When To Use Water In Your Smoker

When To Use Water In Your Smoker

Water, smoke & fire together

You might not think, or even believe, water, smoke and heat or fire work very well together.  Well, you would be wrong.  Actually they are very synergetic. 

The use of water in your smoker is primarily used in longer term cooking situations where the meat will be in the smoker for hours...not minutes.

The water provides 3 primary functions in your smoker:

1. Adds moisture, through water vapor, to the cooking chamber as it begins to heat up (assuming you are not actually boiling the water which would be steam). This moisture prevents the meat from drying out in the dry, hot heat of the fire alone.
2. This moisture, or water vapor, picks up small partials of smoke while traveling in and around the inside of your smoker.  When this water vapor touches the meat inside the smoker, it imparts a little moisture to the meat as well as adds the smoke that it picked up on the way from the water pan to the meat, thus adding additional smoke flavors to the meat.
3. Thirdly, the water tends to act as a ballast on the temperature if properly set up.  Say your fire is fairly well contained below the water pan and not much additional heat can get around it.  Water can only go to 212°F and thus your cooking chamber will not climb much higher.  Sure there could be some radiant heat, but the water acts as a limit on how hot the smoker will reach.

See Other Beginner's Tips