I just got a weber smokey mountain water smoker for BBQ from my GF recently.
I smoked a pork shoulder over mesquite and charcoal a few days ago over an 8 hour period on low at 220 F or so. My water pan dried out in the middle maybe at the 4 hour mark.
The meat was not fall apart tender and was not as moist as I would like either. I'm guessing it didn't reach the 203 F temp that would break down the tough muscles. And the temp likely stalled way below that. I didn't wrap the meat in foil using a Texas crutch.
Advise on the technique seems to be wrapping in foil after 3-4 hours vs. different advise on not wrapping and the results will be the same.
If you don't wrap, you just wait for the meat to get past the stall temp and the temp will rise if given enough time (so I'm not going to bother wrapping).
But the stalling temp will be harder to get past if you don't wrap, which is what happened to me.
I never really understood the reasoning for wrapping. Some authors say it's like sweating. When you sweat and your sweat cools, you feel colder because of the wet sweat on your body. So by wrapping, you're stopping your meat from sweating and evaporating that sweat into steam and cooling the meat. I didn't really buy it. I think it's true but I'm not believing i the sweat explanation.
But I did remember a passage I read on Modernist Cuisine and reread it again lately.
It looks like evaporating water to steam takes energy and this energy expenditure is what cools the meat and causes the temp to stall and not rise (because heat = energy).
By using the Texas crutch and foil wrapping, you are trying to create a 100% humidity wet environment. Once the humidity gets this wet, the meat surface won't evaporate.
Without evaporation no energy is lost and the meat won't cool and the temp won't stall.
So that's why the weber smoker has this water pan in it - it's to encourage that wet humid environment (and also helps smoke adhere to the meat).
And that wrapping and creating a wet humid environment isn't to keep the meat moist by pushing water into the meat but stopping water from leaving the meat. The environment is so wet that more water won't leave the meat.
And wrapping isn't sealing in the juices or pushing water in etc.
So I think I'm going to wrap after 3-4 hours of smoking and finish in a conventional oven since wrapping will stop smoke from further entering the meat.
And I'm cheap and don't want to waste further charcoal and mesquite to keep the heat no another 4-5 hours.
I just wanted to share owing to my excitement at what seemed like a clear explanation. I think reddit would call it a TIL
