by Steve » 25 Jun 2010, 23:57
The Minion Method is a technique for mixing lit and unlit charcoal to achieve longer burn times. It has been popularised by WSM users in the US. If you google it you'll find the original description of the method.
A quick 101 for you. Bear in mind this is just my method and others will do it slightly differently, I'm happy with my technique but others may do it better than me.
NOTE: I only ever use lump wood charcoal for unlit fuel. I've never found briquettes that don't give off a little whiff when they light. I just don't trust them for this method. Plenty of people do use them for MM though.
1. I place my wood chunks in my charcoal basket. I position them so they'll be near vents.
2. I place a layer of unlit charcoal around the wood. I try to use big chunks in the centre and fill gaps with smaller chunks as well as some around the edges.
3. Next I bang the basket on the ground a few times so everything settles into position and then I add more charcoal if required to fill the gaps. I'm looking to get a nice tight fill.
4. I light four to six fist sized lumps of charcoal in a chimney then place them on top of my unlit charcoal, give the fire a few minutes to take then close up the cooker and watch for it getting to temperature.
5. I try to dial the vents in as the temps are on the rise, but I aim for a little higher than my cooking temperature as when the meat goes on it drops the temps a bit.
And that's it really. Other thing worth noting is not to use too much lit charcoal or your fire will not run well.