Thanksgiving this year is 2pm. I want to sit back throw back a few and enjoy the entire process. That being said, I am cooking two turkeys on top of each other.
I never have used sand in my drip pan does that lower the overall temparature or does it help with the consitent temp? Wouuldn't water cool the over all effect? HELP

Steve, what temp are you shooting for? If you're going for low temp., I'd probably use a heat sink like sand or clay saucer (although early in the cook two cold birds will work pretty well on their own). If you're going high heat you'll want to go with a dry foiled water pan . . . IMO. Hope this helps.

What temp are you cooking your Turkeys at, low and slow 225-250º, or high heat 300-350º? That will help with what you should use. That said, I just use my stock water pan, with foil inside, about an inch or two up off the inside bottom of the pan. No water for almost 6 years now.

Whether you cook low and slow or high heat, shy away from water in the pan as it will make the skin inedible.

I use sand in one WSM and 2 firebricks in the other WSM. Never had a problem with either.

Just foil the weber pan and leave it empty.

What about putting a drip pan directly on/over the (empty) water pan? Would that cause a problem with burned drippings? I'm trying to smoke a breast and a whole bird and I want to save the drippings... I previously used a drip pan on the lower rack but I don't have room to do that this time.

Or, would it be easier to just thoroughly foil the water pan and rescue the drippings from that?

quote:

Originally posted by Dave from Denver:
What about putting a drip pan inside the smoker? Would putting it over the (empty) water pan cause a problem? I'm trying to smoke a breast and a whole bird and I want to save the drippings...

Dave, If you're not going to be using the lower grate, you can set a 1/2 steam table foil pan on the lower grate to catch the dripping. I get them at BJ's, 30 to a pack for about $8.00. Sams and Costco carry the big packs as well. They work great for many things on the WSM baked beans, burnt ends etc.

Thanks for the tip Bryan.