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I'm putting them on my WSM tonight ready for tomorrow...brisket is a 11lb beast (with some of the point chopped off as it was originally a 14lb beast and I'm not feeding an army!) and the pork butt has the blade in and is trimmed nicely and they're both rubbed and good to go. Now, should I place the beef on the lower grate and the pork on the upper or veice versa? Squeeze them onto the same lower grill? What should drip on what? Or should I put foil under the upper piece of meat so it doesn't drip!?

Novice question I'm sure, but I'm sure I've read somewhere that one dripping onto the other isn't great.

What do you use in the water pan, water or clay saucer?

The reason i ask this is that i find that when cooking with water the lower grill will be cooler so is better for putting your brisket there.

If you are using clay saucer i find the lower cooking grate is the hotter of the two as you start to get more of the raidiant heat from the clay so is better suited to pork.

I'll be using water, so the brisket would be better suited on the lower grate...what about having the pork drip onto it? Anyone with experience of this? Would it affect the flavour or does it not make any difference? Is it even a good thing?

Maybe I'll stagger them so that there's minimal cross contamination

I wouldn't worry about that as they'll both be out of the danger zone for cross contamination long before you're looking to serve.

where is best to buy a clay saucer?

i had always been using water in the bowl, so am quite intrigued by this but it sounds like a useful solution as I tend to cook for long periods on my WSM

for example tomorrow I am doing a street party with my neighbours

I have 3 pork shoulders, 5 racks of baby back ribs and a beef flank

the pork shoulders will probably go on tonight around midnight at a low smoking temperature, come the morning the flank will be added to the wsm, and a couple of hours later some of the ribs, once either the flank or a pork joint is done more of the ribs will go on

the idea is that guests can come along and graze for a number of hours, not having to add more water during the process would just remove one of the potential hassles.

I got mine from from my local garden centre and only one of them has cracked. I did take my water pans with me in a big carrier bag so i could make sure i got the right size.

I got my clay saucer from Homebase, they've got at least 5 different sizes and are quite cheap compared to most over inflated prices you pay in garden centers

I've cooked for long periods of time and don't use a clay saucer, so it's not a must or anything - also always wondered if the clay saucer ever starts to overflow with dripping fat or anything like that?

Oh and by the way I wasn't on about the hygiene contamination or anything like that...merely flavour contamination with regards to the juices and marinades of the pork dripping onto the beef, however it didn't seem to make too much difference to the beef as it tasted great!

I'm now going to have to up my repertoire to more different flavours and rubs on the pork tho as I've done it the same way 3 times now...variety is the spice of life after all!