Indirect Heat?

[David Willis]

I've read some recipes that mention inderect heat, but don't say what that means temperture wise, etc. If I use the WSM in one of those recipes, what temp am I looking for (or is it not even the same thing)?

 

[Keri C]

Indirect heat means that there is a barrier between the heatsource and the food. In the WSM as it is designed to be used, you are cooking with indirect heat because the water pan, whether you're using sand, water, or an empty pan, is placing a barrier between the fire and the food. If you were to leave the waterpan out COMPLETELY, as some of us occasionally do, you would be cooking with direct heat, as the food is directly over the hot coals with no barrier. You get an additional flavor layer when cooking slowly over direct heat because of the meat drippings that fall on the coals. "Traditional" barbecue is done over direct heat, as the meat is cooked 18 - 24 inches (depending on how you learned to do it) over a bed of coals that is periodically refreshed throughout the cook. That's the way my daddy, my grand-daddy, and my great-granddaddy cook whole pigs in the South Carolina low country. Our Okie trailer rig, on the other hand, is indirect heat as it has a log-buring firebox on the side rather than a repository for burning coals directly under the meat.

Most recipes that I've seen that indicate "indirect" heat are referring to smoking temperatures, ie 225 to 250. If you'll post the type and amount of meat in your recipe and the recommended cooking time that it gives, we can probably back into it for you.

D@mn. I still can't wrote a short post. You'd think I'da learned by now. /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

Keri C, still smokin on Tulsa Time /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

 

[David Willis]

Thanks a lot. The one in particular is for a leg of lamb. It says the grilling time is about 1.5 hours for a 5-6 pounder, bringing the internal temp to 145 (rare)

 

[Bob McFadden]

David to cook with indirect heat on the grill, place your coals on one side of the grill. The meat is then placed on the other side, away from the hot coals. Variations of that would be to place the coals around the outside of the grill and the meat in the middle, or coals on two sides and meat in the middle. Place a drip pan under the meat to catch the juices and keep the grill clean. In direct heat cooking the meat is placed directly over the hot coals. I think on the Weber site they show the difference in the two methods. "www.weber.com" Hope this helped you. Good luck with your leg of lamb.

Bob

 

[Keri C]

Hmmm... 225 to 250 for 1.5 hours is not going to be long enough to get you to 145. If you run the smoker to to 325 to 350, You could probably do it in 1 1/2 to two hours. I freely confess that I get this information from one of the Smokering members at http://www.thesmokering.com/HowTo/legoflamb/ , by the way. If you do it like this,

If you run at the usual 225 to 250 temps, I'd say allow about 30 to 45 minutes per lb, being sure to watch your meat thermometer. Here is another recipe for leg of lamb in a smoker, and it also suggests 4 to 6 hours in a water smoker.

Not sure how much I've helped, since I have not experience with lamb... anyone else have much experience smoking lamb?

Keri C, still smokin on Tulsa Time

 

[Paul G.]

I've never understood "indirect cooking" to be in the 250 range. With coals on opposite sides of a kettle or on one side you'll get heat in the 325 to 350 range. This is what I would call indirect cooking and it's what Weber calls it. You can do the same thing with a WSM using an empty, foiled lined pan. I understand smoking to be when you have some type of heat sink in the waterpan such as water or sand.

Paul