Clay Saucer Method

[philnewts]

Indeed they were like an on and off switch.

[All Weather Griller]

How did you feel about the dryness argument?

[philnewts]

Hard to say - as I used a much smaller pork shoulder and I was a little impatient as I was cooking for friends for the England match. I only cooked it until it hit 185 as people were getting hungry....

It did not pull as well as my previous attempt and the bark was not a crispy, although I did also cook it on the lower level closer to the pan.

The ribs on the top stacker came out well and it was hard to tell the difference from the previous cook with water.

My chicken and its newly formed rubber skin was a different issue entirely

Certainly not going to mess about with water next time - clay is the way.

[SunofTzu]

Adie...Thanks for the tip on this..I have a ProQ Frontier and the 36cm saucer fits fine. In fact this seems a little too good, having loaded up the same amount of charcoal (and even less lit than usual) for the minion method that I would use with water in the pan I'm actually having problems getting it down to 225F...even with all the vents almost fully shut (I realise that the Frontier isn't top of the range and chances are it's leaking somewhere plus a black vertical bullet in hot sunshine doesn't help ) but it's doing nicely at around 250F ...7 hours burn time so far and no refill needed...previously 5-6 hours was the norm for me...very impressive. Will post on any noticeable difference in moisture...may be difficult to make a reasonable judgement as I'm trying a new lamb recipe so no comparable benchmark.

[Update] In the end it was still going after 11 hours (although I had to open the vents after 10) so it was starting to run out of steam but impressive none the less. Moisture wise...didn't really notice much of a difference so this looks to be the way to go for me in the future

[DEANSKI]

What do you think about the moisture debate? I want to try this method especially after fighting low temps (see other post), but do not want to dry out the food.

Hi there,i use my Weber all year round,just purchased an Excel & new to Smoking.
Q:How do i Season my Smoker?
Where can i get Smoke Wood from,cos i looked up some & seem's a lot of Money,do you know of any cheaper Site's??
Thank you for any advice,
Hope this Message get's though as im new to all this.Thank's Guy's.
Regard's Deanski.

[Steve]

Hi Deanski,

In response to your first question, I'd start out by giving your Excel a run for about two hours with just charcoal and wood in there, no food. After that she'll be good to go. There will be an improvement in her behaviour over the fisrt ten or so cooks as the seasoning builds up and the seals around the stackers improve.

As for smoking woods, my first suggestion would be to email Paul at http://www.smokingwoodsupplies.co.uk. We get all our wood from Paul and he is a top bloke. Prices are reasonable for good sized chunks, if you're local to him you'll be able to collect but if not then he will ship out to you. Shipping adds a bit to the cost but his prices are very sensible.

I'd recommend starting out with some oak and some cherry, or maybe some apple. I find that apple is generally easier to come across for free than the other woods, at least once a year I have friends who are cutting back an apple tree and apple also works well when it's still green which is an added bonus.

[philnewts]

Hi

My saucer cracked during the cook... Is this normal?

Anyone else had this?

[All Weather Griller]

Hi Phil,

I haven't had one crack, did you put the saucer in your pan? My mates cracked when he fitted it on its own in the smoker but his is the smaller WSM. I don't think it should make much difference, the mass is still there.

Cheers

Adie

[philnewts]

Yea, it is foiled and in the water pan.

[Steve]

One of mine has cracked. I bought a cheapo one £5 from Homebase and one from a local garden centre £10. One cracked first time out and the other is still going strong. Can you guess which one cracked

I still use the cracked one though, it's in 2 clean pieces so I just foil it up as one piece.