Sand in the pan ?


 
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Bob McFadden

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Since you are using the sand in the water pan just for a heat sink, will any kind of sand work? Also since sand isn't going to evaporate are you using the WSM pan, or the Brinkmann for the increased volume & area?
 
Bob,

I used regular play sand you can get at the hardware or Home Depot, etc. I'm using the Brinkmann pan because it seems to fit better in the cooker than the WSM pan. Originally it was for the added volume when I was using water.
 
I use the Weber pan for sand and the Brinkman charcoal pan for water. The Weber pan is a little easier for me to put foil over the pan and over the top of the sand because of its shape. I fill it about 1/2 to 2/3rds full with a depression so the fat has a place to settle and hold in the foil. The Weber pan also gives a little more clearance at the bottom so you can heap the charcaol in for the overnight cooks. You do need to carefully place it over the brackets, but I've not had a problem. When the unit has cooled completly, I remove the pan and replace the foil over the pan to be ready for the next cook with sand.

Paul
 
No need to use sand, could just as easily put rocks or marbles or gold bricks in there. Beware that sand does not have the evaporative cooling effect of water, which in practice means if your WSM gets too hot it'll take more effort to get it back down. Water has the unusual property of evaporating and carrying heat away at 212F which is a near-perfect temperature for smoking. That said, with sand the lack of evaporative cooling means you'll use less fuel.

I got the big Brinkman pan and it went all night and part of next morning without needing to have water added.
 
Never used sand, but I am going to give it a try next time I smoke some fresh sausage. The ones on the bottom grate did not have the nice coloring due to the underside being "steamed" from the evaporating water.
 
I think they both have their place. I don't really cook anything (yet) where I feel like the advantages of sand outweight advantages of water. I agree with Jason entirely - in my experience, using the water helps keep temps much more stable. I have tried sand about 5 or so times since around Thanksgiving - all of them took much more effort to keep the temp low and stable then previously with water. But as I started this repsonse, I'm sure sand has its place - like fresh sausage that Mark talked about.

And I blame my recent attempts using sand with my overcooked brisket this past weekend! I got spoiled not having to watch the water levels and had my water pan dry out on me sometime Saturday night! I woke up finding my smoker at about 300* with an empty water pan and an already overcooked brisket at just over 7 hours...live and learn!
 
I've use water for many, many years and have only recently started using sand for overnight cooks. I prefer it. In my experience, you can keep the temp down, but you need to regulate it on the way up. I also usually end up stabilizing with only one vent, maybe barely open. Previously, with water, most of charcaol was gone in the morning and my pit temp had really dropped. With sand I have had less problem with that issue.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Paul
 
Actually, I found out something quite accidently. My sand "pit" was saturated with water during the recent rainstorms. I forgot that I had left it exposed outside . Then my nephew came to visit and he was craving some ribs and brisket. I didn't have an extra bag of sand, so I used the pan as is. Guess what, I didn't have any temperature spikes for the entire 14 hr cook and the meat didn't get burned on the bottom grate. I got the best of both worlds, water and sand.
 
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