What if I don't foil the water pan?


 
Thanks, Dave. That seems reasonable to me (and I'm only half-anal
icon_biggrin.gif
). Rich
 
I've been putting a disposable foil drip pan on the bottom grate over the water pan. In addition to keeping the fat out of the water pan, it captures your drippings for making sauce. That's important when we do turkey or roast beef.
 
Hmm. Yeah, I was thinking of doing that too. I just picked up a 12" clay saucer today -- made in USA and $4.97! I'll foil that, probably leave HD foil on the bottom and likely add a layer of regular foil lightly over the saucer for cleanup ease. Since I don't know how well the HD foil will perform on the bottom surface and how often it will have to be replaced, I may end up dropping that idea if it will have to be done regularly. Rich
 
I have been using Reynolds heavy-duty since I bought my WSM and foiling the bottom of the water pan.
One foiling is good for many (3-4) cooks, although it does tend to get smoked up pretty well.
 
I've always foiled the top for easy clean up.
Never did see a reason to foil the bottom IMO.

Tim
 
Hi all!

I'm doing my first *real* smoke today. I did baby backs a few weeks back (entire process took just a couple of hours), but this time I'm doing pork butt for 10 - 12 hours. I got everything up and running but when I was putting things together this morning, I went to foil the pan and discovered that my pan is a HECK of a lot bigger than the one in the video. It's so big that a large sheet of aluminum foil wouldn't wrap around all sides of the pan. A long enough sheet would wrap up on 2 sides of the pan, but the other 2 sides were left bare about 2 - 3 inches down from the top because the width of the sheet simply wasn't wide enough. I tried wrapping another sheet around the other way but it got to be a real mess and I decided to abandon it. When I filled the pan with water, I think it took almost 3 gallons (I used a one gallon milk carton and I *think* I refilled it 3 times with some left on the last time). In any case, does anyone else have a newer model with this bigger pan? If so, do you foil or not?

The other thing was, I was following the recipe for The Renowned Mr. Brown (http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork2.html) and filled the charcoal chamber like it says here:

"For this cooking session, I filled the charcoal chamber halfway with briquettes, then distributed the apple wood chips, then filled the chamber almost to overflowing with more briquettes, then nestled the apple, oak, and hickory chunks into the unlit charcoal on top."

Then I added 40 lit briquettes on top as instructed for Minion Method and when I put the WSM together, the water pan hit the top of the coals!! I had to make a bit of a well in the center for the pan to be able to fit all the way down and rest on the hooks inside.

Thoughts anyone?

Jim
 
Ya, that seems to be the case with 18's after 2009 that they are now using the smokey joe lid as the water pan.
I bot my 18 off the showroom floor, turned out to be a 2008 model, so smaller pan. I did pick up the Brinkmann charcoal pan at a Ace hdwr, and use that instead. I like the idea of high humidity in the cook, which topic also seems controversial.
It also seems that a good layer of creosote is one of the keys to maintaining low temps for lengthy cooks, so the more the better.
I also like to collect meat juices in a pan set below the top grate. I cook just for me and the wife, so I've never had occasion for a 2 grate cook.
To sum it up...I don't foil.
 
I put new foil on the water pan for every cook. I figure it costs about 25 cents and the clean up of me and the pan is much easier. I also clean the cooking grate and remove all charcoal and ashes after every use. I've never cleaned a kettle before, but the higher heat tends to make it close to self cleaning.
 
Foil it or not. I have found that when I do I wipe it out anyway to get the leakby. So it is just as easy to not use foil and just dump it out and wipe it right after its cool enough and all the gunk comes right off. If you wait till it cools or the next morning because you drank too much it might take a little effort to clean it all up. So whatever, the main thing is that you just do what works best for you.
 
Originally posted by Dave L.:
I don't know about Chris but the only reason I foil the bottom of the pan is to keep it clean


I don't use water or foil. The only remaining reason for the water pan, is as a heat deflector. So I replaced the water pan with a pizza stone. Then a glazed ceramic planter base sits on the pizza stone, to catch drippings.

And on top of that, I have replaced the bottom meat grate with one of the top sized ones. This means it rests its weight on the side bolts, and not on the ceramic planter base.

The stones retain a bit of heat, which is nice, but mainly, I like having all that space in the charcoal area.
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