I did 5 slabs of ribs on my 18 WSM yesterday.(I don't think i would want to try 6) I have been doing it only a couple slabs at a time in the past,with good results,no water in the water pan. But yesterday most of while they were cooking i got a burn't bacon smell. After cleaning things up today,i realized the smell was coming from grease drippings burning in the water pan. It never happened with only a couple slabs for some reason.
I normally do ribs at 275,but yesterday when i smelled the smell,i backed off the heat to 225 -250. You can't taste it(or I can't anyway). Yes,I foil the water pan,and some grease got between the seams,but i don't feel that is what really caused it.
I am starting to see where a Pizza pan in the water pan might help hold the grease off the bottom so the grease doesn't burn.
I feel it happened because with 5 slabs I had a lot more meat(and grease),and had to have a hotter fire to maintain temp/hence the burning grease. But IDUNO. Anybody got any bulletproof methods to keep this from happening,besides using water in the water pan?
TIA... Fred
I normally do ribs at 275,but yesterday when i smelled the smell,i backed off the heat to 225 -250. You can't taste it(or I can't anyway). Yes,I foil the water pan,and some grease got between the seams,but i don't feel that is what really caused it.
I am starting to see where a Pizza pan in the water pan might help hold the grease off the bottom so the grease doesn't burn.
I feel it happened because with 5 slabs I had a lot more meat(and grease),and had to have a hotter fire to maintain temp/hence the burning grease. But IDUNO. Anybody got any bulletproof methods to keep this from happening,besides using water in the water pan?
TIA... Fred