water pan ?
 

Guys,

Do you all use the water pan with the Bandera? If you do? Do you use exclusively water, a mix or what?
In the past I have mixed about 2/3 water with 1/3 apple cider vinegar.

We have a couple of threads that cover that. Somewhere in the archives. We have basically determined that anything that goes in there does not impart flavor to the meat you are cooking, but gives a nice odor to the surrounding area and will make the neighbors come out in droves. The purpose of the waterpan is to both act as a heat sink (helps stabalize against temperature swings), and to add humdity to the smoke chamber.

Some of us have switched over to sand in the pan. This allows the heat sink capabilities, and when covered with foil, minimizes the clean up afterwords.

Find those threads that discuss that and then make your own mind up.

I changed to a 11"X9"X2" cake pan. 3 bucks at the dollar store.
I put mine on the bottom shelf and changing over gave me back a shelf lost to the deep standard pan.
Greg is right on about the usefullness of the water. I throw in a sliced apple and maybe an old orange and some spices we use for nothing else.
Draws neighbors right to my drive and they even bring a brewskie sometimes.
Hope this helps-- and WELCOME to the forum.
We are almost neighbors. :D
TIM

Re: water pan ?
 

I've used just water, a mixture of 50-50 water and apple juice, water and cut up apples, water and cut up pears, water and cut up onions.......
And some use sand in the water pan.It definitely has been a topic of conversation before. Greg pretty much nailed it, I just added.

My first several cooks when consistent temps were hard to come by, I would add cold water or ice when I got things too hot. Have also added boiling water when low if temps were down to help get back up to speed a bit quicker too. Doesn't take long to get past this but until you get more comfy with fire control its a nice crutch.

$3 at the dollar store? What's wron with this picture?

Guess it used to be just one dollar-now it is "wron" to call it just a dollar store :lol:
TIM

The Bandera designers call it a water pan for a reason.

If you should use sand, they would have called it a sand pan.

Try adding "bolling sand" into the pan to help get the chamber up to temp quickly on a cold day.

Water only here. And throw in a nything in the refrigerator that is a border line science project. Old friut., herbs, veggies... if it grows from the ground, it can go in. Rosemary in the waterpan is great if your doing lamb.. yard smells incredible...


go ahead dflittle... bury the waterpan next to the lamb when im done. :)

Greg

You forgot the Dog **** Mod

Not only is the flavor of Dog **** imparted on the meat, when you fill the pan with dog turds, it also smells like burning dog ****, so the nice odor you speak of is also negated.

Thats farking hilarious!!!! Woke up the OL i was laughing so hard. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I use sand and the occasionally kitty turd seems to add something to it as well.

Try a little cayenne and garlic powder dusted on the cat turds.

I tried chorizo in the water pan once, :shock: don't think it did much for the flavor of the stuff I was smoking, or the chorizo :cry:

This is the definitive thread on water vs sand.

http://www.bandera-brethren.com/inde...asc&highlight=