Okay! The meat’s on the fire and we get to relax a little. All we have to do is check on the fire every hour or so, and re-fuel the fire if it needs it.
Re-fueling, or stoking, the fire is a fairly straightforward undertaking. If your kettle’s like mine and the cooking surface, or grill, is hinged so that access to the grate can be had without removing the grill, then you can stoke with a minimum of bother. Just make sure (before you put the meat on) that you've oriented the cooking surface so that the hinged pieces are above your two little fires on the grate. Otherwise, your only option when stoking is to remove the cooking surface (and the meat) entirely each time you stoke.
The only real trick (and there always seems to be a trick, doesn’t there?) in stoking your fire is in knowing when it needs more fuel. We determine this visually.
I stoke when, in my estimation, the amount of fuel remaining is between 1/3 and 1/4 of the amount that was there when I lit my fire. If you let the fuel burn down to where there’s less than 1/4 of the original amount, then you could be pushing your luck; there may not be enough heat energy left to ignite the new fuel. With this in mind, I’m inclined to stoke when the fuel remaining is closer to 1/3 than it is to 1/4 of the original amount.
Also, bear in mind that while I say fire, as if there was just one, there are actually two small fires to deal with, one on either side of the drip pan. and we need to treat them equally. If one needs stoking and the other one doesn’t, stoke both anyway, even if you put just a single wood chunk on the fire that doesn’t need stoking. A little extra fuel never hurts.
Now on occasion, you may find that one of your little fires doesn’t want to cooperate. If one of your fires (which we’ll call the ‘ailing’ fire, in contrast to the other ‘healthy’ fire) won’t stay lit, the probable reason is that it’s not getting enough air. This is usually because ash and/or other debris have accumulated in the bottom of the kettle on the side beneath the ailing fire, and is restricting ventilation on that side of the kettle. Since hot air rises, and since hotter air rises faster, the air flow, or draft, created by the healthy fire is greater than the draft created by the ailing fire.
However, as the draft produced by the ailing fire slows down, the ailing fire burns cooler and draws even less air. Things kind of snowball over time, the ailing fire drawing less and less air as it burns cooler and cooler, until the ailing fire goes out completely, due to oxygen starvation. Meanwhile, the healthy fire burns along merrily, still receiving adequate because it now has all of the available air. The healthy fire, in fact, may get too much oxygen and may even burst into flame, because there’s now more oxygen available than the healthy fire needs in order to smolder.
The best remedy for fires that go out is prevention. While you can (and should) clear the intake (bottom) ventilators, by adjusting the intake damper from lock-to-lock and then putting the damper back in the position it was originally, from time to time while cooking, a little preventive maintenance helps, too. You don’t have to clean your kettle thoroughly between uses, but you should at least get as much ash/debris as you can out of the bottom of the kettle. If your kettle came with an enclosed ash catcher attached, just sweep the debris through the ventilator holes (bottom damper fully open for this) into the ash container. You should, incidentally, empty the catcher periodically, because if it’s filled to near the top, it can affect air flow. If your kettle is not equipped with such a device, I’ve found it expedient to haul the kettle to an area of the property that’s not easily visible, close the bottom damper completely, loosen any debris in the kettle with a stiff brush, and then pick the kettle up bodily and dump the contents on the ground.
No, I do not jest. Unless you barbecue every day, you won’t create enough ash to have a noticeable pile. Moreover, kettle ash is not harmful to plants, including grass, nor to animals. On the other hand, I know that some folks just aren’t comfortable with the idea of dumping ashes in their backyards. For ash disposal, such individuals should keep a dedicated ash receptacle, i.e., can, plastic bag, etc., for the purpose.
Just one more thing before we close up shop for the day, and this is important. As surely as I blog about cooking, you’ll have heard this admonition before (often, no doubt; possibly ad nauseum). It may be trite, but I think it’s worth repeating: NEVER, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES introduce hot ashes into the environment! Either put them in a container that is approved as being suitable for hot embers, or allow them to cool to the point that they’re cool to the touch, or douse them thoroughly with water, before disposing of them. The reason for this is so obvious that I won’t waste your time explaining.
That’s today’s installment. Have a great weekend, and . . .
Happy cooking!
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