Sand vs Water??

[tapeop]

Hi Guys & Gals

I have heard that you can substitute sand in a water pan instead of water and it works great can anybody tell me what the principle is behind this. Is smoking with a water pan nessesary?

Have a great day L Patterson

[texasbill]

OK Tapeop:
Personally I don't cook with water or sand. The purpose of using either of these in a pan under the meat you are cooking is to give a buffer zone from the heat source to the meat. Vertical smokers use this type of buffer. There has been some talk as to what good the water does under the meat other than to supply this heat buffer. Talk goes to adding moisture to adding your favorite spice to the water so it will give off steam that is flavored by the spice and therefore absorbed by the meat itself.

From what I can gather it is totally useless to use water under the meat you are cooking unless you are trying to protect the meat from the heat source. And the talk of adding steam to the meat while it cooks has to indicate that your heat source is above 212 degrees to even begin to boil. And we all know we should cook in the 200 to 225 degree range for long slow cooking. So most agree the only advantage of the water in most pits is to have a water trap for juices escaping your meat during cooking and holding them for easy disposal. This seems to be a decent idea for ease of cleaning up. There seems to be nothing proven that the water ever turns to a steam to aid in moisture for the meat. So some say to use sand. This will also hold the drippings of the meat, is easier to dispose of. and will last for several cooks. Water on the other hand evaporates so you are always adding to the water and then when you finish you have water and grease to get rid of.

So for cleaning purposes I could see using a sand based reservoir to catch the drippings in to help keep the pit clean. I believe this to be the only benefit out there for using these ideas.

Bill-Texas BBQ Rub