Ash and Grease


 
C

Chris Stanek

TVWBB Fan
I made three big butts in the offset, two chickens on the rotis, and two beer can chickens on the gasser this weekend.

As I was cleaning up yesterday... I started to think about if there was a better way to deal with the ash and the pale full of drippings from the butts.

Ash... is there anything you can do with it? Is is good for the garden, the grass? Can I just dump it outside and be done?

Grease... I'm assuming there's no value to a pale full of pork grease. I'm always wondering what to do with it. I hate throwing it all down the sink as I'm sure that can't be good for the plumbing. What do I do with it? For the past several years, I've been squeezing a bunch of Dawn dishwashing liquid in it to dilute and break it up before it goes down the drain. I just can't imagine that a good idea, but I don't know what else to do.
 
You certainly do not want to dump the grease down your drain Chris. Not only is it bad for your plumbing, but also the cities if you are on city sewer.
I throw my butt grease into a little patch of woods I own, same with the ash. You could put the cool grease and ash into a garbage bag or something and put it in your trash.
 
Dumping the drippings in the bush can attract all kinds of critters.

Like Clark says mix the grease and ash together and then dump it in a garbage bag and throw it in the trash.

I dump ash in my gardens all the time. Gardens seem to like it.
 
Boil all the water out of it, run it through a strainer. Voila. Rendered pork fat just asking to be used in some delicious recipe.

Otherwise, just put it in a waste container, old gator-aide bottles, etc. and throw it in the trash.
 
My wife would absolutely kill me if she found out that I was saving pork grease! I can't even think about it!!!!

I've put the pale of grease in the fridge to harden it up, then scooped it into the garbage bag... I was just wondering if there was something easier.

I guess I'll just do that... I'm just lazy after eating Q.

But the ash in the landscaping may be a good route. I hate trying to bag that up, it just get everywhere.
 
Yeah Chris ash in the garden or compost pile works. If you have any old coffee cans around you can dumb the grease into that and throw it out.
 
I usually just dump the grease in the "buffer" area at the back of my yard. So far the dog is about the only critter that seems interested. As far as the ash, I thought about using it in my tomato garden but I read somewhere that the chemicals used in the binders for briquettes make that a bad idea. So I just dump them out back also.
 
You could go completely "pioneer" and use the wood ash to make lye, then use the lye and the grease to make soap. If you use hickory wood for smoke, you could end up with bacon-scented soap.
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I did think about that once. I know that ash makes lye. Perhaps I'll do some kind new take on Fight Club.

Pork Club
Meat Club
...
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ken McCrary:
I usually just dump the grease in the "buffer" area at the back of my yard. So far the dog is about the only critter that seems interested. As far as the ash, I thought about using it in my tomato garden but I read somewhere that the chemicals used in the binders for briquettes make that a bad idea. So I just dump them out back also. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Check out what Kingsford discloses as its binder ingredients. All are components of plant fertilizer. I don't know whether or not the quantities or ratios are right, but the composition is that of fertilizer.

That said, my plants seem to neither like nor dislike the ash, so I'm guessing I'm just spitting in the ocean when it comes down to it.
 
Just like about everything else, it's illegal in our part of California to put grease in the drain or in the trash. It ends up in the water supply by both of those ways. There are hazardous waste sites, like at our local dump, that take it for free. I have a 1/2 gallon container in the garage. When it gets filled up, I take it to them.
 
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