Cooking with sand.- questions.


 
C

Chuck R

TVWBB Fan
I’m going to have an overnighter with a couple of pork butts. I have always used the water pan, but I would like to try the “Sand pan” method. I looked on the “modifications” section and couldn’t find any reference to the sand method. Could some of you sand advocates point me in the proper direction? Can I use my water pan for the sand or do I have to get a pottery dish? Will the sand keep the temp down (225-250) for a 12-16 hour cook?
 
Chuck, Line the water pan with extra wide heavy duty foil and put the sand in about 2.25-2.5". Don't put too much sand in and then you don't have enough room for the grease/juices that accumulate during the cook. Place another layer of foil over top of the sand, being very careful not to poke any holes in the foil. Then when you go to cook, place another layer of foil on top to catch all the grease. Once your cook is done, let the pan cool down and then remove the top layer of foil that has the grease in it and toss in the trash. HTH
 
Be sure to use clean play sand.You can find it at Lowes or Home Depot .I used two or three quarts of sand per pan. I have been using foil only for a year or so now . So far it works well with a Guru , and cooking on top rack only. I use two layers with an air space between them.


Rick
 
Interestingly, i just came in from drying my sand. I was not comfortable with the ACE play sand so i put it in a bucket and washed it repeatedly, drained, washed, etc. but then needed to dry. I put it in the gasser for an hour. Seemed to dry fine. I plan to cook my large butt using sand for the first time. After pulling it from the gasser, I was amazed at how much heat it accumlated and retained, so it seems like a good medium. never used it, so we'll see.
 
I have been using sand for 6 years and like it very much. I have been thinking lately that I would add water to the sand as another heat sink. I figured the water would evaporate an hour or two into the cook then the the sand would be dry and start to heat up. Just curious why you thought it necessary to dry the sand before using it?
 
I only dried the sand b/c i didn't want it to sit around wet for 4 days before I decided to cook with it. Maybe it wouldn't matter, but i felt better to dry it out. If i weregoing to use it within a day or two,I wouldn't worry about the wet sand.
 
Sand is ok-used it for quite some time. For what its worth, I have abandoned it for the Piedmont Pan. Not being an engineer, I can't quote the physics involved but there does not seem to be a need for a heat sink. Just a barrier to the direct heat.

If you cook on both racks, you may want to rotate the meat mid-cook.
 
I have had 15 lbs. of pork shoulder on for three and a half hours now. I run a Stoker and StokerLog on my WSM, and, watching the temperature and fan graphs, I am amazed at how steqdy the temperature is being kept. With water, I would have a temperature fluctuation of +/- 10º and the fan would run for several minutes at a time. I am trying to maintain a grill temp of 225º. Once the dummy hit the “Update Stoker” button with my settings, for an hour I had a low of 221 and high of 227. There was a period of 30 minutes where the temperature ran between 234 and 237, but them it settled back to between 224 and 228 for the last hour and a half. The fan hasn’t even come on for the last hour and a half. The meat temperature has steadily climbed in a straight line from 41 to 127 now. So far, I am really impressed. I am using a fine grade premium sand from HD that I bought two years ago in a 40 lb bag. We’ll see how it goes at o-dark-30 when I am trying to sleep.
 
Chuck, glad to hear that the sand is working out for you.
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Six ½ hours into the cook and it is still steady as a rock with a low of 222 and high of 228. I’m sold on the sand method.
 
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