Wolgast, empty water pan best way to go besides removing pan all together. Meat only drys out when over cooked, cooking at wrong temp. Foiling can make queing quite easy hard to mess things up. Anyway keep up the awesome photo's u post Wolgast.

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Originally posted by Noe:
Wolgast, empty water pan best way to go besides removing pan all together. Meat only drys out when over cooked, cooking at wrong temp. Foiling can make queing quite easy hard to mess things up. Anyway keep up the awesome photo's u post Wolgast.

Noe, you like your "texas crutch", don't ya!?

I'm not big on fat in the fire either.

Russell is correct. It is not a pressured environment that makes foiled meats cook more quickly, it's the far better efficiency created by the trapped moisture. A moist environment transfers heat much more quickly and thoroughly. Though water in the pan increase ambient humidity, it's not very contained in a WSM due to the draft. It will, say, keep the bottom of the meat closest to the pan more moist because the steams plows right into it on its way out, but overall increases in efficiency are negligible. For that you would need a combi-oven, capable of achieving and maintaining very high humidity.

IF now Iam only askin a ? when I hold my hand over the top vent using water in the pan ! Why do I get water vapor STEAM on my hand holding it just few seconds over the top vent ? IF its a dry heat ? And since I get it on my hand why can't one assume it is also hitting the meat keeping it moist ?

Now Iam not saying it does keep the meat more moist ! But it seems like it would just asking that water is going some place and I personaly do not think its all going out the top vent ! But I guess it could be I am sure no part of an expert far from it ?

If steam (aka moisture) could rejuvenate an overdone steak, then all one would have to do is to put it under a steamer to stay/keep it moist. But alas, once a steak is overdone, there is no way you can use steam to get moisture back into the meat. It may be wetter on the outside but it will still be tough.

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Now Iam not saying it does keep the meat more moist ! But it seems like it would just asking that water is going some place and I personaly do not think its all going out the top vent ! But I guess it could be I am sure no part of an expert far from it ? Confused

by that logic, we could assume that to retain the most moisture in the meat, we should boil it. But in practice we find that boiling is one of the easiest ways to dry meat out. So whats going on?

here's a bit I posted in a thread about bbq myths:

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I go bonkers when I read about various ways to keep meat moist, like marinades, water pans, mops, sprays, etc. Water, in the meat, is bound up in the protein strands. When a protein is overheated it has no choice but to release that water, by that same account anything you do to the meat isn't really going to add to that water that the protein is wrapped around. Meat boiled in water can easily dry out, so why would a water pan be inherently better than that? Imagine cooking a soaked sponge, as it warms it slowly contracts, over a certain temp it wrings itself out completely. Would a slightly more humid cooking environment stop this from happen? Would spraying a bit of apple juice on it help?

HTH

The only way to keep meat moist is not to over cook period. Yes we inject, marinade, rub but that is just for flavor. It's not hard to over cook meat while enjoying family and friends with a cold adult beverage. My best results have always come when temp is between 275-350 for briskets, bb ribs , spares, short ribs , triangle cut , any roast.

Hi I,m new on this forum & just bought a weber smoker .My question is when not to put water in the pan . I t woul seem to make sense use it water most of the time to keep your meat moist?

Hi doug. Welcome to the board.

Read the posts above: Water in the pan does little to 'keep meat moist'. It is mostly used to help limit and stabilize cooktemps. You can use it - or not - for low/slow cooks. For cooking at high heat it is not needed and can hinder temp rise. With no water, many of us simply use the empty pan, foiled for easier clean-up.

Thanks for everyones input on this. There seems to be a lot of opinions regarding this subject.

Let's muddy the waters a little more though....

IMHO, from my simple thought process, I would think that using water in the pan would create a better indirect cooking environment. Since the water "absorbs" a great amount of heat and the heat cannot "pass through" the water, it has to flow around it, thus losing some of it's energy by transfer. Sure the water gives off heat, but I would think that the amount of heat would be much, much less than the heat coming off of an empty pan, resulting in an extreme indirect cooking condition. Now, if I was using a dry pan, which conducts and transfers heat very well, I would think that the cook would be much more direct than with water.

On the other hand, since the smoker temp is usually measured at the cooking grate, I would assume that the fuel in a smoker w/o water would be burning at a lower temp yet still achieveing the same temp at the cooking grate. Even though it might be a more direct heat.

I think it'd be really neat if someone could take an infared picture from inside under both conditions and see what really happens.

You are correct ACrocker. More heat sink= more fuel burned for the same temp!

Learn your vents and use the empty foiled water pan and you will use way less cc and still have moist n tastee results.

My .02 cents.

I'm new to the wsm, but I have done a bunch of cooks already.

With water... and without.

I now have a clay saucer.

I have been using a clay pot base now for a couple of years and besides over cooking a brisket once (too many adult beverages), my meats have always been nice and moist. About the only thing I have noticed is that even though I run low and slow never higher than 250°F, my smoke rings don't seem as big as I used get. I dont know if this is from lack of water or what?

I am pretty new to this site and have done about seven cooks so far (6 on my gas smoker and one on my new WSM). I have a couple of recipes for pork butt that call for mopping the meat after several hours of cooking. It seems to be the opinion of most that this step would not help in keeping the meat moist. Having never tried mopping I am wondering if I should use this technique on my next butt or just skip this step altogether. Does anyone use a mop sauce on butts or brisket and what benefit (including moist meat) if any have you seen.

It is not necessary to mop. 'Keeping meat moist' means not overcooking it. Mops can add flavor if used often enough and, depending on their ingredients, can slow or speed cooking. In all these cases the mop needs to be applied fairly often, especially if the surface is not flat. I'm not all that into attending the cooker and fussing over the cook so I don't mop. You might wish to try it and see what you think for yourself.

Interesting topic. I believe there is a thread on BBQ myths somewhere. Maybe "mopping helps keep meat moist" could be added to that list. I know there are a lot of myths/opinions/wives tales in the BBQ world. Perhaps mopping if done frequently would add a little moisture to the Outside of the meat giving the false impression that the inside is also more moist. Just a thought. I do agree that a dry waterpan does not equal dry meat and that overcooking is likely the culprit. In the end I suppose it's whatever seems to work best for whoever is cooking.