New to Weber Pellet Smoker’s - water pan?

[Capt Ruff]

Hi fellow Weber Searwood chefs, are you using a water pan? Going to smoke (first time using Searwood) a Boston butt tomorrow and would love to get some wisdom from the group.

 

[GRT1959]

Hundreds of cooks on my Smokefire and never used one yet. Water pans are normally used in traditional smokers to deflect direct heat from the meat and to help keep temps stable, but I always use a catch pan below the meat (w/o water) and pellet smokers run steady. Plus it just seems to make sense to me to not introduce any additional moisture to the inside of the grill. Just my two cents... have a great cook and enjoy the new toy, absolutely love mine!

 

[Capt Ruff]

Hundreds of cooks on my Smokefire and never used one yet. Water pans are normally used in traditional smokers to deflect direct heat from the meat and to help keep temps stable, but I always use a catch pan below the meat (w/o water) and pellet smokers run steady. Plus it just seems to make sense to me to not introduce any additional moisture to the inside of the grill. Just my two cents... have a great cook and enjoy the new toy, absolutely love mine!

The new Searwood apparently has a different flavorizer bar design then the Smokefire. The wetsmoke accessory for the Smokefire won’t work with the Searwood. It doesn’t look like I can fit a catch pan under the grate. We’ll see how this goes. Thanks for your input.

 

[Dougr]

I have literally hundreds of cooks on both the Smokefire and the Searwood. For what it's worth, on slow cooks I almost always use a water pan. As GRT1959 said, it helps to deflect the heat giving you more of an indirect heat source. This does help to even out the cooking temps. I believe that it helps to prevent the meat from drying out. On the "downside", I have found that it increases your cooking time.

I almost always use the top rack to cook on my Searwood, the water pan fits nicely under what I am cooking. I am going to cook a 15# turkey for Thanksgiving and I won't be able to use the top rack. I have a thin tray with a wire rack that I use for making jerky. I am going to try putting some water in the pan and the turkey on the wire rack, on the bottom cooking surface.

 

[GRT1959]

The new Searwood apparently has a different flavorizer bar design then the Smokefire. The wetsmoke accessory for the Smokefire won’t work with the Searwood. It doesn’t look like I can fit a catch pan under the grate. We’ll see how this goes. Thanks for your input.

I should have mentioned that I have the larger Smokefire... before I bought it I had cooked on Traegers, a Z Grill, a Recteq and a Green Mountain and didn't really like the grease drainage setups on any of them so I after shopping around I decided to get the Smokefire EX6 because it's big enough to do most of the cooking on the top grate and use catch pans or foil on the lower grate. The top is big enough for two huge packers or 5-6 large butts, and cleanup is as easy as brushing pellet ash out the grease drain in the bottom of the grill. To be sure I was a little frustrated when Weber released the Searwood (to "eliminate the shortcomings of the Smokefire") two years after I bought my EX6, but I've had zero issues with it and it's been as reliable as can be.

 

[Capt Ruff]

Put the Butt on the Searwood around 6 this morning. Ran smokeboost for about 90 minutes and now it’s just low and slow. Let’s see how this goes.

 

[primeone]

Welcome to the forum @Capt Ruff . What rub are you using? Let us know how it comes out!

 

[Capt Ruff]

@primeone Heath Riles Competition Rub with a sprinkling of Church BBQ Holy Gospel - 90 minutes smokeboost 9.5 hours at 250 degrees. Burned approximately 16lbs of Weber Apple pellets. Water / Drip pan on bottom grate, cook on top grate, occasionally spritzing with 50/50 apple cider and apple cider vinegar mixture. Wrapped in butcher paper when reached 170 degrees internal temperature and moved to the kitchen oven for remaining cook. 2 hours in oven at 250 degrees, pulled when internal temperature reached 200 and put in cambro box to rest for two hours. 16 hours total cook. I’d rate my first cook as an 8 out of 10, not bad.

 

[tlbignerd]

Out of curiosity, why did you move it to the oven for 2 hours at the end?

Other than, you know, to make the house smell awesome.

 

[GRT1959]

Out of curiosity, why did you move it to the oven for 2 hours at the end?

Other than, you know, to make the house smell awesome.

I've moved to the oven a few times on longer cooks for convenience or to avoid a fast moving blizzard or rain. But I prefer to finish in the smoker, probably more for the sake of my pride than anything. And some folks may disagree but you continue to pick up smoke flavor after the first few hours, which is one reason why I never wrap anything until after it reaches target temp.

 

[tlbignerd]

Yeah, I bring it in sometimes if it cooks too quickly on my PBC and needs to stay warm, or I run out of fuel, or the rain issue hits.

I agree on the flavor. I also think it builds a bit more bark over time, which our family loves.

 

[GRT1959]

Yeah, I bring it in sometimes if it cooks too quickly on my PBC and needs to stay warm, or I run out of fuel, or the rain issue hits.

I agree on the flavor. I also think it builds a bit more bark over time, which our familily loves.

I hear ya - had a PBC for years and steady temps are hard to maintain, but I had a hard time choosing between moving up to a real drum smoker with better temp controls or getting a pellet grill, and I ended up with a "fake 'n bake."

Bark is the other reason I never wrap until target temp is reached, but my final step is always to wrap in foil, then in towels and then place in a cooler to hold. Larger pieces of meat like a brisket or whole turkey will hold for hours and I think the extra time holding at temp without cooking helps the meat to relax and soak back up its juices.

 

[tlbignerd]

I think at this point I'm going to have the PBC (for an easy set and forget and don't clean much), Searwood, and an older upright gas smoker on my deck. Want to get rid of the gas one, but my father in law uses it each Thanksgiving.

I remember being shocked how warm the meat stays after a simple wrapping and sitting in a cooler. I definitely think the resting makes the meat easier to separate.

 

[Capt Ruff]

Out of curiosity, why did you move it to the oven for 2 hours at the end?

Other than, you know, to make the house smell awesome.

Was running low on pellets, figured moving it to the oven after wrapping it in butcher paper wouldn’t have an impact on the quality.

 

[tlbignerd]

Ah, that makes sense.