Had noticed when cooking at home and at competitions when it rains overnight, the meat would always have a better smoke flavor. Talking with other FEC owners, many of them had noticed the same and some of them were placing a foil pan or a painter's roll pan on top of the drip pan full of water to add additional humidity. This seems to work fairly well, but IMO the humidity level just isn't quite high enough to duplicate the level from a very humidity night. Beside placing a foil pan or a painters pan on the drip pan, have experimented with placing a foil pan in the rib rack so it's level and holds more water, but its doesn't seem to get hot enough. The problem is how to move the foil pan closer to the heat deflector, so my idea/experiment is to replace the drip pan with a water pan which slides in the bottom rack space with the bottom of the pan about 1/2" above the heat deflector. Will see how it works over the next several weekends [IMG. Since our next comp is not until the first week in August and the FEC needs a good deep cleaning, there is time to clean, re-season, and experiment with this idea. Will install a ball valve on the bottom for easy draining. Pan holds about 3.6 gallons filled 3/4 full.
What are your thoughts?
