First Waterless Cook


 
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Paul H

TVWBB Gold Member
Did my first waterless cook this weekend. Covered the pan with aluminum foil. FIlled the ring with old Kingsford(still using this stuff up) added 20 lit coals. The temps got up really quick, shut the all the openings down to 1/3. Other than some minor tweeking of the vents it went fine. This was only a short cook. Did a rump roast and a fattie. They both came out great. Definitely will try this again on a long cook. Great not having to clean the pan when done
 
Congratulations on learning you don't need to mess around with a water pan. Its a waste of time and a headace IMO. Switching to sand was the best thing I ever did.
 
Paul,
It doesn't sound like you had any sand in your pan. I have sand in mine and it works great. Now I'll have to try it with no sand. Either way, not messing with the water is a great thing. Much easier. Enjoy.
 
One complaint I have about no pan or an empty pan is that I find the resulting grease smoke to be unappealing.

One or two small chickens wasn't bad, but I did four that way once and I'd never do it again.
 
I'm a sand user, but I've tried an empty pan a few times. For the most part, I found temps to be very unstable with an empty pan. I think it works ok with the Guru because the Guru is able to monitor things on a second-to-second basis. One of my attempts was a small butt cook on a Fall day with a gentle breeze - I'll never forget that one; the wild temp swings had me way busier (and frustrated) than I ever care to be. That was my last try.

I had originally tried the empty pan to make things even easier than sand, but for me, sand has been the best for stability and clean-up.

I also find burning fat quite objectionable, particularly chicken fat. Many here complain about the Kingsford start-up smell, but it's nothing compared to burning chicken fat.

Good luck with your empty/no pan cooks. Post the results of your efforts, and let us know if you figure out any tricks to make it easy -- other than buying a Guru!
 
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