Why doesnt minion method make food taste bad

[Ronaldo Rivera]

Im new to smoking so this is probably a dumb question but how come the minion method doesnt leave the meat tasting bad? Whenever I light new charcoal in the chimney there is dark smoke for a couple of minutes so would the same thing happen when the new charcoal is being lit when already in the grill?

I have seen a lot of people use the minion method so I'm sure it works fine but im wondering how the meat doesnt taste bitter from the new charcoal smoke.

 

[Sven Svensson]

My understanding is the bad smoke happens when the coals are moving from cold to hot, like during start up. In a chimney, all the coals are going from cold to hot at the same time. Once they reach combustion temps the heavy smoke is gone.

Using the minion method, the coals are all being preheated in your kettle. When it’s their turn to burn they’re already hot enough to not produce the acrid smoke. When you watch folks with offset stick burners they’ll typically keep their active fire on one side of the box. On the opposite side they’ll heat their next split. When it comes time to use that split and they put it on the coals it instantly combusts creating little smoke. Throw a cold split in there and you’ll see the heavier smoke.

I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night so I hope that made sense.

 

[Hijack73]

I am not sure of the science but I agree with the Sven Svensson explanation here.

my old pit, which was a hijack73 cinderblock design, needed very small fires to maintain. If I ever added lump or bricks to help it catch back up when I mucked up my coal bed, I always heated them up in a chimney on my grills side burner. I wouldn't necessarily ignite them all the way, but a couple of minutes on that flame really cut down on the unpleasant smelling smoke charcoal tends to give off for a couple of minutes while it heats up.

 

[Sven Svensson]

I am not sure of the science but I agree with the Sven Svensson explanation here.

I’m not sure of the science, either, but I figured my 2 paragraphs were less of a time investment than watching a 45-minute Mad Scientist BBQ video. Haha!

 

[Ronaldo Rivera]

My understanding is the bad smoke happens when the coals are moving from cold to hot, like during start up. In a chimney, all the coals are going from cold to hot at the same time. Once they reach combustion temps the heavy smoke is gone.

Using the minion method, the coals are all being preheated in your kettle. When it’s their turn to burn they’re already hot enough to not produce the acrid smoke. When you watch folks with offset stick burners they’ll typically keep their active fire on one side of the box. On the opposite side they’ll heat their next split. When it comes time to use that split and they put it on the coals it instantly combusts creating little smoke. Throw a cold split in there and you’ll see the heavier smoke.

I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night so I hope that made sense.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. Have you tried it with lumpwood and briquettes? If so does one work better than the other?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Minion will burn the coal as it moves across, the coals that are in the path are already heated to the temp of the smoker, thus making less bad smoke.

 

[Sven Svensson]

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. Have you tried it with lumpwood and briquettes? If so does one work better than the other?

I use lump all the time. You can’t “minion” lump but you can lay down a bed and just light one corner and let it spread. I do that in my PK Grill all the time when I want to turn it into a low-n-slow smoker. I like it much better than briquettes.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Sven nailed it from what I’ve read. My neighbors hate when I fire up that charcoal chimney in the winter with those cold coals. Smokes yo the whole neighborhood haha