Wine in the water bowl ????

I thought I'd try out a few new things (to me) now that you all have instructed me which way the smoker is supposed to be put together. I bought a small piece of meat for a test - a 2.5 lb. chuck roast.

I made my normal paste of worchestershire sauce and my favorite brisket rub.



Then, rubbed it all over the roast.



Since I have always liked cooking with wine, I poured 1.5 liters of an inexpensive red wine in the water bowl instead of water. Results: Don't bother. Although the aroma of the smoke is great for awhile, the end result is that the rub and the smoke will overpower any effect of the wine and it will not be detected. Also, if you let the wine completely dry up, it will bake on to your bowl and it will be tough getting it off. Oh well, worth a try.



Then, I tried the Minion method. I think I spread the initial coals over too much of the basket, because once the temperature got up to 200°F, it kept climbing and I couldn't keep it below 260°F. I used chunks of mesquite wood and pecan wood for the smoke.



I put the probes through the door, since I haven't modified my Frontier yet.



I smoked it for about 6 hours until internal temp was 190°F. FTC'd for about 2 hours.



Results: Good bark, very tender and tasty, but again, no wine hint at all.

lookin good my friend. Minion looks good, probably just a touch too many coals, putting the probe wires through the door will feed the fire more oxygen, could be why you were runnin a touch on the high side. all in all i like it, put the back cover on the maverick thou, they are water proof(if the covers on)

Thanks, xray.

smokinxray wrote:put the back cover on the maverick thou, they are water proof(if the covers on)

Huh? I don't understand what you are telling me.

Chuck looks good, JYD

Flavors in the water pan dont do anything as you have found
Find the right flower pot or rocks and dont even use water in the pan

Tohm how do you feel about sand? I plan on trying it this wek.

Thanks, Mike.


Thom, I have heard about putting terra cotta pottery in the water bowl. What exactly does that do for me, and is it the standard flower pot kind? How much do I put in? Do I break it into pieces? Thanks.

i have the excel, filled the water pan about half way with sand. Holds heat great. Throw a piece of foil over it to keep the sand clean thou, grease and sand, looks like bad kitty litter. If you wanna get real crazy about it you can heat up the water pan and sand if you have another grill around. That way you save a lot of the charcoal, you wont be wasting heat trying to heat the sand and pan, much like putting hot water in.

The water is a heat sink
pottery sand rocks all do the same thing
They just dont evaporate