Minion Method and Snake Method: 12 Hours of Kamado Fire

A real smoke — a brisket, a pulled pork, a rack of ribs — asks for 8 to 14 hours at a low and, above all, steady temperature: 110-120 °C from start to finish. That is where the difficulty lies. Holding those degrees through half the night without the thermometer spiking or the fire dying is what separates a juicy cut from a slab of dry leather.

The trouble with the obvious method — light a pile of charcoal and close the vents — is that it does not work for long cooks. Light the whole chamber at once and you have too much live coal at the same time: even if you choke the air, the initial heat carries you well above 120 °C, and by the time it drops you have burned half a bag. In our tests, a fully lit load lasts three or four hours at most.

The Minion method and the Snake method solve this with the same idea: light very little charcoal and let the fire spread slowly through the rest, which stays cold. That way you control how much coal is live at any moment, and therefore the temperature, all night long. It is the mother technique of low & slow.

The Minion method is the easiest and the one we use daily for all-night smokes. The idea: you fill the basket with UNLIT charcoal and tip a handful of already-lit coals into a single spot. The fire spreads slowly from there into the rest of the cold charcoal. Here are the steps:

1. Fill the basket to the top with lump charcoal, all unlit. Favour medium and large pieces over fines: good lump burns cleaner (see our guide on which charcoal to use).

2. Dig a hollow or crater, usually to one side or in the centre, about 8-10 cm across.

3. Lay the smoking wood on top of the unlit charcoal, spread out, so the fire reaches it gradually (we detail this in the next section).

4. Separately light only a handful of coals — 8 to 12 pieces — in a chimney or with a torch, until they are well ashed over.

5. Tip those lit coals into the hollow, on one side, not scattered across the whole basket.

6. Fit the deflector, the grate and the cut, close the lid and set the vents. The fire "eats" cold charcoal sideways for hours, like a candle burning down slowly. On our terrace, this nails 110-115 °C all night with no refueling.

The Snake method (serpent or "fuse") is even more predictable than the Minion and the favourite for very long, precise smokes. Instead of a pile with a crater, you build a tidy trail of charcoal around the rim of the basket and light it at one end only. It burns like a firework fuse, advancing one piece at a time. Steps:

1. Lay a trail of briquettes in a C or U shape following the rim of the basket, usually two briquettes wide and two high. Briquettes, with their regular shape, fit this method better than irregular lump.

2. Leave a small gap: the fire must not reach there, so the snake does not close into a circle and speed up.

3. Set chunks of smoking wood along the trail, on top, every hand-span or so.

4. Light one end only: 6-10 briquettes, with a firelighter or torch, until they catch well.

5. Close the lid and set the vents. The fire travels the snake piece by piece. The advance speed — and therefore the duration — is set by you through the width and height of the trail: two by two gives about 8-10 hours; three by two, up to 14. It is pure geometry, which is why it is so reliable.

The mistake that most ruins a long fire is lighting too many coals at the start. The rule we apply on our terrace is counterintuitive: the fewer, the better. For the Minion method, 8 to 12 well-lit lump pieces are enough; for the Snake, 6-10 briquettes at one end. Tip in half a lit chimney and the fire spreads too fast, putting you at 160-180 °C before the meat is even on, with no way back.

Smoking woods — oak, holm oak, apple, cherry, hickory — always go on the unlit charcoal, never beside the lit coals. Place them over the starting fire and they all burn at once in the first hour, and the meat takes a bitter, acrid smoke just when it absorbs most. Spread across the cold charcoal, the fire reaches them one by one and the smoke runs thin and clean for hours.

We use chunks the size of a walnut or a little larger, not chips: chips burn up in minutes. For a large cut, three or four scattered chunks are plenty. And a note: do not soak the wood. Water only delays combustion and makes steam, not flavour smoke. Dry wood smokes better.

With the charcoal built and the end lit, the vents decide the temperature. For 110-120 °C we start from very tight vents: the bottom intake open barely a finger or less, and the petal chimney showing only the fine slots. Remember the kamado is steered by air (we expand on this in our temperature-control guide): with so little live coal, you need very little oxygen.

The key is to climb slowly and close before you arrive. The ceramic has huge inertia: wait until you see 120 °C to close and there are already 30-40 °C on the way. We start choking the air as soon as the thermometer passes 80-85 °C climbing, and let it settle on its own. Better to undershoot and crack a vent than to overshoot, because on a kamado coming down costs far more than going up.

Once the temperature is locked, touch nothing. Each adjustment takes 15-20 minutes to show through the ceramic's inertia, so if you chase the number with the vents you enter a rollercoaster that never ends. Set once, wait, confirm it holds across two readings and forget it. The kamado keeps those degrees alone for hours: that is the whole point of the method.

Each method has its turf. The Minion is fast to build and perfect for most smokes; the Snake is more laborious but gives clockwork precision and duration. This is our reference:

The three mistakes we most often see ruin a long cook: First, lighting too many coals at the start — half a chimney and you have already overshot; a handful is enough. Second, stacking the charcoal badly: with loose pieces and big gaps, the fire jumps and runs away; the lump must sit well settled and the snake must be compact. And third, the costliest: opening the lid "for a look". Each opening lets in a gust of oxygen that spikes the fire and breaks the stability you worked so hard for. Use a wireless probe and watch from your phone. On a long fire, the best hand is the one that touches nothing.