so I knew I needed to start cooking by late last
night. I didn't relish the idea of staying awake all night long to
babysit the smoker, though, so I decided to try the Minion Method,
again. At 11:00 PM, I took the roast out of the fridge and fired up the
charcoal chimney. By midnight, I had the fire going really well in the
smoker and added 2-3 hickory chunks. (I took a lesson from last week's
experience and used less charcoal in the starter chimney. The temp still
got up to over 300 degrees, but it settled down a lot quicker than
before.)

I did stay up with the smoker for a while, just to make sure that last
week's results weren't a one-time thing, and by 1:30 AM, the temp in the
smoker was holding nicely at a fairly steady 250 degrees. I went to bed
expecting to wake up around 5:00, as I often do, but it was almost 7:00
before I woke up. I practically jumped out of the bed and ran out to the
patio to check the smoker. After 7 hours, the temp was at 175, and the
meat was at 160, so I didn't feel too bad about letting it go a little
long. I fired up another batch of charcoal in the chimney and got the
temp back up to around 250 and kept it there the rest of the morning.

By noon, the temp of the meat was up to about 175, and I decided to let
it go another hour. At 1:00 PM, I pulled the butt out of the smoker at a
temp of 180 degrees...just right for slicing. The roast was fantastic,
with a nice, dark bark and a prominent smoke ring. We enjoyed smoked
pork roast for lunch and supper, and I'll probably have a slice or two
for breakfast in the morning.

Now, if there is a moral to this story, it is simply this:

I've noticed a number of nay-sayers on this newsgroup and on the BBQ
mailing list that seem to think that the ECB is more trouble than it is
worth, and they chant "WSM...WSM...WSM..." like some kind of mantra. I'm
not putting down the WSM - in fact, I hope to have one of my own,
someday. In the meantime, while the Minion Method doesn't give the
impressive burn times in the ECB as it does in the WSM, it can make
using the ECB a lot less of a PITA and provide some fine eatin'.

Happy Q-in', y'all!

Stan Marks

> I've noticed a number of nay-sayers on this newsgroup and on the BBQ
> mailing list that seem to think that the ECB is more trouble than it is
> worth, and they chant "WSM...WSM...WSM..." like some kind of mantra. I'm
> not putting down the WSM - in fact, I hope to have one of my own,
> someday. In the meantime, while the Minion Method doesn't give the
> impressive burn times in the ECB as it does in the WSM, it can make
> using the ECB a lot less of a PITA and provide some fine eatin'.
>
> Happy Q-in', y'all!
>
> Stan Marks

Hey Stan, thanks for your suggestions on a previous post, on a similar
topic. I had couple of questions, roughly speaking how many lbs of
charcoal would you have put in the fire pan? When you said it went to 400 F
(then 300 F), was that with the water pan in or out? Which then begs the
question, how much charcoal will your chimney hold?
Ron

> I've noticed a number of nay-sayers on this newsgroup and on the BBQ
> mailing list that seem to think that the ECB is more trouble than it is
> worth, and they chant "WSM...WSM...WSM..." like some kind of mantra. I'm
> not putting down the WSM - in fact, I hope to have one of my own,
> someday. In the meantime, while the Minion Method doesn't give the
> impressive burn times in the ECB as it does in the WSM, it can make
> using the ECB a lot less of a PITA and provide some fine eatin'.
>
> Happy Q-in', y'all!
>
> Stan Marks

Hey Stan, thanks for your suggestions on a previous post, on a similar
topic. I had couple of questions, roughly speaking how many lbs of
charcoal would you have put in the fire pan? When you said it went to 400 F
(then 300 F), was that with the water pan in or out? Which then begs the
question, how much charcoal will your chimney hold?
Ron

In article >,
"RJG" > wrote:

> > I've noticed a number of nay-sayers on this newsgroup and on the BBQ
> > mailing list that seem to think that the ECB is more trouble than it is
> > worth, and they chant "WSM...WSM...WSM..." like some kind of mantra. I'm
> > not putting down the WSM - in fact, I hope to have one of my own,
> > someday. In the meantime, while the Minion Method doesn't give the
> > impressive burn times in the ECB as it does in the WSM, it can make
> > using the ECB a lot less of a PITA and provide some fine eatin'.
> >
> > Happy Q-in', y'all!
> >
> > Stan Marks
>
> Hey Stan, thanks for your suggestions on a previous post, on a similar
> topic. I had couple of questions, roughly speaking how many lbs of
> charcoal would you have put in the fire pan? When you said it went to 400 F
> (then 300 F), was that with the water pan in or out? Which then begs the
> question, how much charcoal will your chimney hold?
> Ron

Ron, I don't know how many pounds of charcoal the firepan will hold, but
I'm going to guess that it may be upwards of 5 lbs. And when it shot up
almost to 400, I did have the water pan in place, but I hadn't put any
water in it, yet. As for the charcoal chimney, it's made by Grill Care
and sold by Wal Mart. It appears to be what I would assume is a
"standard" size - a little larger in diameter than a large coffee can
and 1-1/2 times as high, counting the base where the newspaper wads go.
The charcoal chamber, itself, is probably a little bigger than a large
coffee can.

Stan

In article >,
"RJG" > wrote:

> > I've noticed a number of nay-sayers on this newsgroup and on the BBQ
> > mailing list that seem to think that the ECB is more trouble than it is
> > worth, and they chant "WSM...WSM...WSM..." like some kind of mantra. I'm
> > not putting down the WSM - in fact, I hope to have one of my own,
> > someday. In the meantime, while the Minion Method doesn't give the
> > impressive burn times in the ECB as it does in the WSM, it can make
> > using the ECB a lot less of a PITA and provide some fine eatin'.
> >
> > Happy Q-in', y'all!
> >
> > Stan Marks
>
> Hey Stan, thanks for your suggestions on a previous post, on a similar
> topic. I had couple of questions, roughly speaking how many lbs of
> charcoal would you have put in the fire pan? When you said it went to 400 F
> (then 300 F), was that with the water pan in or out? Which then begs the
> question, how much charcoal will your chimney hold?
> Ron

Ron, I don't know how many pounds of charcoal the firepan will hold, but
I'm going to guess that it may be upwards of 5 lbs. And when it shot up
almost to 400, I did have the water pan in place, but I hadn't put any
water in it, yet. As for the charcoal chimney, it's made by Grill Care
and sold by Wal Mart. It appears to be what I would assume is a
"standard" size - a little larger in diameter than a large coffee can
and 1-1/2 times as high, counting the base where the newspaper wads go.
The charcoal chamber, itself, is probably a little bigger than a large
coffee can.

Stan