Are you tired of recipes that call for "The Juice of 1 Lime" when you only have bottled lime juice? Can't figure out how many onions you need to get "2 Cups of Onion, Chopped"?
The minion method of lighting charcoal is a way of maintaining low temperatures in your grill or smoker without having to add more charcoal. If you need your smoker around 225F for up to 18 hours without having to babysit it then the minion method is for you.
To use the minion method simply fill your charcoal grill with a full chamber of unlit charcoal. Then place several lit briquettes, around 10-15, on top of the unlit charcoal. As the unlit briquettes burn down they will gradually ignite the briquettes under them.
You can adjust the vents on your smoker or grill to the temperature you want and the minion method should ensure that it will stay around that temperature for a long time.
Minion Method Charcoal Tips
Use real lump charcoal and / or hickory wood chunks as the fuel. Briquettes contain many impurities that can alter the taste of your food.
Do not use pre-soaked charcoal. These will ignite right away and most likely burn anything you are trying to smoke.