The Pit Barrel Cooker or PBC when lit properly will maintain a steady temperature for hours. There are several factors that can affect how long it will burn until you need to add additional briquettes to the fire such as the brand you are using, your elevation, and how you are performing the cook.
That brings us to the question, what is the average amount of time that a Pit Barrel will stay burning before needing to add more charcoal? When using it as designed and following the manufactures instructions, the PBC will burn for 6 to 7 hours without having to worry about adding any charcoal. At around the 6-hour mark, you can expect the heat to begin to slowly taper off.
Will I Have To Add Charcoal To My PBC Cooks?
The majority of cooks you are doing will be able to be completed with the inital batch of charcaol that you added to your pit. From ribs, pork shoulders, and even briskets will be able to cook completely without adding additional charcaol.
There will be some exceptions to this and it is imporant after about 7 hours to monitor how well your charcoal is doing and how much time you expect to be needed for the completion of your meat. While the temperature starts to taper off, it doesn’t completely die out, in fact it may continue to cook at above 200 degrees past the 7 or 8 hour mark.
The Best Time To Add Additional Charcoal
So your fuel is running low and you need to add some more briquettes to the PBC basket. The way it is designed if you are using the grate, you will need to remove your food from the cooking grate and with some heat resistant glove, carefully remove the hot grate from the cooking rack.
If you are hanging food, you can just add some directly to the pit basket while the food is cooking, and place the lid back on the top of the cooker.
Tip: Many of your cooks you will wrap in foil or butcher paper once you have reached a temperature of about 160 degrees. This is especially important when you are hanging meat so that it doesn’t get too tender and fall in the fire. During the stage you remove your food and wrap it may be a good time to add a few additional charcoal briquettes since you already have the food off the cooker.
Once you place your grate on the cooker and wrapped meat, you’ll have no worries about the fire running to low or out for the remainder of the barbecue.
Are You Using The Rods?
The most imporant thing to keep the charcoal from burning out too quickly is following proper techniques including making sure both rods are in the cooker, the lid is completely closed and the damper is set according to the PBC manufacture specs.
I have an article here that goes into some detail explaining how to light your cooker and set your damper settings.
That being said, there are going to be some cooks that you actually do not use the rods, or even close the lid all the way. These style of cooks you will go through charcoal quicker, but in most cases these cook much hotter and once again will not require additional charcoal during the cooking process.
Some examples of these type of cooks may be:
- Burgers – When cooking ground hamburger meat for a hamburger, you may want to cook them quick and leave the rods out of the cooker. To keep the cooker hot, cracking the lid will also allow the fire to cook at a hotter temperature. These type of cooks can actually complete the cooking process in about 10 minutes, even with some melted cheese! Now if you are smoking those burgers you would follow the traditional methods with the rods and lid all intact.
- Wings – Now this isn’t entirely true, because in most cases I like to smoke my wings for a good amount of time. However, once they are done, I like to remove the one of the rods, crack the lid and let them cook hot at the end of the cook so that they will become crispier and browner, maybe even after adding some great BBQ sauce to them.
- Burnt Ends – If you are making some burnt ends after cooking your brisket, you can add some brown sugar, honey and other sauces to them. Wrap them in foil and place them back on the cooker. To get these where you want them you may choose to remove at least one rod and keep the temperature at a higher level during the finalization of the cooking process.
- Pizza – Yes a pizza turns out great on the PBC! I have cooked many pizzas, and of my favorite is the Beer Cheese Pizza. Check out the recipe here and you soon turn it into a pizza oven as well. For these cooks, I don’t place any rod in the barrel so that it cooks at a high level. The best pizza is cooked hot, and it will get great charcoal and smokey flavor as well.
Removing Only One Rod Is Also An Option
There are times you may want to elevate the pits temperature just a little, without getting it too hot. In this case you can simply remove one of the rods and that will allow additional airflow. This will get the PBC hotter, but not as hot as if you removed both.
It takes some trial and error and based on your elevation, current humidity, weather, etc., it will vary slightly for your situation.
Conclusion
Everything mentioned in this article will affect the length of cooking time your charcoal will last. When you begin adding additional airflow by removing one or more rods, cracking the lid or removing it completely it will burn quicker.
If you are using it for a slow cook with all rods in, the lid closed, the PBC basket full of quality charcoal, and the proper damper opening for your location, you can bet you will easily get 6 hours out of it.