Have been passing on the great instructions I’ve been privileged to learn from this site and the pit. Have friends that are even placing water trays in their indoor ovens while roasting, not something I have told them to do but more likely from my emphasis on using a water tray when smoking low and slow. The reason I mention this is that one said friend did a pork roast in his 22†Weber indirect cook and placed a water tray beneath the roast away from the coals. He mentioned he did have to fill up with boiling water during the 4 hour cook. I was wondering is there a difference between water that is boiling / steaming in a cooker for moisture and that of water "evaporation", that I assume was the case with his cook because of the distance of his water tray from the coals. My logic tells me that the boiling / steaming water has a different effect. Evaporation is humidity while steam is a form of cooking. Can anyone shed some light?
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I wouldn't put water in an indoor oven, they're sealed tightly enough that they are naturally rather humid. They're good in a smoker because of the dry heat and the fact that the extra humidity helps with smoke particle adhesion, as well as a heat sink to help moderate temps, in some cases it's even a buffer between the direct heat and the indirect area. All of this is unnecessary in a home oven. And yeah, there's a difference in evaporation (humidity) and water reservoir humidity. A water reservoir adds a LOT more and it adds it in addition to the evaporation which is relatively minor, but depends on meat load. -
The only time I use water in a pan in the oven is to create a two zone cooking environment. The pan goes on the bottom rack and the meat goes on the top rack. The water prevents the drippings from burning in the pan. Not much of the water is gone at the conclusion of the cook.Comment
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Jerod Broussard My smoker has a tray that has 3 sections 1 for wood and 2 water reservoirs of 1.3 gallons each. I use both for my low and slow cooks and refill twice during long cooks. I have a good through flow very noticeable by the steam emitting from the chimney. -
Jerod Broussard Do you think this is overkill. Could this be why my cooks seem to take a shorter time to reach IT than some of the estimated cook times, is my meat steam cooking as well? My results have been very good IMHO. -
holehogg I'm not sure. A wet heat is more efficient than a dry heat. I'm not sure if the steam provided is making a significant difference.
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Interesting discussion. I've never used a water pan in my horizontal. But I do spritz all my meat and I do that frequently. I guess that would be a form of moisture introduction.
I have used a water pan in my vertical but that is for a buffer between the heat and the smoke chamber. I only do that if my temp gets running hotter than I like and I need to buffer it a bit.
I've never had a issue with meat being to dry in either of my cookers.
Myron Mixon is a big fan of water cookers and Lone Star Grillz builds their cookers with a water reservoirs. I think the difference comes in between a water pan vs. a water reservoir. A water pan that allows the water to boil at a high rate is going to assist in cooking the food. After all this is what a food steamer does. We cook sweet corn or potatoes in a steamer all the time.
It boils water at a high rate raising the temp in a steamer to the point where it cooks the food.
A water reservoir usually contains a large amount of water that normally would not come to a high boil but evaporate adding humidity rather than heat.
Imo I would rather see water evaporation rather than evaporation through boiling in my cookers.
Then again I could be totally wrong! There's always that!
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Evaporation takes significant time over days and weeks whereas steam is a much faster reaction resulting from the heating of the water. Anytime your heating the water I would think it’s a process of steaming whereas evaporation happens at room temperature. I’m no scientist either so I could be totally wrong and probably am.Last edited by Butchman; January 20, 2018, 06:05 AM.Comment
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Frozen Smoke Butchman thanks for the comments. My smoker is a vertical with a large CC (22000 cubic inches). my cooks have been with a lot of steam emitting from the chimney and believe the intensity of the steam (heat) is speeding up the cooking time. I made a mod to my tray 2 days ago that has had an impact on the amount of steam being produced (evident by the chimney emission). I only had a lonely chicken and the cook was about an hour, where previous chicken cooks took +- 45 min. When I cook chicken I use a small amount of water with a CC temp of 275* the water boils off after 20 or so minutes and the CC temp gradually rises to +-310* by the time the bird is ready. I think a test with a longer cook is in order to compare notes with previous cook of the same. The more I think about it the more convinced I am that the meat is steam and heat cooking.Comment
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Sounds to me your on the right track holehogg if the water is boiling off in 20 minutes I would say you have effectively created a steamer which is assisting in the cooking process. As I said earlier water boiling rapidly in a vented chamber that contains food becomes a steamer. Take the Slow N' Sear that is pictured on this site. It acts more as a buffer reservoir between the heat and the food rather than a boiling pan of water creating steam heat. I've never seen one of these in action nor have I ever used one but I'm guessing the water in the Slow N' Sear gets to a boil as well. Maybe someone who uses one can chime in.
I think you have to find the balance between the right amount of water in relation to your heat source. You don't want to create a boiling cauldron in your cook chamber but just a nice calm slow evaporation.
But then again I could be totally wrong. There's always that!
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Frozen Smoke I agree with your logic. I will let you know the outcome of my planned test cooks. Fortunately I have made detailed notes of all my cooks since my venture into smoking to compare results.
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