Not A Lot of Bark


 
M

MikeyPT

New member
Hello, first time posting on here as I am a new owner of the WSM 14.5”. I’ve done two smokes on it so far and I love it. It’s easy to setup, clean up, and it stays steady all day. My only concern is that I’m not getting a lot of bark during these smokes.

Formerly, I used do my smokes on my Weber Kettle 22.5” with a Slow N Sear and I had no problem getting bark with that. I’ve used the same exact recipe and cooking temps (hovering slightly above 225), but my food looks completely different from what I cooked on my kettle. And my pork butt takes longer to cook compared to my kettle. Has anybody else experienced this or is there a reason I’m getting different results on these? Thank you!
 
A few questions about your setup,did you put water in the water pan on the WSM? Did you use the water reservoir for the SnS? Anything else that that is different?
 
Ron De Hoogh said:
A few questions about your setup,did you put water in the water pan on the WSM? Did you use the water reservoir for the SnS? Anything else that that is different?
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I used water with both. Nothing else is different other than one being a WSM and one being a SnS.
 
Hi Mikey,
Fwiw I do both of those setups, too. These days, when I use wsm, I up the temp a bit north of 250 and I find that I get better bark that way. I also rarely use water on the wsm.

Took me a lot of cooks to dial-in what works for me now. Good luck
 
I use an 18 rather than 14.

But my learning curve has led me to ditch the water in almost all cases. And I think that helps with the bark. The meat goes in cold and damp (especially if you use a binder for the rub), and then sweats out more moisture as the cook progresses. So I don't think you really need the evaporating water for bark, for smoke absorbtion, or for overall moisture of the food.

IMO, the water in the pan is there mostly to give you a big margin of error for controlling the temps. Once I learned how to control the temps without the speed brake of quarts of water, I saw no reason to continue to use it.

If anything, sometimes I get too much bark. But that is easier for me to control by spritzing (if needed) many hours into the cook. Or wrapping.
 
TCampbell said:
Hi Mikey,
Fwiw I do both of those setups, too. These days, when I use wsm, I up the temp a bit north of 250 and I find that I get better bark that way. I also rarely use water on the wsm.

Took me a lot of cooks to dial-in what works for me now. Good luck
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Gotcha. Did you find that water interfered with forming a bark? Im just worried about drying up the meat without water.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
I use an 18 rather than 14.

But my learning curve has led me to ditch the water in almost all cases. And I think that helps with the bark. The meat goes in cold and damp, and then sweats out more moisture as the cook progresses. So I don't think you really need the evaporating water for bark, for smoke absorbtion, or for overall moisture of the food.

IMO, the water in the pan is there mostly to give you a big margin of error for controlling the temps. Once I learned how to control the temps without the speed brake of quarts of water, I saw no reason to continue to use it.

If anything, sometimes I get too much bark. But that is easier for me to control by spritzing (if needed) many hours into the cook. Or wrapping.
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That’s very helpful. I just replied to another comment about worrying if not having water would dry out the meat. But it makes sense it is more for temp control. So if I’m going to go without water, should I start with less coal being lit compared to having a water pan full with water?
 
A pork butt or brisket is mostly water. Each will lose like 40% of their weight during cooking via evaporation. So you would have to work really really hard to dry one out. So IMO, the water in the pan is there almost entirely to control temp. But of course lots of people cook very successfully using the water pan.

Smoke definitely adheres to cool moist surfaces more than hot/dry. But the meat is cool and wet to begin. Often has a liquid binder like mustard. And sweats while cooking (hence the stall and the need for the Texas crutch). So beyond a few spritzes later in the cook, I just don't see the need for quarts of extra moisture inside the cooker.

If using a dry pan or diffuser, the temp control does have to be more fine tuned. Part of that is using less lit to start. For a long low/slow cook in summer weather, 10-15 lit coals is all my 18 needs to get going. Once you get it down, a benefit is that the cooker (without water) heats up faster and the charcoal load burns longer. Because it takes a lot of BTUs to turn a gallon of water (hot or cold) into steam.
 
Depends on what you consider enough bark?
I also run a 18 ( and a 22) waterless. I get bark ( crispy brown) and my color is more mahogany on butts, briskets, ribbs.
When using water and going L&S overnite you get that black meteorite looking bark.
 
MikeyPT said:
Gotcha. Did you find that water interfered with forming a bark? Im just worried about drying up the meat without water.
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A little bit. But on my Performer, I often use water in the Slow n Sear (I love that thing). I also spritz apple juice and/or water periodically throughout the cook, and I still get a decent bark without it drying out too much.

Have you tried high-heat ribs yet?
 
When I took Harry Soo's class, he recommended not spritzing until after the bark formed and 'set'. He used the fingernail test for that. If you can easily scrape the seasoning off with your fingernail - the bark hasn't set, so don't spritz.

So, I'm inclined to agree that too much moisture (compounded by water in the bowl) will mean it takes longer for bark to form.

Like others here, I run my 18WSM with no water in the bowl and get good bark formation (but I do spritz per Harry's advice).

ymmv...
 
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