Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Good idea or bad? I just spent 45 minutes in my 104* spa relaxing and enjoying the view of all the upgrades we have done.

It was nice looking at the smoker with the probe lights going back and forth showing their temps.

It was also cool watching the cycle of the smoker burning the pellets then cooling down and starting the cycle again.

What sucked was being hungry and smelling that brisket getting half way done and just showing off on how good it smelled.

Between the smell of the hickory pellets burning and the brisket I had a hard time enjoying the spa.

Damn first world problems.

 

OK.... gonna try and jam a question in here between everyone's cooks.. which are looking amazing btw!

I'm a fan of using the water pan in my smoker - despite your opinion on that fact.. I need a way to dispose of the water/fat etc at the end of my cooks.. like.. what are you all doing? Open to any and all ideas ... I've searched around but it's like this is one of those things that no one wants to talk about LOL

 

I just use a foil one (sometimes with water, sometimes without depending on the cook) then I can just toss it in the trash bin

 

Getting the hot box fired up now too! Ribs and brisket ready to go in!.

 

Dump it in the woods?

Let it cool and the fat solidify, then pull out the chunks of fat. Dump the water down the drain.

Also, yes, foil pans for everything.

 

Good morning and Happy 4th everyone!

 

Well.. not exactly what I was thinking.. I am thinking more of a waste system.. with a bucket or two and sand etc.. finding it hard to explain this.

For the record, and It appears that I am the only one that actually does this, but I use the porcelain coated water pan that came with my smoker. It's a specific design and I will keep using that.

 

I put my water pan in the fire box to help control the heat pouring into the cooking chamber. Evens my heat out across the smoker. There is no fat in it and if you want you could use it for the next cook. Fat runs to the bottom of the smoker and out the drain.

 

Pour it in the pasture and let the cows lick it up or the coyotes.

 

Happy 4th and happy smoking from this yota crew!

 

3rd smoke is on! Thought the pork that I smoked last weekend would last me 10-14 days. Realized yesterday it might make it 7 days so I decided to smoke again today! A 10lb pork butt and brisket flat. This should last a little longer!

 

I'm running a vertical pellet ..

City boy here LOL


I guess when I figure out how to rephrase my concept I'll check back LOL

 

I live on 10 acres so plenty of woods to pour it out in. If I lived in town I would put it in the fridge to separate the fat, toss fats in trash and pour water down the drain.

 

I use my water pan. The first few times it was a pain cleaning out congealed pig fat and I didn’t wanna dump it over the fence so I start putting a foil pan under the meat. If your smoker doesn’t have two racks that won’t help you though. Ever thought of lining the water pan with aluminum foil and just trashing the foil when done?

 

Made this yesterday on my new trager, took 7 hours to get bone separation. Smoked at 225, spritzed with apple juice every hour and turned out amazing. I have been off this entire week and smoked something for dinner every night. Bought an 8lb butt for today but my body needs a break from pork for a few days.

 

In theory, that's a great idea.. but that involves moving the water pan a distance. I'm visioning something like a 5 gallon bucket with some small 1/8 inch holes drilled near the base , and some kind of filter media inside ( sand, gravel charcoal I don't know) to help capture the fat and the water can drain out. Something that can sit at the smoker area or be brought to it at the end.

 

Since fat settles in water could you put holes in the side of something to let the lighter water move to the lower container and the fat settle below the holes and stay in the upper container? No filtering needed for that. Thinking like a 2 piece container/bucket that you could just pour into after a smoke. Maybe even create something like that right in the smoker so it separates as you cook? Or would it not separate the same way when its hot? I have no clue just thinking.

 

Lining this pan with foil is a bitch... it's got vents or louvers punched into it.

 

A stack of two 5 gallon buckets could work, though not something that can be in the smoker. Guess I am going to have to experiment with a design.



Thanks everyone for your input.. back to the drooling pictures!

 

Going to cook up some Anasazi beans to go with the ribs today.