Ski-Freak,
You and ButtBurner have been my primary experts in helping me prepare for the arrival of my new Okie Joe. I notice your charcoal basket could be 4 or 6 inches wider to have more fuel. Would that restrict the air flow too much. How big do you thing we could make them? Thank you so much for all your posts. I will be a great MS before you and BB finish with me.
/s/ Floyd
I am happy with the 1 foot square by 1/2 foot deep charcoal basket. This is because I use my firebox for direct grilling/searing food with its 20 inch by 20 inch cooking grate
as well as a firebox for smoked food in the main indirect 20 inch by 40 inch food chamber. My basket holds an ample 1/2 cubic foot of fuel and can be shifted almost all the way over to the right side of the firebox - right by the air intake giving it excellent air flow and allowing the 20 inch by 20 inch direct grilling/searing cooking grate to still be used and also have a grilling area partially OFF the direct heat. This allows the most flexibility for direct grilling and searing. For instance, if I'm searing a batch of chicken drumsticks I can move some that are getting done faster than the others over to the left indirect side of the grilling/searing cooking grate for more even results. Another example is grilled Asparagus which is a little fragile and cooks less rapidly and much more predictably on the indirect side of the firebox grilling/searing cooking grate while simultaneously searing steaks on the direct side. The 20 inch by 20 inch direct grilling/searing cooking grate is 400 square inches, which for reference is the same surface area as the classic 22.5 inch diameter
Weber Kettle (actually 398 square inches - Pi R squared) which I have found is a very practical size for a direct grilling/searing cooking grate.
Often I find myself grilling/searing food in the firebox
while I am smoking other food in the indirect food chamber. Also, with poultry I like to get it started with a sear, before slow smoking it, so that the skin comes out nice (though some other BBQ cooks prefer to do this the other way around and end with the sear). Also, I might be long smoking say a brisket or turkey for packaged meals for the next couple of days (taking say 5 hours of smoking time), and then dinner time comes along and I can still direct grill/sear that night's dinner without interrupting the smoke that's going on. This is the sort of flexibility that I think makes the OK Joe a great smoker/grill.
I often make a side dish of potatoes by cutting them into chunks and then putting them in a low sided oval Lodge cast iron skillet (fajita style pan) with oil and spices. I then put the low sided skillet full of potatoes on the hot side of the firebox cooking grate to brown them like hash-browns, before moving the whole skillet full of potatoes into the large indirect cooking chamber to become tender and smoky.
Remember too that after you "drop-in" your convection/diffuser plate you will lose that former hot spot at the firebox end of the 20 inch by 40 inch food chamber, and will have a large even temperature smoking area with no grilling/searing capability on that side - so you do need to use your firebox cooking grate for any grilling/searing, and your charcoal basket should be built with that in mind...