Greg McCoy
New member
Howdy! Did my first pork butt last week on my new WSM 18.5" and went very well thanks to all the great info here. One strange thing did happen however and I have not been able to find any other similar issues. I put the pork on the centre of the top grate and almost immediately I had meat drippings (juice) in the heat shield pan. When I noticed this was happening I tucked the roast even more to the centre and it seemed to stop. I used a full water pan but the initial juice seemed to find it's way along the inner wall of the unit down to the charcoal and into the heat shield. After the cook when taking the unit apart the charcoal on the side where the dripping came from was wet and unburned. Now I didn't notice the pork was particularly "wet" when it went on the rack but I suppose it was possible. I took great care when filling the water pan not to overfill or have it splash out and the liquid was definitely meat juice. Any input on how to keep this from happening besides ensuring the meat is "dry" before going on? Every picture I see with loaded up WSMs have meat right to the edge of the cooking grates, did I miss something?
