How do you collect turkey drippings?

Hey guys, I've been gone for a while. Sorry for being such a stranger. The weather around these parts is becoming cooler and lending itself to much more favorable smoking conditions compared to the 115+ degree days we've been seeing this year in Phoenix!

'Tis the turkey season. I've always done chickens but in the last few weeks I've done several turkeys gearing up for the Thanksgiving season. I can't serve a dry or overcooked - or worse, overcooked - bird at the table!!!! Practice makes perfect.

One thing I've been struggling with is collecting sufficient drippings to make gravy. I've been lining the water panot with foil but still maintaining an air gap underneath, but even this is just too damn hot to collect drippings without burning them.

What I've got in mind is a circular drip pan no more than 15" or 16" in diameter that's about 3" deep. Does that sound about right? Something with enough coverage that I can put on the second rack to maximize delicious dripping collection.

Amazone has a few single-use solutions that include flimsy aluminum trays but I'm looking for something a bit more robust, heavy steel or even cast iron.

Anyone have any suggestions on this topic?

Thanks!
-dant

I'm with you. Never had any luck as you've found out, it's too hot in there. The only time I've ever got enough was in a closed roasting pan in the oven

A few ideas can be found here:
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?46719-Catching-Turkey-Drippings-on-WSM-Question

Bob Correll said:

A few ideas can be found here:
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?46719-Catching-Turkey-Drippings-on-WSM-Question

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I had seen that thread in a search but read down a little more about actually making the stock in the water pan. That's an excellent idea. I'll try that. Putting SOME liquid in the water pan would definitely help prevent these juices from vaporizing.

Deep Dish pizza pan?

JBooker said:

Deep Dish pizza pan?

Click to expand...

Weird, looks like my reply disappeared.

I love this idea. Using this, I could use the same pan to make the roux, and still just as easily use the water pan to get a stock going with some wing tips and the giblets.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B016ILHNS6/tvwb-20

Thanks for the idea!

You could try a pan in a pan set up on the lower rack. Try a 2" deep foil pan in a 4" deep pan. That woudl leave you with a 2" air gap to help insulate the drippings. Starting with some water in the upper pan will help too.

Andrew F said:

You could try a pan in a pan set up on the lower rack. Try a 2" deep foil pan in a 4" deep pan. That woudl leave you with a 2" air gap to help insulate the drippings. Starting with some water in the upper pan will help too.

Click to expand...

Good idea sorta like a double boiler and you could also add water to the lower pan.

Tim

I know it's been a few weeks, sorry. I ended up using a 16"x2" aluminum deep dish pizza pan to collect the drippings. I did a 22lb bird and ended up using a pineapple juice can to stand it upright, the same as you would a beer-can chicken. That's the only way I could get it to fit in the 18.5" WSM. It turned out real well. I wish I had some better pics but I was in a hurry to get it off the smoker and carved for this big party.

The night before, I had driven 200mi to go pick up a travel trailer that was stuck in mud, snow, and 10F temperatures before it froze up. Since I was running about 2h behind, I had my brother get the smoker going, and tripod the bird after it had brined for a day and air dried in the fridge for a day, before putting it on. He did a great job. The thumbs-up picture is one he texted me to show me how it was doing. I apologize in advance for the dog **** in the background. Like I said, I was crunched for time.

One thing to note is that I found myself adding a total of 7c of chicken broth to the drippings pan to make sure the drippings wouldn't go up in smoke. Always kept at least 1/2" of liquid in the pan which was difficult to do towards the end because the thin sheet aluminum used for the deep dish pan started to warp. I'm ok with this method, even though it probably resulted in drippings that were a little bit diluted. For this reason, I didn't separate the drippings, but I did put them in a food processor to finely mix any chunks in with whatever was left of the chicken stock.

The water pan was half-full the whole time. I was trying to have an evaporation effect on the bottom of the drippings pan to make sure they didn't go up in smoke. Usually I don't use the drip pan for poultry but I think this was a good idea under the circumstances.

While this was all happening, I made turkey broth out of the neck, giblets, other bits, large chunks of skin from the bird, and one pre-packaged turkey leg. Carrots, celery, onion, turnip, bay leaves, and some peppercorns. THIS I did end up straining with cheesecloth, for obvious reasons.

Of the few pics I took that evening, here are the ones that show the goods.


First pic of the bird's progress. Again, I apologize for the dog **** in the background.


Carved light and dark pieces. The skin turned out very well (thanks in large part to higher heat and air-drying the turkey in the fridge overnight, as compared to previous smokes where I did not do these things)


What I was after for this whole post... gravy. The two tubs to the left was what I ended up freezing, the leftovers from having already made gravy. Far left is the remaining drippings, center is the leftover broth, and the right is how much gravy I was able to make before saying "I have enough gravy for the evening".


Size of tupperware containers I used for storing the leftover drippings and broth. Hand for scale.

Overall, I was super duper happy with this. Total smoking time was just under 5h for a 22lb bird. The gravy was uniquely smokey with hints of hickory and apple, something I've never tasted before in gravy.. It turned out succulent, juicy, and it was the life of the party. Which was weird, because it was a Mexican-themed party..... turkey isn't really a Mexican food staple, ya know? But the home made tortilla chips dipped really well in the home-made gravy.

The wing tips and drumstick ends did get a little crispy, so I'll probably foil them next time. They were still plenty edible, but I was hoping for better presentation. I suppose that when the turkey is plattered, any other presentation factors or imperfections of the bird itself aren't that big of a deal.

Thanks to all that offered advice and ideas on how to come up with a good solution for collecting the drippings.

- - - Updated - - -

Ugh. I'm going to have to look in to how to make hotlinking from Google Drive work. I'll get this jerky started on the smoker and be back to fix the links.

I do my turkeys on a vertical rack in my WSM's then place the racked bird in a 9x9 cake pan to catch the drippings. I usually do them in my 14.5 on the lower rack. Biggest I've done in there is about a 14lb. bird. They have always turned out great and I get plenty of drippings for gravy.

I cut off the wings and cook them in the oven in a roasting pan and add giblets as well. I then shred the wing meat and use it with the drippings to make the gravy. Works great for me.