Tips for emptying water pan of water/drippings?


 

ScottFrench

New member
I did 3 racks of ribs and 2 butterflied chickens a couple weekends ago. The water pan was still almost full of water with chicken and rib drippings. Trying to lift it out of the smoker was a challenge not to spill anything. Then, i had to deal with the liquid. How do you dispose of this nasty liquid mess? I dumped it into a rubber waste basket. But, now what?
 
Pour down the drain with hot water if you have a disposal. Also you can use all that leftover Kingsford ash in a heavy duty garbage bag to soak it up. If it's that big a chore learn to just foil the pan and cook without water. I do both, depending on what I'm doing.
 
Pour it into an empty coffee can than freeze it till trash day. I don't do water, but that's how I deal with drippings.

Tim
 
Scoop out the solids and toss in the trash. From there, you'd be safe to dump the rest down the drain. I do like the freezing idea!
When I got my WSM, I used water one time. From then on, it's been a foiled clay saucer and I just toss the foil the following day and I'm done.
 
Although Dan's idea has merit. :). I have a mini galvanized trash can where I dump my ash. The water, or in my case drip pan cause I rarely use water, is dumped in the ashes and they absorb the fluid. I dump the ash can in the burn pit.
 
As others have suggested, if you haven't tried going without water, I HIGHLY recommend that you at least give it a try. A lot of us use a foiled clay saucer as a bit of a heat sink placed in a foiled water pan. I just don't use water any more, period. Clean-up amounts to wadding up and throwing away the foil. I recommend getting HD foil at one of the big box warehouse stores like Sam's or Costco so that "clean-up" remains inexpensive.
 
The next day I carefully lifted the water pan out of the WSM and poured the contents into a bucket. I carried the bucket over to the sewer at the corner and poured the contents down the sewer. I rinsed out the bucket with a garden hose. I got the impression that I wasn't the only one in my neighborhood who has done this.
 
I'm getting tired of cleaning it too. Dumping and wiping it semi clean is a chore. I'm going to nit the bullet and scrub mine clean and then just foil it and attempt a no water smoke. I've got 10+ cooks under my belt on this one so it should be fairly temp stable
 
I dug a trench on the side of my house for drainage, and it's a perfect place to dump my water pan.
Cleaning it is a breeze, I a bucket with boiling water and dish soap, and soak it until it's cool enough to handle. Then it's a quick scrub with a green scrubbing pad, dry it off and put it away.
 

 

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