Snake Method: Smoking Meat with a Charcoal Grill

magnusfide wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
Works well with fresh dry coals. My snakes usually go out early using coals that have sat around a while.

I use enough charcoal I don't have that problem of "old charcoal" fortunately.

I wonder: if you put one of those paraffin lighter cubes every few bricks if it would keep the old stuff going?

Sure is smelling good around here. :W

paraffin would taste nasty.. I use the Kingsford long burn stuff..

All charcoal is not created equal. Kingsford will feed the chain. Royal Oak, not so much. Others I'm not aware of.

2012Coleman wrote:

magnusfide wrote:
My butt came out tender as promised. I let it go for 5.5 hrs. Instead of the paraffin cubes I use newspaper in my charcoal chimney. I'm still stuffed from yesterday's feast. I think I'll do yard work today to work it off.

What was the internal temp when you took it off?

I didn't take it's IT. It was falling apart so there was no need.

magnusfide wrote:
My butt came out tender as promised. I let it go for 5.5 hrs. Instead of the paraffin cubes I use newspaper in my charcoal chimney. I'm still stuffed from yesterday's feast. I think I'll do yard work today to work it off.

What was the internal temp when you took it off?

My butt came out tender as promised. I let it go for 5.5 hrs. Instead of the paraffin cubes I use newspaper in my charcoal chimney. I'm still stuffed from yesterday's feast. I think I'll do yard work today to work it off.

As a beginner, I used THIS book to learn how to smoke meat. The author shows you how to set up a Kettle grill correctly for smoking. The linked article says something about using wax bloks to start coals? Using the mentioned chimney starter and 3 double size sections of rolled up newspaper is a better alternative, plus it's cheaper and less mess than wax.

The author disagrees with using briquettes like Kinsford. However, my taste buds can't tell the difference between that and the chunk charcoal the author claims is the preferred charcoal.

If you want to visit a great forum with recipes and advice, try this one.

Happy smoking!

This is called the "minion" method and has been around for years!

Doing ribs using the snake method today, similar to the ladder method for maintaining an all night wood fire.

GordonThree wrote:
Works well with fresh dry coals. My snakes usually go out early using coals that have sat around a while.

I use enough charcoal I don't have that problem of "old charcoal" fortunately.

I wonder: if you put one of those paraffin lighter cubes every few bricks if it would keep the old stuff going?

Sure is smelling good around here. :W

Works well with fresh dry coals. My snakes usually go out early using coals that have sat around a while.