Barbecue equipment [this page in under construction]Barbecue requires two types of equipment: the barbecue pit (where the fire cooks the meat), and the accessories, like mops, racks, thermometers and the myriad other gadgets and gizmos sold by astute business types to barbecue nuts. Q & A Q: I did ribs today in the Weber Smokey Mountain, aka WSM, but for the first time didn't use the water pan. They came out "ok" - meaning my guests thought they were fantastic - but I thought they were dry (ok, dry as the Sahara). I think I used too much charcoal - a load with 16 lit briquettes on top. Temps were above 300F, and I couldn't get them down, no matter what I did (closed all vents, etc.). A: It is important to understand a little bit about the science behind the design of the WSM. In spite of the fact that the fire is very close to the meat (and thus should be expected to cook it at too high a temp), the water pan (with water) acts to prevent the heat of the nearby fire from cooking the meat at a temp much higher than 212F. No matter how hot the fire, the water itself cannot exceed 212F, so the space "above" the water (where the meat is) will be 212F or slightly above (depending on the leakage of heat at the edge of the water pan and via the thin metal skin). (The water also provides two other advantages: it acts as a 'heat sink' to store energy, so that the temp will tend to stay at 212F even if the fire gets hotter or colder than 212F; and it adds a little humidity to the air (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on where you live). So, use water in the water pan and use less charcoal, and you'll probably like the results. Different barbecue methods There are two fundamentally different but equally "authentic" barbecue methods: Direct: cooking meat suspended directly over wood coals; and Indirect: cooking meat in a chamber that is separate from the fire pit.
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