aluminum disposable drip pan vs metal BGE drip pan.

bhedges1987

Any of you have a preference for one vs the other when doing low and slows?  Would the metal one BGE makes radiate more heat to the food once it gets warm?  Even if I put foil balls between my plate setter and metal drip pan, I feel like it would still get much hotter than an aluminum one?  

Just curious, if this is the case, I will stick to the aluminum ones.

Thanks

StillH2OEgger

I maybe just haven't been paying close enough attention, but I have used both and not noticed any difference.

bhedges1987

Think I'm just going with a CGS round drip pan.  This leaves me with deciding between the 14" or 16".  Not sure if the 16" will fit in the pswoo2.  It will a woo3, but I'm not exactly sure what that is, as they don't sell that anymore.

minniemoh

bhedges1987 said:

Think I'm just going with a CGS round drip pan.  This leaves me with deciding between the 14" or 16".  Not sure if the 16" will fit in the pswoo2.  It will a woo3, but I'm not exactly sure what that is, as they don't sell that anymore.

I have both the 14" and 16" CGS drip pans. It fits inside the platesetter which fits inside the pswoo2. I only use the larger one when doing spatchcock turkey and multiple butts. It's very handy for those cooks though.

Rascal

The BGE metal pan is a piece of junk!!

Darby_Crenshaw

Two sheets of hd aluminum foil

lay one over the other and fold along one edge a couple/few time to marry them

unfold the now double wide sheet

form a loosely folded/crumpled pizza-crust edge from the corners and sides to make a round foil pan about (or even a bit bigger than) the size of the platesetter

slip under the grate onto the platesetter to catch drippings. 

Afyer the cook, shut down and leave the try in the egg

next day, fat is cooled and congealed. Fold edges into cennter intona rough ball and throw into trash

30 seconda effort with materials already on hand

DeltaNu1142

I use a small baking rack (from a toaster oven, I think) as a spacer between my platesetter and the drip pan... and for the drip pan, I use a 16" CGS stainless pan covered in aluminum foil. I suppose if I'm covering it in foil, it could really be any old pan that holds up to the heat, but the CGS pan is what I've got.

Earlier on, I used a 16" aluminum pizza pan from webstaurantstore.com. The only reason I switched it out is that it eventually got irreversibly caked with goop. So I would recommend going the foil route.

jtcBoynton

@bhedges1987  
"Any of you have a preference for one vs the other when doing low and slows?"
I choose not to make a choice between them - I use both.  I use the CGS drip pan lined with aluminum foil.  That give the sturdy full coverage of a permanent pan and the easy cleanup of disposable foil.



I use a cake cooling rack between the platesetter and the drip pan to get an air gap.  It provides a good sturdy base.

EastTNBGE

Is there an advantage to the cook when doing this or is this to keep the plate setter from getting all gooped up?

jtcBoynton

The platesetter itself is hot.  Dripping grease falling on the hot platesetter will burn.  An air gapped drip pan will greatly reduce the burning grease.

Darby_Crenshaw

the grease doesn't burn.  there are some drippings (sugar and meat drippings) which will carbonize, but they don't "burn"(oh my!) (catch flame, etc.).  they simply carbonize due to the low-oxygen environment.

same way the rub itself (if heavy with sugar) can become jet black, even though the temp never goes above 250 (for example). it's not burning or giving off noxious smoke (see agonized questions re: bitter taste from 'burning' drippings)

the sugar in the rubs, and meat juices which come out, will carbonize exactly like making charcoal.  it's from the heat of the platesetter, but also the fact that there's no oxygen (or very little). 

again, the rub itself can turn black, and that has nothing to do with burning or heat from the platesetter.

much ado about nuthin, frankly.

Webass

Just got the 16" drip pan from CGS.   It's a little on the shallow side. I'll line it with foil and lift it off the platesetter with copper pipe elbows. I'm doing 2 butts this weekend and wondering if it'll hold the drippings without overflowing.  Any thoughts? 

DieselkW

I like to make sure rendered fat doesn't contribute off taste to the cook, especially during that initial smoke flavoring period at the beginning.

Depending on the size of the 'hunk-o-meat', I use a drip pan a little bigger than the beginning size of the meat I'm smoking. Some meats will offload more fat than others, so depth is an important consideration.

I use a roasting pan, aluminum cake pans, iron frying pans, foil, etc... all depending on what's for dinner.

What not to use: my wife's porcelain dutch oven.

Focker

It sure doesn't smell good, whether it's burning or carbonizing.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Two sheets of hd aluminum foil

lay one over the other and fold along one edge a couple/few time to marry them

unfold the now double wide sheet

form a loosely folded/crumpled pizza-crust edge from the corners and sides to make a round foil pan about (or even a bit bigger than) the size of the platesetter

slip under the grate onto the platesetter to catch drippings. 

Afyer the cook, shut down and leave the try in the egg

next day, fat is cooled and congealed. Fold edges into cennter intona rough ball and throw into trash

30 seconda effort with materials already on hand

^^^^^^this. I use wide foil from Sam's so it's wide enough to do in one sheet but I make my own out of foil for a few pennies and throw away when done. 

Darby_Crenshaw

Focker said:

It sure doesn't smell good, whether it's burning or carbonizing.  

yeah.  my nose isn't capable of separating all the individual elements in the smoke, and it all smells good to me.

i just find it curious that in one thread, people advise pulling a roast off (a roast nicely browned) and jacking temps, then rolling the same roast around on the grate to blacken and generate some burnt bits.

yet the same thing occuring on a butt is sacrilege

the blackened bits in the bottom of the drip pan are the same as the blackened stuff on the butt, or on a roast that's been reverse seared.

lots of lore is tossed around, and it's in the contradictions where we can start to see how much is just bro-science.

five droplets of burnt bits in the drip pan contribute no discernable amount of 'bad' flavor or bitterness to the overall tastes of a pile of pulled pork.  just doesn't happen.

white smoke, blue smoke, smoke from drippings, creosote, etc.

all sounds incredibly complicated and bad smelling.  time for me to turn to the microwave i guess.

but as always, i admit my egg is one of those contrarian ones they put out for a short time in the late 90's early 2000's.  i'm thankful for that.

YukonRon

I use cheap disposable aluminum serving trays. I have one size for the MM and one size for my XL. They work perfectly. Occasionally I will cover them in foil, but, sometimes I am too lazy.

fishlessman

that acrid taste from grease comes from having grease in there and raising temps. cook duck all day direct at 230 and no acrid taste, then raise temps to 450 and toss a burger in there and that burger turns into a grease smoke sponge. i just layer some foil over a paela pan if i need a drip pan

jtcBoynton

Webass said:

Just got the 16" drip pan from CGS.   It's a little on the shallow side. I'll line it with foil and lift it off the platesetter with copper pipe elbows. I'm doing 2 butts this weekend and wondering if it'll hold the drippings without overflowing.  Any thoughts? 

I have not had a problem so far with this setup.

Focker

A burning drip pan, and bark formation, are two different things.  You won't see me chipping off pieces from my drip pan foil to eat. 

To each their own, but that acrid smoke stays off my meat at any stage of the cooking process, when it can easily be fixed with a glass of water or two.

HeavyG

Single use aluminum pans always seemed needlessly wasteful to me. So I've accumulated a wide variety of stainless cake pans, pet food bowls, sheet pans, serving pans, etc. over the years so I always have a pan of an appropriate size/shape.

smokeyw

Darby_Crenshaw said:

the grease doesn't burn.  there are some drippings (sugar and meat drippings) which will carbonize, but they don't "burn"(oh my!) (catch flame, etc.).  they simply carbonize due to the low-oxygen environment.

same way the rub itself (if heavy with sugar) can become jet black, even though the temp never goes above 250 (for example). it's not burning or giving off noxious smoke (see agonized questions re: bitter taste from 'burning' drippings)

the sugar in the rubs, and meat juices which come out, will carbonize exactly like making charcoal.  it's from the heat of the platesetter, but also the fact that there's no oxygen (or very little). 

again, the rub itself can turn black, and that has nothing to do with burning or heat from the platesetter.

much ado about nuthin, frankly.

Are you saying the grease falling on the plate setter doesn't burn or there is no grease dripping onto the plate setter?

bhedges1987

I went ahead and went with the 16" drip pan from CGS to help cover up any over hang my meat may have with my plate setter.

Thanks for the help all!