Drip Pan

Ms. E

When using a drip pan, where do I place it and what are the reasons for using one? Thanks![p]

Shelby

Ms. E,
Where to put it will somewhat depend on how you are cooking. If going indirect with a plate setter, you can sit the drip pan on plate setter, under the grill. If using the v-rack, you can put the drip pan on the grill and the rack in the pan.
Reason for using it is to prevent the drippings from going onto the flames and causing an unknown flame up, burning your meat.
Hope that helps.

sdbelt

Shelby,[p]Another place for the drip pan is on fire bricks, if you use fire bricks as your means for indirect cooking. I think GFW very recently posted a picutre of his fire brick setup, in which 2 fire bricks are on their side, to support a second cooking grid, and 2 are layed flat (he has a medium...a large often uses 3) to buffer the fire and hold a drip pan. [p]I use a drip pan for any fatty foods that I'll be cooking indirect, like ribs or a boston butt or brisket. Last night's pork tenderloin needed a drip pan, because the fruit was really dripping into the fire and causing a lot of flare ups during the period that I cooked it direct. When I switched to indirect I didn't want that juice all over my plate setter, where it would eventually burn or possibly flare up.[p]Some people will also seed their drip pan with water or even apple juice, so that drippings into the drip pan definitely have no chance of flaring up. If you use something like apple juice (or wine...let your imagination run wild), this will affect the result, if that's what you are looking for.[p]Enjoy![p]--sdb