River Water in Water Pan?


 
Don Cash

Don Cash

TVWBB Gold Member
Going camping this weekend with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and his kids and my daughter. No electricity or potable water but there is a river. I'd run the smoker dry if it wasn't for my in-laws...running wet is more in my comfort zone.

Anyone see any health concerns with using the river water in the pan? We're bringing bottled water to drink but I don't want to pack water for the cooker if the river water is OK.

I'm thinking that it should be fine since the water adds nothing to the flavor, only acts as a heat sink and any contact between the meat and water will be in the form of steam.

What do you guys/gals think?
 
Go clay pot. You'll never use water again
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mark D:
Go clay pot. You'll never use water again
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Planning on converting to dry this Summer but cooking for the in-laws is no time to experiment with a new technique...
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The EPA says to "Boil filtered and settled water vigorously for one minute (at altitudes above one mile, boil for three minutes)" to make it safe to drink. This chart indicates that you should autoclave unwrapped items at 250 degrees for 15 minutes to sterilize them. I think the typical WSM cook would exceed both of those guidelines.
 
To me,that kind of falls in the same catagory as "Would you eat tomatoes grown over a septic system drain field?" It might not hurt you, but I don't know that I would want to. I've seen some pretty gross stuff floating in rivers!
 
Steam is more pure than your tap water.
IMO, as long as food, hands, etc stay out of contact, there should be no problem.

I'll delete this post if we don't hear from you after the trip
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X2 on the septic tank tomatoes, I can eat the cr*p of of them!
 
Personally I would boil it ahead of time. Using it in the WSM without purification may lead to foriegn deposits (minerals and the like) permeating your food.
 
Just my two cent's but there are a lot of things going on in river water. When that water is heated and the steam is released it could put off a smell that might attach itself to the food giving it an off flavor. Really what would it take to bring a few extra gallons of poland spring, for the sake of being safe.
 
It's easy with the dry clay method! Minion it and set the bottom's at 15-20% and it will be rock solid!!! I promise!
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We go on a fly in fishing trip every year. The camp we stay at only has unfiltered lake water for cooking, cleaning and drinking. With being flown in weight is a serious issue and it's either we fly in with beer or bottled water. Beer always wins so we drink the lake water. None of us have ever gotten sick and the food always tastes great. As long as the river isn't down stream of a industrial area or a lot of farms you should be ok.
 
Gonna put on my science hat for just a sec....

Boil the water prior to putting in your smoker. The reason for that is in case there is anything in the water that has a lower boiling point than water. If you boil before cooking then the methyl-ethyl-bad-stuff will be gone by the time the water boils. Having said that. If there is anything in there that has a higher boiling point than water then it might get on your meat.

You can purchase activated charcoal filters at most outdoor/camping stores that will filter out varying levels of chemicals based on degrees of filtering. I would filter the water after boiling (and cooling). The small price of the filter would be much less than getting somebody sick. Not trying to scare you but I would take it a little seriously.

Science hat off, beer drinking hat back on.

Russ
 
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