Water Heat Sink Placement In OTG


 

Lee H

New member
I haven’t used the One-Touch Gold (22.5 inch) to smoke yet and plan to give that a try on about an 8 pound pork shoulder starting about 10 PM tonight. Pork is already brined and still has about 8 hours to go after rubbing. Weight is approximate guess since this was part of a two-pack that had been frozen.

Question: I have the OTG set up using the brickenator (see below) but wondered if it would be appropriate to multi-task the drip pan since the water will be evaporating instead of placing a separate pan of water over the coals, maybe 50-50 water and apple juice which will be a last minute decision.

Question: A lot of people have complained about the flimsiness of the crimping of the ET-732 probes and also about the high failure rate after passing the cable between the lid and basin of a kettle grill. Could the problem be that the higher moisture level/humidity when using a water pan actually is causing the probe failures when passing the cable between the lid and basin?


Am ahead of schedule already have the grill configured as below to also have the visual items completed in full daylight:

New ET-732 will be used and receiver brought upstairs when I crash. However, I plan to watch the Mars landings for a while as one of these days we know that the Martians are going to get tired of us violating their airspace and started lasering away. This will give me several hours to watch temperatures but will also have ET-732 alarms set. Can't say that I have a true aim for temperature until I get this fired up for the first time but hoping for 225 to 250F, preferably at the lower end.

Brickenator set up as two foiled fire bricks in a slightly inverted V (the notch points into the middle of some leftover previously burned blue and balance of Kingsford Competition bringing the total to about 55) with a couple apple and one white oak unsoaked chunks. Eight Competition briquettes already in the chimney anxiously waiting to be burned alive. Starting with fewer briquettes due to higher temperature as it will still be about 90F when I get started.

Grill grate foiled in non-charcoal area to control airflow and any drippings.

Foiled drip pan, not quite as deep as I would like, with the foil arranged to also act as a bit of a funnel in case I should get the pork misaligned.

Bottom vents already throttled to about 15-20%, top will be set as needed probably about 75% but do not plan to try to control these. Overnight lows will only be about 70F tonight and will get up to about 105F tomorrow for the last few hours of the cook.

Intention is to start about 9 PM tonight allowing up to an hour to bring the temperature up if needed, hence the low lower vent setting to start. Will add nearly boiling water to water pan once satisfied that the coals are burning and followed by the cold pork once I think that the setup is semi-stable. Want or hope to have the pork started no later than 10 PM.

Am not going to mop, baste, 50-50 turn, etc., this time around since I did not do that when I hot smoked using an older propane smoker (Great Outdoors Smokey Mountain nearly 10 years old).

Once cooked, will rest for a couple of hours, probably in the oven or maybe the unlit propane smoker.

Brine was the modified Alton Brown and I really like John Henry’s Texas Pig Rub (not from Texas so not the hot version).

Question: Did I miss anything?

Thanks
 
I did a butt on my OTG a few weeks ago, just to try it. Used water pan to catch drippings. Behind bricks, 10-briquette Minion start.

Temps went to 300+ with bottom vents closed. Added water pan above fire, but it boiled away quickly and did not drop temps noticeably.

Finally closed top vent (blasphemy!) to about 25% and that got temps down to 225 or so. All went fine after that.

Let us know how yours turns out.
 
Thanks for the Replies

Thanks for the replies. With the lower vent about 10% open, lid vent at full open and water pan above the coals I maintained about 210 to 213 F all night including nappy time. Temperature went low when high winds that somehow were not in the forecast hit. Managed to hit another low point when my 1 hour appointment became 3 hours. Bumped lower vent to probably 15-20% to get the grate temperature up to 234F (over 100F outside) and expect/hope to have this resting in a few more hours. Have its twin still in the freezer and will try that one with basting or 50-50 turn next time. ET-732 short probes working between the lid and the basin/bowl, probably not a good idea but the 3 foot cables are not going to be used much anyway, 6 footers came in today.
 
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