British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all.
thx for the advice i have received so far.

I notice people on this site talking about using a clay saucer, water or sand to maintain temp.
I am slightly confused, I thought people put water in a pan next to the meat to promote moisture.
Do you put water in next to the meat as well?


thx Martin

I've found the water doesn't add any moisture that i've noticed, i've seen some people saying that water is recomended as a heat barrier as water will only go up to a certain temp's which protects the meat and maintains a lower temp'. I don't know how much of this is true but would make sense to me.

Personally i use a clay saucer as i get better control from the vents and can cook hot when i want to.

Water just acts as a heat sink, helping to stabilise temperatures. I don't hold with the moisture argument personally and it certainly won't put a hard limit on your temperatures although it does make it very difficult to get up high.

For me using water is a pita as it requires topping up, makes for more clean up and doesn't offer the same stability that using clay does. I'll stick with clay

thx guys

water boils at 212 °F, so if you're temp is above that, you'll have moisture on the meat.

Water boiling off from the water pan will make the cooking chamber more moist but what I've found is that this doesn't affect the moistness of the end product.

Do you just put the clay saucer in the water pan?

Yep, but try to make sure that the saucer fits to the edge of the water pan and if you wrap it in foil it will make cleaning a lot easier as well.

Why to the edge of the water pan Ed?

Understood, many thanks