Cooking in "the well"

[Al S.]

Good morning and happy Easter to all!
I’m going to smoke a pre-cooked ham in my Weber kettle with the slow n sear, and was wondering if anyone has cooked with the meat in the lower portion of the kettle next to the charcoal holder, rather than on the grate above it.
The last few times I cooked on top of the grate, the highest point of the ham got slightly burned and dried out.
Thanks,
Al

[Thunder77]

I have not tried it. But I believe that you will have to make adjustments; the temperature will be different down lower in the kettle.

[Al S.]

Agreed, just wasn’t sure of how big a temp. variation. Thanks

[Huskee]

It's way too cool to cook anything down there. I'd suggest not doing that. What's most likely to happen is the top inch or two of your ham will cook and you'll have to rotate it a hundred times. You'll likely have to do that anyway even cooking on the main grate as you noted, to prevent burning the very top, but at least this way you will cook it safely. You can also foil the top as you would chicken/turkey wing tips, to help prevent burning. Tall things are trickier with the SnS for sure.

[Al S.]

Thanks, you probably saved me a lot of frustration!

[Polarbear777]

With a fan controller blowing you can get the temp up down there, but it’s much more efficient to just rotate occasionally on the normal level grate and set the temperature a little lower so the top of the roast is not too hot

In my set ups, there’s at least a 50F difference between the main grate and about 8” up and about 100F gradient down in the well level.

[RichardCullip]

Put a tin foil hat on that ham and cook it on the regular grate.

[smokin fool]

^^^^Agreed, I cook in an aluminum pan with a quarter inch of water, toss in an onion and a few celery stalks then tent it as RichardCullip describes.
30 mins a pound at 275 should do it, un-tent it for the last 20 mins, glaze it and ramp up temp to 400ish.
Did a spiral ham like this yesterday, came out great

[mountainsmoker]

I agree tent the ham. You can do it after it gets some color or take it off for the last bit of time like smokin fool recommends.

[Skinsfan1311]

Good morning and happy Easter to all!
I’m going to smoke a pre-cooked ham in my Weber kettle with the slow n sear, and was wondering if anyone has cooked with the meat in the lower portion of the kettle next to the charcoal holder, rather than on the grate above it.
The last few times I cooked on top of the grate, the highest point of the ham got slightly burned and dried out.
Thanks,
Al

On the assumption that you're going low heat, (since all you're doing is heating it up), once it's gotten a dose of smoke, (after an hour, or so), spray a little OJ on it, double wrap it in foil, an pull that sucker when it hits 135 degrees.

Before it hits the kettle, I spread mustard on it first, then coat it with brown sugar, with a little Memphis dust mixed in.

It's darn near impossible to burn, or dry out. Save the juice, from the foil, to pour over it. We also prefer to smoke spiral sliced hams.

Hope this helps!

[HouseHomey]

Slap some bacon across the top or some buttered chesse cloth. or just do what they 👆said.

As for the bottom I’ve done all kind of stupid stuff. It’s best for holding wrapped small things like baked taters, tortillas and the like.