I have followed the various threads here about the Weber and decided to buy
one.

I have an operational question I hope y'all can answer.

I want to take out the water pan and smoke my ribs on the high level, so the
pork fat will drip on the charcoal and give up that wonderful barbecue
smell. Will that work? Is there anything special I should know?
cliff, from pgh

clifford payne wrote:
> I have followed the various threads here about the Weber and decided
> to buy one.
>
> I have an operational question I hope y'all can answer.
>
> I want to take out the water pan and smoke my ribs on the high level,
> so the pork fat will drip on the charcoal and give up that wonderful
> barbecue smell. Will that work? Is there anything special I should
> know?
> cliff, from pgh


Welcome!!


Having used my WSM for several months now........I feel qualified to
answer--

Several people in here have tossed the water pan, and cook direct...with
good results.
I kept my pan, and fill it with sand, then foil to alleviate clean-up. I
plan on trying some ribs sans/ pan this spring.....be interesting to see any
differance.
Check out this site, if you haven't already.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/



Where's pgh ??

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:55:24 -0500, "clifford payne"
> reported to us:

>I have followed the various threads here about the Weber and decided to buy
>one.
>
>I have an operational question I hope y'all can answer.
>
>I want to take out the water pan and smoke my ribs on the high level, so the
>pork fat will drip on the charcoal and give up that wonderful barbecue
>smell. Will that work? Is there anything special I should know?
>cliff, from pgh
>
I'd keep the pan for a while anyway. It will give you a heat buffer
while you learn how to control the temp and refuel it when required.
Nothing worse than that worried feeling when you see the temp spiking
up... and we all know that worrying makes the meat tougher. Keeping
sand in it rather than water seems to be the way of the learned.

After some time with that, you can figure out if and when to pull it.
I still haven't after a few years.

I agree with the honourable poster previous to this, sizzling fat is
more of a grilling thing than a bbq thing. I guess you could finish a
rack of ribs on a hot grill to candy the finishing sauce on but you
won't be getting any fat buring that late in process.

Have a great time with it. Let us know about your first experience.
My first was with chicken breasts as the cook was short and I had LOTS
of time to get the temp steady before I started the cook.

HTH,



Wally

"No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit."
Sir Frederick G. Banting

In regards to the sand in the water pan;

Could a guy, or a gal, use rocks in the pan instead? I am under the
impression that the sand functions as both a heat sink and a heat
stabilizer. Has anyone tried rocks in the pan instead of sand? I would think
that rocks may hold heat better than sand?

Thanks,
Steve


"Wally Bedford" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:55:24 -0500, "clifford payne"
> > reported to us:
>
> >I have followed the various threads here about the Weber and decided to
buy
> >one.
> >
> >I have an operational question I hope y'all can answer.
> >
> >I want to take out the water pan and smoke my ribs on the high level, so
the
> >pork fat will drip on the charcoal and give up that wonderful barbecue
> >smell. Will that work? Is there anything special I should know?
> >cliff, from pgh
> >
> I'd keep the pan for a while anyway. It will give you a heat buffer
> while you learn how to control the temp and refuel it when required.
> Nothing worse than that worried feeling when you see the temp spiking
> up... and we all know that worrying makes the meat tougher. Keeping
> sand in it rather than water seems to be the way of the learned.
>
> After some time with that, you can figure out if and when to pull it.
> I still haven't after a few years.
>
> I agree with the honourable poster previous to this, sizzling fat is
> more of a grilling thing than a bbq thing. I guess you could finish a
> rack of ribs on a hot grill to candy the finishing sauce on but you
> won't be getting any fat buring that late in process.
>
> Have a great time with it. Let us know about your first experience.
> My first was with chicken breasts as the cook was short and I had LOTS
> of time to get the temp steady before I started the cook.
>
> HTH,
>
>
>
> Wally
>
> "No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit."
> Sir Frederick G. Banting

> Could a guy, or a gal, use rocks in the pan instead?

What is sand, but ground up rocks. :-) I think the idea is to provide a
thermal mass, and seems like rocks would do the job. Given a typical pan,
the smaller the rocks the more thermal mass you're going to get.

I would be careful about rocks that might 'crack apart violently' when
heated.

John O

John O wrote:
>> Could a guy, or a gal, use rocks in the pan instead?
>
> What is sand, but ground up rocks. :-) I think the idea is to provide a
> thermal mass, and seems like rocks would do the job. Given a typical pan,
> the smaller the rocks the more thermal mass you're going to get.
>

> I would be careful about rocks that might 'crack apart violently' when
> heated.
>
> John O

I just want to repeat your last line, John:
"I would be careful about rocks that might 'crack apart violently' when heated."

Don't ask me how I know this, but it has to do with a campfire and rocks around
the edge, and a much larger fire than the rock ring was intended for.

BOB

> I just want to repeat your last line, John:
> "I would be careful about rocks that might 'crack apart violently' when
heated."
>
> Don't ask me how I know this, but it has to do with a campfire and rocks
around
> the edge, and a much larger fire than the rock ring was intended for.

LOL, same here. Being involved in Scouts for 15 years taught me a few useful
things about fire; this is one of them. Another: both mosquito repellent and
aluminum burn well.

-John O

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 07:35:00 -0600, "~ ElektraMan ~" >
wrote:

>In regards to the sand in the water pan;
>
>Could a guy, or a gal, use rocks in the pan instead? I am under the
>impression that the sand functions as both a heat sink and a heat
>stabilizer. Has anyone tried rocks in the pan instead of sand? I would think
>that rocks may hold heat better than sand?
>
>Thanks,
>Steve
>

I think the whole idea of the water pat is to act as a temperature
stabilizer. Water will only reach it's boiling point before turning
into steam. It doesn't matter how much heat is underneath the water
pan, the water will only be 212 degrees (uncorrected for barometric
pressure).

A pan full of sand or rocks will reach the same temperature of the
fire underneath.

If you learn to use the dampers properly, you can adjust the heat to
where you want it without the water pan. The pan does make it easier
for the novice to keep from cooking at too high a temperature.

I have my water pan covered in foil and I leave it empty. I let the
dampers control the heat. I also find that I prefer not to have steam
in the chamber when smoking. Just my two cents worth.

Mike

"~ ElektraMan ~" > wrote in message >...
> In regards to the sand in the water pan;
>
> Could a guy, or a gal, use rocks in the pan instead? I am under the
> impression that the sand functions as both a heat sink and a heat
> stabilizer. Has anyone tried rocks in the pan instead of sand? I would think
> that rocks may hold heat better than sand?
>

I haven't tried rocks, but they should work. After
all, sand is composed of tiny rocks.

-- Yip

Cliff,

Just yesterday, I smoked three racks of spare ribs on my WSM. I
always use the sand and foil method. It was pretty warm around here
yesterday, and I was able to keep the temp in the 225-250 range on
both racks for pretty much the whole 6 hours. The ribs were as good
as I've ever made.

So I vote for the sand and foil.

Hey, is there any good Q to be had in Pgh these days? I was on
sabbatical there 8 years ago, and there wasn't much to be found. I
went to Wilson's on the North Side, to House of Sauce, and to some
former Denny's-like place a bit east (you can see that it wasn't too
memorable). But nowhere in Pgh did I find really good Q.

--THC

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Cormen Voice: (603) 646-2417
Associate Professor Fax: (603) 646-1672
Dept. of Computer Science Email:
Dartmouth College URL: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~thc/
6211 Sudikoff Laboratory
Hanover, NH 03755-3510
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow! I just re-read this thread, and wanted to thank everyone who took time
to offer me their advice. I learned a lot out of this, and will keep the
list posted about my successes and failures with my WSM!

Pressures of business kept me from actually buying the damn thing until this
week, but I have been smoking with my old New Braunfels barrel smoker.

This is a great place to hang out! Y'all some wild boys!
cliff, from pgh

"clifford payne" > wrote in message
...
> I have followed the various threads here about the Weber and decided to
buy
> one.
>
> I have an operational question I hope y'all can answer.
>
> I want to take out the water pan and smoke my ribs on the high level, so
the
> pork fat will drip on the charcoal and give up that wonderful barbecue
> smell. Will that work? Is there anything special I should know?
> cliff, from pgh
>
>