Fire management on de drum

Thom Emery

New member
Looking for more ideas
When cooking ribs on my BDS I have had to pull the rack of meat off and replace the webber kettle lid quickly
To prevent a huge temp spike
Any other ways to control temps when you need to have the top off ?
 

sparky

New member
i have heard that if you close the bottom vents before you take the lid off it starves the fire to help w/ temp spikes. its just what i have read.
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
really the best thing to do is to relax it will quickly return to its temp.....if you leave the top off too long it can get away but temp ramps are what it should do and ramp back it what it does. The biggest thing is to not over steer the cooker....A lot of people coming from pellet cookers (I am not talking about you Thom just giving general advice....) over tweak the cooker and the cook....at the end of the cook you will have averaged what you need to get a good cook
 

jimsbarbecue

Moderator
Staff member
Thom I use the grill with the handles and lift it out with meat on it to a prep table if Iam saucing mopping etc . Just so the lid can go back on.
 

Rangerj

New member
Thom I use the grill with the handles and lift it out with meat on it to a prep table if Iam saucing mopping etc . Just so the lid can go back on.

^^^^ This. You can set a cookie sheet on your table ( need to have some surface nearby), set the grate on that to keep things a bit cleaner, then replace the lid. Do what ever doctoring needs to be done and return.

As was mentioned things do even out, but I've found this to keep the spikes from getting too high. First competition I tried to sauce like 24 thighs, on the grate, with the lid open... very few survived.
 

Steviez269

New member
Don't know why , but my drum will drop from 250 degrees to 100-130 degrees when I take my lid off . As long as 2-3 minutes to replace water and spritz the meat . I have the opposite issue . It then takes a good 10-20 minutes to come back up to temp , I have 3 one inch ball valves as intakes .
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
Steve...your issue is that you are putting cold water into the water pan... When you put cold meat you affect the pit temp...think ice cubes in a glass of water. Try cooking without water and you will see that this problem goes away....if you really prefer it with a water pan than pre heat the water.....
 

Steviez269

New member
I actually use hot water from the kettle . It'll drop if I open it to check meat temp then close again , it could be open as little as 30seconds and it will be a drastic drop . It baffles me .
 
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