British BBQ Society Forums

Im planning on cooking a large brisket in around 2 weeks, probably from T&G, ill probably have to use heat beads as BigK are out of stock of ACH15, im wondering if water in the pan is going to affect how long I get out of a full basket of fuel, and whether id be better using something else for what could be a long cook

Id use sand or a clay saucer for a long cook, you won't have to keep topping up the water that way and temperature will be much more stable too

Id use sand or a clay saucer for a long cook, you won't have to keep topping up the water that way and temperature will be much more stable too

BRUN wrote:Im planning on cooking a large brisket in around 2 weeks, probably from T&G, ill probably have to use heat beads as BigK are out of stock of ACH15, im wondering if water in the pan is going to affect how long I get out of a full basket of fuel, and whether id be better using something else for what could be a long cook

I'm probably in the minority in that I do use water in the pan on my WSMs. I have tried without but I've found for me I get more stable temps with the water particularly when opening the lid. You do need to keep it topped up but even on a long cook (12 hours +) you aren't doing that many times.

If water will get me long enough cooking ill stick to using that, its what ive always used so far, but im worried about having to add fuel mid cook, I really want to avoid it if possible

BRUN wrote:If water will get me long enough cooking ill stick to using that, its what ive always used so far, but im worried about having to add fuel mid cook, I really want to avoid it if possible

Use Heatbeads + minion method and you shouldn't have to

I am with Robin on this one. I still use water and find it is a better buffer for the spikes. On a 57WSM I tend to use two chimneys of unlit and half a chimney of lit, Weber briquettes and easily get a 12hr+ cook. I have a watering can for the water and just top it up with hotwater from the tap. Only have to do this the once in a long cook.

I still use water in the pan, haven't experimented with clay saucers or sand and only run a dry foiled pan for hot n fast chicken.

If you want absolute fuel efficiency then using any heat sink is going to be less efficient than just a dry pan as you're wasting energy heating up a mass. A full ring on my 47cm wsm using water would last around 14-16 hours I reckon, my longest cook so far was probably about 12 hours and I still had quite a bit of charcoal left and still had some water left in the pan. So I think water or no, vertical smokers are just quite fuel efficient.

Ben and I have very many experiments on our wsm's in this area and settled on clays saucers. You need to understand that as its a heat sink you don't need as much energy to keep the unit going. Try keep the lid open to a min and you are fine. I have cooked a brisket for 14hrs mids summer on one, yes that's one starter of semi lit big k charcoal. Sat at 250F for the entire time
Sent from my Lumia 820 - WP8.1 device