I have separated the indirect side from the direct on my 57cm Weber with house brick. The result seems to be better temperature control. It occurs to me that if I were to put a tin of water on the grate just above the bricks, have I got a slow'n sear?
-
-
Full Disclosure, I own Adrenaline Barbecue Company, which makes and sells the Slow 'N Sear. Now that that's out of the way, bricks work, but they can never work as well as the Slow 'N Sear.
The overarching principles that drove my design of the Slow 'N Sear are the following:
1) Radiant heat is the bane of low and slow cooking.
2) Steam helps keep temperatures low, but the production of the steam needs to be consistent.
3) Heat bleeds quickly out of a thin metal container, and slowly out of a double walled air insulated metal container.
4) Consistent temperatures require a consistent burn rate of fuel, and stabilizing all external factors that affect that burn rate.
1) Radiant heat is the bane of low and slow cooking.
The Slow 'N Sear provides a double wall barrier between the meat and the heat. Radiant heat is effectively neutralized regardless of whether water is in the reservoir. Bricks heat up and become heat radiators, so they do not cook as evenly.
2) Steam helps keep temperatures low, but the production of the steam needs to be consistent.
There are two aspects of the water reservoir that make it take your low and slow cooks to a new level. a) The water barrier spans the entire charcoal basket and the charcoal nestles tightly to it. No matter where the heat is, it's delivering a very consistent amount of heat into the water over time. With other methods water is generally placed in a small pan that gets nearer or farther from the heat as the spot where the charcoal is burning moves around. b) The water reservoir is V shaped. This encourages water to boil from the bottom where you have a high ratio of metal to water. That way you're getting a consistent amount of steam whether you have 32 ounces or 8 ounces of water. Together, these two aspects of the water reservoir make steam generation very consistent, which makes your pit temperatures more consistent. Bricks with a water pan offer neither of these features and will give you less consistent steam.
3) Heat bleeds quickly out of a thin metal container, and slowly out of a double walled air insulated metal container.
The outer wall of the charcoal basket nestles against the wall of the kettle, with a thin layer of air in-between. This creates an insulating barrier, and greatly reduces the amount of heat that escapes from the kettle. Think double pane window on a cold winter night. This increases the efficiency of the kettle and is why you'll get 8 to 12 hours of cook time at 225 F on one load of charcoal. Bricks obviously don't give you this efficiency.
4) Consistent temperatures require a consistent burn rate of fuel, and stabilizing all factors that affect that burn rate.
Fire is fueled by air and charcoal. To keep it consistent you need good control over airflow and your charcoal has to burn steadily. The airflow control in a kettle is already really good so we didn't need to do much there. Charcoal, on the other hand, tends to burn less consistently as the briquets get smaller. Pieces get farther apart as they get smaller and pieces fall to the bottom of the charcoal grate. The shape of the Slow 'N Sear charcoal basket cradles the briquets together as they burn down. They burn consistently and completely. Bricks aren't sloped so they don't work as well as the sloped walls of the SnS. The kettle walls don't work as well either due to their curved slope vs the straight slope of the SnS.
So the Slow 'N Sear really is more than the sum of its parts.
Another few things about bricks:
1) They get really dirty over time and become a nuisance to handle
2) They break
3) They can fall over during a cook at the worst possible time, causing you to have to take everything out so you can re-position them -
-
I'm not meaning to say bricks aren't a good tool for setting up two zone cooking. They do that and many folks get by using them. You just can't expect that setup to perform as well as a Slow 'N Sear.Comment
Comment