DRIP EZ System

MaskedMarvel

Greetings friends,

My sweet and thoughtful family got me the Drip EZ prep/resting system for my birthday/christmas. If you aren’t familiar, they start with what amounts to collapsible bus tubs, incorporate insulated bags for the rest, and a sizable cambro-style “crib” that acts as a collapsible cooler. Everything fits inside itself, and when not in use, takes very little space up in storage. 

I fired about eight butts this week, so here comes my initial impressions. 

TUBS:

The tubs aren’t quite restaurant size, and I can usually use one conventional bus tub for four butts. I use them before for egg-side rubs etc, and after for transporting back  to the kitchen and shredding. Usually, I put some HDAF over a bus tub, get the scale and vac system ready, shred, and then rinse and into the dishwasher. 

The DEZ tubs CAN hold four butts, carefully. But the collapsible rubber sides are prone to actually collapse with all that in there. Cold and hot. I’ll use them for two at a time. Hot was easier than cold. 

Shredding in the tub is also easy - the bottom serves as a built in cutting board. As long as you don’t stab the rubber sides, you can’t hurt the tub with the bear claws. 

Cleaning was a breeze in the sink. They are dishwasher safe, though they don’t fit in my dishwasher anyway, and they don’t recommend it. 

BAGS: 

if it’s a brisket, I’m FTC every time. For these butts, each bag (I have two) hold two butts easily. Their insulation is great. After an hour I Thermapenned the meat at 166°. Not bad for the convenience. They DO LEAK. So, being mindful of the seams and zippers helps, but isn’t perfect. Before - the towel soaked up the lost juices. Now, the majority is self contained. Folding the excess material over itself and placing in a clean tub works well. 

Cleaning is shockingly quick and easy in the sink. I dried them outside. I guess there was enough aroma left for some ding dang woodland creature to rip the lining in one overnight. Damn. I wonder if putting the butt into a 2 gallon ziplock first is crazy?

THE CRIB:

If you’ve used a cooler and wanted more space, and seen the Cambros and wanted more functionality, and wanted to be able to store it away without taking up a quarter of the garage, this thing is for you. The foam body sort of collapses into itself, making this a no brainer. Unfolded and setup, it’s large. WAY bigger than my Engel cooler that held four foiled butts with space for a heated towel. 

It comes with a wooden cutting board that slides into the middle to double up as a shelf. 

CAVEAT! When assembling mine for the first time, one of the “tabs” that inserts into one of the “slots” sheared off. I’m going with a manufacturing defect, since their video says those tabs simple “click in.” Mine didn’t. They required some force to marry correctly. That force was too much for that tab. 

** I’ve sent two customer service requests to their help page and, though they post that they respond in one business day, I haven’t heard back. I’m researching foam glues now. **

SYSTEM:

I opened two butts at a time into one tub. Scored, mustard binder and rub, and plonked into the BGE. Wash the tubs and collapse away. 

Transferred the cooked butts to the bags. Immediately saw the leaking at the seams, and tried to sort of combat that by “pooling” them inside. Worked ok, but leaking is gonna happen. Two butts per bag. I then put the butts in the buckets. Snapped the lids shut. 

The tubs fit very nicely inside the Crib. Due to the damage, I won’t say I’m super pleased with the seal on the Crib. But I got the door closed. 

Pulled the bags out and shredded all four butts into one tub. From there, I portioned into one pound vac bags as usual. 

CONCLUSIONS:

This is a system that makes things a bit easier, and will take some getting used to after doing hundreds of these cooks. Honestly - I think it might be a solution looking for a problem. But! I’m stubborn in my methods and have pieced together my personal system over the years. Intriguing to see if I adjust. I’m going to keep at it and I’ll report more as I tweak using them. 

I DO think it’s a fantastic system for someone starting out who doesn’t really know about the typical FTC and doesn’t have any sort of setup. 

… and, take this for what it’s worth, ill say this pork resulted in a top five quality product, imho. I know that’s an opinion, but it’s worth mentioning this was EASILY one of the juiciest and melt-in-your-mouth pulled porks I’ve made. Coincidence? Perhaps..

I’ll also, definitely, be using this for catering. Cambro banks on this need and does well. But they don’t have this modular concept, start to finish. I imagine showing up and pulling these tubs out of the crib in the back of the Bronco, carrying them to the serving table, shredding on site, and serving. That’s a quality and presentation jump that I predict will be noticed. 

I’ll post when and if they ever get back to me about the damaged foam crib. 

tl;dr

Pricey but convenient. Easy to clean in the sink. Little storage space required. Fantastic for a beginner. Fantastic for catering/on sites. Customer Service is TBD. 

8-Damien

pics out of order as usual..


 

Botch

Very cool; never heard of this before.

MaskedMarvel

I’ll add two more observations..

the Crib WILL hold a standard restaurant bus tub on each shelf. I don’t have the rigid lids for those, but I expect they could be snapped on and put in the Crib. 

And a design element I wish the Crib had would be a locking buckle for the door. I guess most people won’t be driving this thing around, but for my catering idea, I would need to ensure it couldn’t open by itself.  

ColbyLang

I gifted myself the totes and 1 bag for Xmas lol. Just washed it all. Glad to hear your reviews. I’m looking forward to no longer towel wrapping before the ice chest as well as no longer slinging rub all over the kitchen when seasoning