Brick wrote:

> Good information Dana. I benefitted a lot from your post about the minion
> (like) fire. My chimney is extended down to the grill, but I have yet to stuff a
> pie tin in there. Don't know why I've procastinating on that. Great description of
> the effect the pie plate made in yours. (For those that don't understand what
> the pie tin, (baffle) is for, it limits the amount of direct radiant heat that
> gets into the cook chamber. ) The unmodified model is notoriously bad about that. I
> don't worry much about extending burn time much further. My pit is about
> ten feet from my sliding door and in direct view from inside the house. I
> just let it go until I see the temp starting to drop on the big NBS thermometer
> in the lid. Then I add about a chimney's worth of lump directly from a three
> gallon bucket. Most everything I cook is done in 7 hours or less. Briskets
> are about the only exception. They take only 8 to 9 hours. (Cooking at an
> indicated 250° to 275°.)

Is that an indicated 250-275 on the lid thermometer? I use one of the
temperature probes of the Maverick at grate level, actually at the
base of the extended chimney. The NB thermometer typically reads about
25-50F hotter than at the grate and I basically don't trust it :-). But,
it doesn't really matter what you use as long as you're dialed-in with it.

After thinking about how the baffle would make the fire more controllable,
it occurred to me that I'm now truly measuring the cook chamber temperature
with the baffle in place, and the temperature probe was being heated by
radiant heat previously. So the actual cook chamber temperature might have
been better than I thought it was, but my thermometer was confusing me.

I suppose my thermometer can always be in direct view, since it is a
remote ;-)

Sounds good there,
Dana