Tried smoking a brisket on a Weber kettle with no water pan. Fire went out twice and I ended up with shoe leather.

Thought I was being clever skipping the water pan for more bark. Temps dropped like a rock around hour 4, had to relight. Then same thing at hour 8. 14 hours total for a piece of meat that chewed like a dog toy. Learned the hard way that water pan isn't just for humidity, it's a heat battery. Has anyone else had luck going panless on a kettle or am I the only dummy who tried this?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_bailey451mo ago

First time I tried smoking pork butts on my kettle I forgot to soak the wood chunks and they just sat there smoldering. Took me like 5 hours just to get any smoke rolling, and the meat came out tasting like a campfire that got rained on. Made a mental note to always soak em, but then I started using chips instead (way easier, honestly). The water pan thing is funny because my old man refuses to use one on his offset and his brisket is always perfect, but my kettle just hates being minus the thermal buffer. You probably saved me from making the same mistake, so thanks for taking one for the team.

hugo501mo ago

Wait, is this whole soaking wood thing really that big of a deal? I mean, I've thrown dry chunks in my kettle plenty of times and they smoke up fine after maybe 30 minutes, not 5 hours. Maybe your vents were choked or something? Also, I gotta say, I don't get the water pan worship either. I've run my kettle bone dry with a big pork butt and it turned out juicy, just had to spritz it every hour. Feels like people overthink this stuff, you know? You probably could've just let the meat sit longer and it would've been alright without all that extra fuss.