no heat deflector ( water pan)


 
Corey Elks

Corey Elks

TVWBB All-Star
im gonna do some spares and a butt tomorrow. Im gonna try it without any heat deflector in the wsm 18 inch. Am i gonna need to flip often like i was grilling. If not will i burn on the one side to the coals or are the coals far enough away where i wont have to wory about it. Gonna try to keep temps around 275. any input would be great. Also wanna try doing some chicken like this as well. Just dont know what to expect as i always have used some sort of heat deflector. thankyou
 
Corey,I think that the ribs will be far enough away that you won't have to worry about flipping too often. But,without the water pan (heat deflector as you called it),the fat dripping down could cause a flare up and THEN you'd have to flip and move the ribs more often. I'd go with a dry foiled water pan and try that. But that's just my opinion. Let us know how it turns out.
 
Corey, Noe will probably chime in here since he prefers this method, but you're basically talking about cooking UDS style. You'll be ok as long as your cooker is really tight, but if not, you might be in for a ride. If it was me, I'd put a chimney of K in for a dry run and see how low you could keep temps without a pan in there if you haven't tried it yet.

I cooked extensively on my old UDS and personally don't see the point in cooking direct in a wsm. "Fat in the fire" flavor isn't really all that, attracts a lot of flies, and yes, I always flipped butts and briskets at least a couple of times. Lots of guys don't though and leave fat down the whole time. I bet the dome gauge will be nowhere close to the center grate temp, so be careful in how you get 275*. In my drum, I targeted 240* or so by using a gauge mounted on the side, right below the grate, no meat directly over the stem. The center of the grate probably read about 35* higher when using no pan for a deflector.
 
Corey the ribs will do fine, holding temps will be easy, raising or lowering temps as needed if needed are quick. As for the butt i have never cooked a pork butt, have done at least 50 briskets or more this way all have come out great. Remember i only use the top grate never the lower grate.
 
Have you tried modifying your wsm adding a third grate in between the two standard grates this would probably put you far enough away from the fire if you used the new middle and top grate.
 
have not done that mod yet anthony but thanks for the tip. I cant seem to get temps below 300 using this method (no heat shield). all vents are close except top is wide open. should i shut top down a little?
 
Corey, when I do this method I usually end up with the top around 50%. Won't hurt a thing, just don't go any less unless absolutely necessary.
 
When I do this I catch temps about 60-70 deg from my target with about 15-20% then usually settle at 5-10% with a vent temp of 250-275.
 
I could see doing this with ribs, but with a butt, it seems like you'd have a mess to clean up. I'd also be concerned about one heck of a fire. Have fun and let us know how it goes.
 
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