Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Wow. Starving!

 

Got on almost 30lbs of butts, and of course a couple cans of Spam for breakie this week.

 

I got the pork marinating for the al pastor tacos. I’m going to let it go over night and cook them up tomorrow after work. The marinade tastes amazing so I’ve got pretty high hopes.

 

Made a rookie mistake today, luckily I didn’t ruin my cook. Meat is still in the fridge.

My smoker has a water pan, I’ve seen on here and other sites where people use sand or even nothing at all in that pan. After cleaning this pan of pork drippings that are congealed and stuck to it with the evaporating water the past two smokes this time I decided to try it dry and line with aluminum foil. This led to two problems:

1. I couldn’t get temperatures to go below 280F even with the top and bottom vents closed.

2. The last time I used the smoker apparently I didn’t clean the pan well enough and as the smoker was warming up it was billowing a lot more smoke than normal, and not that delicious hickory smell from the wood. Smelt burnt. I realized it was coming from the empty water pan. The leftover drippings I didn’t quite get out had begun to recook.

Waste of charcoal today.

 

Nothing wrong with using the water pan! Mine runs 100+ degrees hotter without it

 

Yeah, that’s exactly what mine was doing. +100F temperature change.
My goal was easier cleanup with the aluminum foil. Now I know better haha.

 

You can still foil a water pan.. unless yours has built in louvers like mine does! Haha luckily mine is porcelain coated and isn't that hard to clean up.

Grab some Easy Off oven cleaner and spray your water pan liberally and then hit with a heater powerwasher if you have access to one. Makes quick work even on grates and racks etc.

 

What type of smoker are you running?

I haven't used a water pan in my WSM for years. I have gone with the Harry Soo method by replacing it with a heat shield and run it dry. Takes a little while to get used to the temperature differences but here hotter is better for half the year LOL.

Use less lit coals to start with and control it on the way up. Once it gets hot it seems like it is always harder to come down then bring up in temperature.

I never look at it as wasting charcoal no matter what happens. It is a learning experience Or like they say at work a learning opportunity. OK that one chaffs my arse a bit, experience works better let's go with that...

The factory bowl in a WSM is huge and even 18" wide Aluminum foil didn't cover it well. Had water get under the foil seam, one time. It turns into steam and things get ugly quick don't ask me how I know. In fact that was the last time I used a filled water pan.

And now have all types of room in there under it for coals.



I wouldn't give up on ditching the water pan and wrapping a bowl of some type in foil yet. To me it was well worth it and am smoking a lot sooner now that I don't have to heat up a bowl of water first especially when it is below zero let alone below freezing. When done just wrap the foil up and throw it away, ready for the next cook. Unless I have to dump the bacon grease out of it first like yesterday



On the other hand there is a lot to be said for what you already know and works well for you.

 

I snagged a pic of this wonderful tower of pork before I thew it on the grill. Should be done in another hour or so.

 

Pulled pork from Friday/Saturday


Now a 3 lb tomahawk, dusted with salt and unicorn (On Point) rub is on the smoker.

 

For lunch today I pulled some pulled pork out of the freezer and made an enchilada casserole. I am too lazy to roll enchiladas individually. I only had one small can of enchilada sauce so I looked up a recipe to see what was involved in making some from scratch. Never occurred to me until now for some reason. WOW. I will never use canned again. Enchilada sauce is basically spicy gravy. Easy peasy and damn tasty.

 

Recipe or link?

 

Was good. Full now.

 

Great advice, thanks! Tonight it’s getting the water but I’ll look into the Harry Soo method while I’m eating. The smoker is a

$163 Cuisinart COS-118 Cuisinart 18” Vertical Charcoal Smoker, Integrated Thermometer, Water Bowl and Dual Vents Perfect for Smoked Brisket, Chrome Plated Grates Smoker Grill for BBQ, Camping, Tailgates

Cuisinart COS-118 vertical 18” smoker. Water pan is 16.5” wide. It’s pretty flimsy metal compared to the rest of the smoker.

 

Tossed with a tbsp of baking powder and some cookshack chicken rub. Piece of mesquite for flava.

 

If you like crispy the baking powder will definitely help! Did you let them rest in the fridge before throwing them on the heat?

 

Yup on both. Have tried the baking powder with great success before. Let em sit in fridge for about 45 mins

 

Nice! I've gone as long as overnight before and enjoy the crispyness

 

The al pastor pork came out great! I think next time I’ll bump the temp up to 400 as this stuff went about 2 hours at 350 and I didn’t quite get the texture I was hoping for. There were also a couple pieces in the very center that didn’t get 100% done. I threw those back on the grill for a little bit.



Overall my first time with this was a success. I served the tacos with just onions and cilantro. I didn’t get any served pics as I was too busy digging in.