SwissTony

I've got a ProQ bullet smoker, so there's more water than in an offset. Iq guess the answer is experiment and find out 😀

Thanks @AdamGthe Avoiding chemicals where possible seems sensible. Maybe a good scrape before a burn off sounds sensible. A wash shouldn't cause rust as 4 hours of fire should dry it out. I think I've got the same racks, and I'm surprised how good they look after 9 years.

We left our smoker outside this winter (the garage has become a home gym). Brought up against the house and had its thick ProQ cover on it. When I got it out yesterday, there was some mould in there, I guess from not cleaning it properly before putting it for hibernation. I poured boiling water around the sides and gave it a good scrub out. Racks have gone through hot dishwasher and then been scrubbed with wire wool. There are still charcoal-black and papery bits in there. Would I be wise to give the thing a damn good clean. If so, how do you do yours? I know we're going back into winter here in the UK this week, but I can smell spring (and smoked meat) even in this north-eastern wind.

Happy Smoking Season All I love being told what to do, and always follow orders happily. Getting vaccinated, working hard at school and getting an EV are all working out really well for me 😊 But I am now starting to question the necessity of using the water pan for smaller cuts. I can see why it would be handy if you're doing 4kg of pork overnight, but we brought the (Mac ProQ) smoker out of hibernation yesterday for a (upper) half leg of lamb and a chicken, which will keep us in meat for the week. I put the meat in for the first 30 minutes (rising to 400F) without the water pan and with plenty of well-dried rosemary branches (I celebrate when a rosemary bush dies). I then ran it with the water pan another 2 hours, and then without the pan for the last 40 minutes, 350F declining to 280F. The meat has come out very smoky (I've just been gnawing on the lamb bone for breakfast) and moist. I like the idea of the meat cooking directly over the charcoal and chips, like in a Mediterranean grill. With the water pan I'm usually just over 250F, but I do use a lot of wood to heat 3 litres of water for 4+ hours. For smaller joints like this weekend (2kg each), surely I could use a lot less charcoal to keep around 260F? Is it possible to sit around 240F without the pan. What does everyone else think? Water all the way? Half and half like above? Or fully without water? [And if you're interested, I marinated the lamb overnight with Yotam's Shawarma recipe from his Jerusalem book, served with homemade pitta & cucumber & tomato (like Yotam told me to). Remainder diced and going into a spicy aubergine bake and as a pizza topping. ]