UDS and heat diffuser?

[cmwr]

Originally Posted by Nemo

I use the pizza pan covered in foil sitting right on my basket as a diffuser almost all the time now. For Thanksgiving did a 17lb brined bird with a couple chunks of applewood on the UDS for the first time. Temps kept at 375-400 with all vents open and the valve maybe 2/3rds open. Put stock, apples, carrots, celery, onion and fresh sage in the pan the rack / turkey was sitting on. Also put same aromatics in the bird. About 2.5hrs in I checked the breast temp and it was at 160 already! I was expecting the pan below full of liquid / stuff to stretch the cooking time but it certainly didn't. Bird was done a full hour before I expected it to be.

So for me and whatever little differences my UDS has (it's pretty standard though I think), a diffuser doesn't seem to make temp variations etc. I think I understand why some like to have the drippings add a flavor dimension but when I went without a diffuser, I got flare up pretty damn quick but with that said, it was usually when I left the lid open too long so it was my fault

Anyway here are some before and after pics.

So you set your bird directly in a pan? That seems to me like it would block any heat at all from getting to the bottom of the bird preventing the bottom from getting browned? Although my family doesn't eat the back anyways. Just wondering?

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by cmwr

So you set your bird directly in a pan? That seems to me like it would block any heat at all from getting to the bottom of the bird preventing the bottom from getting browned? Although my family doesn't eat the back anyways. Just wondering?

Sorry for the very tardy response. No it was a standard roasting pan rack which has enough height to keep the bid from actually sitting in the liquid. That said, the bottom probably wasn't browned but I didn't check :-)