Good Eats: Right on Q 8/6/11

[Matt_A]

Not only is the meat affected as to moisture, the steam acts as a natural filter as to the smoke.

Probably why it's been used for many, many thousands of years (first found and dated to about 4000 BC: about 6000 years ago) in pipes.

The moisture in the smoker doesn't 'add' moisture to the meat, what it does is prevent the cooling effect of rapidly evaporating moisture. Think about walking in 15% humidity at 110º, and then walking in that same temperature at 90% humidity. You'll sweat just as much in both cases, but in the low humidity your sweat evaporates very rapidly and provides a surface cooling effect. The high humidity prevents that evaporative cooling, thus you notice the sweat rolling down into your eyes and it 'feels' hotter.

The water pan also acts as a heat sink to moderate the cooking temperature. It takes tons of energy to heat water to the boiling point and even more to generate steam. So part of the radiant heat from your fire gets used to heat the water and create steam and never gets to your meat.

 

[bover]

The moisture in the smoker doesn't 'add' moisture to the meat, what it does is prevent the cooling effect of rapidly evaporating moisture. Think about walking in 15% humidity at 110º, and then walking in that same temperature at 90% humidity. You'll sweat just as much in both cases, but in the low humidity your sweat evaporates very rapidly and provides a surface cooling effect. The high humidity prevents that evaporative cooling, thus you notice the sweat rolling down into your eyes and it 'feels' hotter.

The water pan also acts as a heat sink to moderate the cooking temperature. It takes tons of energy to heat water to the boiling point and even more to generate steam. So part of the radiant heat from your fire gets used to heat the water and create steam and never gets to your meat.

Excellent explanation Matt. It's also my understanding that when meat is in the presence of active heat, it is constantly working on wringing out any moisture contained in its cells. During this process, external moisture is not going to go back in to the meat no matter how moist of an environment you may have. The best ways to combat dry meat is to increase the amount of moisture in the meat before cooking (brine, injection, marinade, etc.) and to also give the meat a good rest after cooking so the proteins can relax and the rest of the present moisture can get redistributed.

As others have pointed out, moist convection is more efficient that dry convection when it comes to delivering heat to the meat so the presence of moisture inside the cooking vessel will indeed help with the collagen->gelatin conversion process, but it doesn't do anything to increase the 'moistness' of the meat itself.

 

[SteevieG]

I saw the show. My wife actually caught wind of it and recorded it for me. She's a good woman.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Interesting science facts. I have to agree with the concensus here and say that it was more of an introductory show. This is the premis of all his shows for the most part. Yeah, more advanced BBQers could find things not to like but keep in mind that not everyone has a UDS or a stick burner or a nice Weber kettle. Most of us have all those. AB showed folks how to make a nice meal for a low introductry price point. With any luck, some of the viewers will try that idea and see how rewarding BBQ can be. If we get lucky, some of those folks will find their way here. If that's the case, we benefit. In any case, if AB directed anyone to the world of BBQ and they find a home in this manner of cooking, he was successful in his quest.
I'd still do the bone-in thing though. Maybe he should have called ME and I'd have hooked him up with my toilet tank cold smoker. :-D

Tell me more about this, please............

 

[Redhot]

Wish we still had cable, used to love watching his show.

 

[btcg]

The moisture in the smoker doesn't 'add' moisture to the meat, what it does is prevent the cooling effect of rapidly evaporating moisture. Think about walking in 15% humidity at 110º, and then walking in that same temperature at 90% humidity. You'll sweat just as much in both cases, but in the low humidity your sweat evaporates very rapidly and provides a surface cooling effect. The high humidity prevents that evaporative cooling, thus you notice the sweat rolling down into your eyes and it 'feels' hotter.

The water pan also acts as a heat sink to moderate the cooking temperature. It takes tons of energy to heat water to the boiling point and even more to generate steam. So part of the radiant heat from your fire gets used to heat the water and create steam and never gets to your meat.

The moisture in the smoker doesn't 'add' moisture to the meat, what it does is prevent the cooling effect of rapidly evaporating moisture. Think about walking in 15% humidity at 110º, and then walking in that same temperature at 90% humidity. You'll sweat just as much in both cases, but in the low humidity your sweat evaporates very rapidly and provides a surface cooling effect. The high humidity prevents that evaporative cooling, thus you notice the sweat rolling down into your eyes and it 'feels' hotter.

The water pan also acts as a heat sink to moderate the cooking temperature. It takes tons of energy to heat water to the boiling point and even more to generate steam. So part of the radiant heat from your fire gets used to heat the water and create steam and never gets to your meat.

Matt,

Your analogy is incorrect:

Google "steaming" and read the Wikipedia article (oddly, the software here crashes when I try to post the link)


We've been using steam in cooking for centuries, at least.

Note the part that says:

The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food.

The heat-sync effect is a non-issue: starting with hot water, and the fact that the Backwood's is a well-insulated smoker negates this. The builder tells me that BW smokers will cook efficiently in temps as low as 40 degrees below zero.

I initially did a much more detailed explanation about the pressure heat applies and the role the injection and fan I use plays into the cook, but I keep getting a parse error. Oh well.

Hope this helps.

 

[MoBettaQ]

I have to say I like Alton. But then, I'm an engineer. For me, his shows are not so much about cooking great food as the science and nutrition aspects of whatever he's about that day. Bottom line, I thought he could have done better.

I liked:

• Wood smoke components vs temperature. Really interesting. I'll be thinking about how to char my smoke wood at the lowest temp I can the next time I do some Q. Like put the wood in pan/foil over the fire, rather than mixed in. Brethren, any comments/experience here? It would be interesting to correlate the temp info with the qualities of "thin blue" vs "thick white" smoke.
• Water to moderate temperatures. This is probably most useful to those using a kettle or gasser that doesn't have much separation between fire and meat. A kettle has a fairly large temp range from grate to top. I'll have to compare the range with and without a water pan.
• Foil shield for the near-side meat. Again, useful for compact smokers.
• Tweaking the tank valve on the gasser to get it down to the desired temp.

I didn't like:

• Relegating a Weber kettle to the end of the show as an afterthought. To add insult, making more of a controller that costs 150% of a new kettle! (no dis to the IQue) Seems to me that a new or used kettle is much more likely to be something a potential Q'er could wrap their heads around than his army box. A used kettle would cost less, take a few minutes to set up, and be useful for grilling and roasting as well! A minute of video on getting the kettle lid and vanes to seal well, the offset fire (bricks would have upped the game there), top vent open and across from the fire and barely cracking the bottom vent would have been a fine service to the thinking-about-Qing masses everywhere. In his defense, he did show an offset fire, foiling the open side, (though he didn't describe forcing the air through the coals), and lighting only a few briquettes.
• No sauce. Point taken about covering up bad Q. But no sauce? Really?
• Boneless butt. I've always found bone-in cuts of anything tastier and worth the extra work.
• Dissing the time spent tending a charcoal/wood smoker. That's at least half the fun to me!
• Brining a butt. It is clear to me that brining white-meat fowl and very lean pork are advantageous. Not so much for beef and pork with higher fat content.

Apologies for being a bit verbose, but it's Q he's messing with here! :wink: