Drippings During Grilling

Smokin_Dave

I just bought a green egg and immediately my wife told me I absolutely need to catch all drippings, even when grilling a steak at high temps.  I was planning on using a drip pan for slow cooks and roasts where dripping is a bigger issue but for a 3-4 minute steak char?  Seems to me that this one scenario is perfectly fine to let a few steak drippings hit the red hot coals. But I want to hear some expert tips before I go from slow to high temps. 

Thank you

Dave

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.

Are you familiar with why she would make that request because I have not heard of such concern before.  No expert here but if you can provide the reasoning I'm sure there are folks here who can debunk it.  FWIW-

Killit_and_Grillit

This sounds strangely like my grandmother demanding I save every chicken spine when I make spatchcock chicken....like one day I might open a chicken broth enterprise. 

Wait...Pop Pop are you Smokin Dave?

cookingdude555

Im all for saving drippings, I am not sure how that can be accomplished when doing high heat grilling.  Even indirect higher heat grilling will have burned drippings that vaporize in the drip pan.

fishlessman

one of the biggest fails in newbie cooks is not getting the lump to burn clean before adding the meat, that being said you have been setup to fail by the wife.  get a cast iron pan and sear in that til you get the clean burning lump right, that way you can blame it on something different than dripping fat.  ive done low and slow pork butts with no problem but that next cook you better have it burning clean before adding things like burgers or chicken, those meats eat bad smoke like a sponge.

SonVolt

My brother-in-law puts foil down on his gas grill grates before he grills steams his food.  It's weird. It's odd. It's counter productive. Drippings hitting the coals and vaporizing back up on your food is part of what makes grilling so delicious.  Don't use a drip pan unless you're doing large cuts low 'n slow. 

Legume

Smokin_Dave said:

I just bought a green egg and immediately my wife told me...

Slow down there a bit, looks like you made a few typos.

HogFather

Sounds like you need a new wife

Battleborn

Legume said:

Smokin_Dave said:

I just bought a green egg and immediately my wife told me...

Slow down there a bit, looks like you made a few typos.

Hahahahaha

SmokeyPitt

I think you have the right idea. There are two main types of cooking on the egg: direct and indirect. Direct cooking is basically "grilling" with the food directly over the flame. Indirect cooking you are using the plate setter between the food and the fire, and many people use a drip pan to catch the drippings and keep the plate setter clean. 

FWIW I know many people that never use a drip pan even for indirect. They just let the plate setter get "seasoned" with the drippings. I think this works fine if you only do lower temp cooks, but if you start burning higher temps I think all the crud starts burning and producing bad smoke. 

td66snrf

IMHO the biggest advantage of the EGG is that when you're cooking fatty meats, like pork ribs, there is not enough oxygen to sustain a flame. So unlike a gasser as fat drips down, flames flare up. So you could put a pan under everything but it's not necessary. 

Theophan

I'm surprised to find myself disagreeing with some folks, here, but in case it's useful, here is one more guy's thoughts:

• Unlike many, here, I prefer steaks seared over a very hot direct fire , not cast iron.  I just feel like they taste better, to me.  Personal taste, maybe.
• If they're an inch thick or less, I just grill them direct over a pretty hot fire (500°-550°) and flip them frequently (every couple of minutes, maybe) till they're the right internal temp for me (via Thermapen).  If thicker than an inch, I "reverse sear" by cooking them low-and-slow (250°-275°) till the internal temp is close to what I want it, and then take them out of the Egg, crank the temp up to 600°-650°, and sear them only 1 minute per side.
• NO drip pan for steaks, because if properly trimmed, they don't drip enough fat to bother me, even with the lid down, which I do, for steaks.
• For burgers, though, I like burgers with a reasonably high fat content (80%), but I really do NOT like the flavor of burned fat smoke, so I struggle a bit to reduce that.  Grilling with the dome open helps (burgers are the only time I do this), and I also find that Grill Grates seem to cut back at least a little on the dripping fat.  Unfortunately, they also leave more un-seared surface, but, overall, I like them for burgers.

Bottom line: try it a few different ways and see what YOU like the best!  I definitely agree with everybody above that a drip pan is a bad idea for burgers.

thetrim

Are you the kinda guy who’s wife dictates that you like steaks cut 1/2” or less?

billt01

thetrim said:

Are you the kinda guy who’s wife dictates that you like steaks cut 1/2” or less?

RIP 1/2 inch steak man

milesvdustin

I wonder if he lurks here