Clay pot base in place of water pan?


 
Do you get a better bark on you meat using the clay pot. My bark is allways on the moist side i thought it was from the moist heat well smoking do to the water pan
 
Hello folks,

Can one of you guys take a picture of your clay pot base sitting inside your water pan.
How deep is the clay base?. What's the distance between the bottom of the clay base to the top of the waterpan?.

Thanks in advance..

DarrenH
 
I would be curious if this method would work well for ribs. I am doing my first BRITU right now, the fires not even lit yet, but Im getting started soon.

It would be nice to see if anyone else had sucess with their ribs doing it this way.
 
Originally posted by Jay Lopa:
Do you get a better bark on you meat using the clay pot. My bark is allways on the moist side i thought it was from the moist heat well smoking do to the water pan
Click to expand...

Before the ribs go in dry them thoroughly. Use paper towels, cotton cloths, whatever you have on hand. Get them as dry as possible. Sprinkle on the rub. Fridge 'em. Get the unit almost up to temp, and toss them on. Smoke relatively heavy for the first 30 minutes, then nothing. Keep the temp at 225º or so.
 
I tried a ceramic saucer in my WSM this weekend and loved it. Temps were VERY stable.

Cleanup was very easy.

I have no intention of ever putting water in mine.
 
What about using a "pizza" stone?

I now use a guru.. no more water for me.

currently, i leave the pan dry, toss in a few aluminum foil balls,and have the pan covered in foil.

seems to work o.k.. thinking pottery would be better..
 
I just started using the Piedmont Pan method along with the clay saucer nestled into the top pan and foiled. Longer burns and cleanup is a breeze. Be sure and use the Minion Method for lighting and adjust the temps on the way up. I held 250* at the lid for over 12 hours, when I closed my vents to shut it down it was still at 248*. Let it cool over night and the next morning my cleanup consisted of folding up the solid grease within the tin foil and dropping in it the trash can.
 
I'm two hours into my cook with the foiled clay pot mod. This is a great mod.. I'm cooking ribs and pork loin filets. The ambient temp is 35 degrees, it's windy, with some snow flurries. I have a double charcoal grate and the charcoal ring is half full. As Dino indicates, you have to control temps on the way up but this is not hard to do with the wsm. Right now two vents are opened about 1/2- 1/4, one is closed. The lid temp is 235-245. So far everything looks great. Under these weather conditions, the clay pot seems to be the right solution. Once the ambient temps rise to the 80's or 90's this summer, I will probably return to water to keep temps low. The clay pot I'm using is stamped number 36 made in Italy, 14" diameter (purchaed from Home Depot for approx. $5.00). The second grate is sitting on top of the clay pot and is approximately 1/4 inch above the straps. The water pan is well foiled, and the clay pot is well foiled. This possibly accounts for grate not touching the straps, although I will have to verify this for sure when my cook is done. However, the grate resting on the pot is still sturdy and I don't think it will pose any problems on the cook or on convection. Granted, I have nothing cooking on the second grate at this moment but I can't see how a cook would be impacted.

With regards to moisture, I just took off the pork loin fillets and they were still moist. I don't see any difference in cooks with water.

In summary, the clay pot mod. is defintely the right choice for colder weather. Mike

Update: Had a successful rib cook, lasted for 5 hours. WSM was very responsive to the vent settings. Felt like I was adjusting the dial on an oven. I don't get this type of responsiveness with water, as it is continuously being evaporated. In the last two hours of my rib cook, I opened the vents 3/4 to full, and easily attained 250 to 275 at the lid. When the cook was over and WSM was cool, I checked for fuel consumption. To my amazement, I had used approximately 1/4 of the charcoal ring full of charcoal.

The clay pot was very hot to the touch while I was taking the top layer of foil off with the drippings right after my cook. The clay pot kept the temps very consistent. Very impressed. Mike
 
Mike, it was close to 80* here when I first used the clay saucer, 250* lid temps for close to 14 hrs. I was also using the Piedmont Pan mod in conjunction with the clay saucer. See my post on the Piedmont Pan mod with no drilling just a little below this thread. I don't think that summer heat will be all bad unless you have your WSM in full sun.
 
Dino,

With the cold ambient temps here in New England for the winter, fall and now srping months, the clay pot mod. is better than water.

As you know, water keeps the temps low and most of the time you are opening vents to keep your target temp from decreasing.

Conversely, the clay pot keeps temps high and you are closing vents to keep target temp from increasing. If the ambient temps are colder, I'd rather be fighting this battle.

It seems that you would have to be extra vigilant to make sure the temps don't run away on you when the outside temp is in the 80's or 90's. But if it works for you in SC there's no reason why it wouldn't work here. I'll have to try it in the summer.
 
Mike, I will have to advise as we get closer to summer temps. Eighty degress in April is a whole different ballgame compared to the mid to high nineties we get in the dead of summer. Sometimes in answering post it is very easy to reply based on our individual experiences and not taking into account the weather and temps that another member may be facing. I'm just so excited that I don't have to mess with that nasty water pan....for now anyway.
 
I used a clay pot base last summer in high 80°'s and low 90°'s...no problem.

It functions much the same as sand in the water pan--it is a heat sink and will keep your temps stable while at the same time allowing higher temps (if wanted) and less charcoal use.

If temps are brought up slowly and monitored until you reach stability, there is no reason that I can think of that would make higher ambient temperatures a problem.

The clay pot base is a heat sink not a heat source per se. It doesn't burn and it's not going to add anything to the heat that you are controlling at charcoal ring.

just my two cents...
 
I have no reason to doubt you guys, but I will experiment with this issue this summmer. What I can tell you, however, that my last several cooks in very cold weather with water has required much more than one bag of Kinsgford, all things remaining equal such as wind. If I had to make a reasonable prediction based upon pure common sense, there's no reason why I couldn't control the temps with a clay pot with very hot weather but my prediction is that it would defintely take more vigilance as the temp fluctuations would be more rapid and drastic. That's my best guess.
 
Originally posted by Tormod Eikill:
What about removing the water pan completely and use only the clay pot base?
Click to expand...

I have done that. Our local WalMart has a 16" clay pot base (terracotta) that fits exactly into the water pan brackets. It is $ 8.50. In addition, I placed a 15" shiny steel pizza pan on top of the clay base to catch drips and reflect any radiant heat.

I used this configuration to cook a beef bottom round roast at 250F for seven hours, until it reached an internal temperature of 190F. I foiled the roast when it reached 160F internal. The roast turned out moist, tender and held together when it was sliced.

Here are links to a writeup of the cook and the recipe:

BBQ'ed beef bottom round cook with only clay pot base.

WSM BBQ'ed Beef Bottom Round Roast Recipe.

Rusty
 
Well my clay pot base lasted all of 2 cooks and has a crack through the center, I'll try some JB Weld and see if it holds up? In the meantime I used my waterpan and a pizza stone and it held steady 235*-250* for some spares the other day.
 
Well my clay pot base lasted all of 2 cooks and has a crack through the center, I'll try some JB Weld and see if it holds up? In the meantime I used my waterpan and a pizza stone and it held steady 235*-250* for some spares the other day.
Click to expand...

Your pizza stone may be the ultimate way to go. It's designed for oven temperatures and repeated heating and cooling cycles. Clay plant saucers are not.

Rusty
 
Well my clay pot base lasted all of 2 cooks and has a crack through the center
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Brian, just curious, were you using the clay pot base inside of the stock pan, or just the clay pot base above the coals? I use the clay pot base inside the stock pan, which should help to prevent this type of problem since it should reflect some of the direct heat away from the clay pot base.

Just for the fun of it, you could try taking the clay pot base back where you bought it and tell them it cracked from normal smoker usage, and see what kind of confused look you can generate.
 
David- Yeah, I was using the clay pot base right on the waterpan braket. I brought the WSM with me and tried a bunch of them until I got the right fit, you should have seen the looks I was getting from everyone!
OK- I picked up an ECB for $5 off CL and was thinking of bolting the waterpan to the charcoal pan and using them in the WSM-any thoughts?
I also found another pizza stone and foiled them together and they fit perfectly in the WSM waterpan now.
 
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