Grease management

[Rob Smerch]

Hey all, i have been using my home made fire dial for about 2 years now and ive ran into a specific problem a few times when cooking. While cooking really fatty cuts of meat on the bottom rack i have found that the excess grease is accumulating in the bottom of my WSM and causing a billowing white smoke after much accumulation. What can i do to help with this? i love the way my cooker performs with my "fire dial" but last time i was cooking a turkey i had to remove the middle and top section and let the bottom "burn out" for a while to let the grease burn. Thanks.

 

[AndyK]

I use a Hunsaker diffuser plate that is similar I think.
I will cook a pork shoulder right above it and let it drip as it will.

When I’m done I will scrape off the defuser carbon with a putty knife onto a section of an Amazon box or butcher paper then off to the burn pile with that.
I use an ArborFab basket that I shake off into the bottom of the wsm and keep the remaining coals to reuse then I sweep the wsm bottom into the burn pile.
And then just wipe everything down.
I normally wait a day or two to do this so I don’t have to deal with any hot ash and I do this every time.

Is this much different than what you do?
You mentioned grease burn but it reads fire to me and sounds different.

 

[LouieD]

Me for really fatty meat Pork butt,Whole turkey etc. I just use my water bowl,no water as my defuser and line it with foil but leave a gap between foil and bowl so I do not let the fat hit the bowl and smolder bad smoke and that becomes my grease catch and no accumulation in the bottom of the charcoal bowl

 

[timothy]

What can i do to help with this?

Unless you put a drip pan on the lower rack and only use the upper rack for really fatty proteins follow what Andy suggested.
OBTW, Welcome to the forum

 

[Rob Smerch]

I use a Hunsaker diffuser plate that is similar I think.
I will cook a pork shoulder right above it and let it drip as it will.

When I’m done I will scrape off the defuser carbon with a putty knife onto a section of an Amazon box or butcher paper then off to the burn pile with that.
I use an ArborFab basket that I shake off into the bottom of the wsm and keep the remaining coals to reuse then I sweep the wsm bottom into the burn pile.
And then just wipe everything down.
I normally wait a day or two to do this so I don’t have to deal with any hot ash and I do this every time.

Is this much different than what you do?
You mentioned grease burn but it reads fire to me and sounds different.

Thanks for the reply. I have no problem with small
Items but when I get to bigger things the greases overwhelms it and kindof smoulders. I will try and find a shallow tray to see if that helps. The only downfall I can see happening is chocking some of the holes off on my make shift “fire dial”.

 

[Rob Smerch]

Unless you put a drip pan on the lower rack and only use the upper rack for really fatty proteins follow what Andy suggested.
OBTW, Welcome to the forum

I use a Hunsaker diffuser plate that is similar I think.
I will cook a pork shoulder right above it and let it drip as it will.

When I’m done I will scrape off the defuser carbon with a putty knife onto a section of an Amazon box or butcher paper then off to the burn pile with that.
I use an ArborFab basket that I shake off into the bottom of the wsm and keep the remaining coals to reuse then I sweep the wsm bottom into the burn pile.
And then just wipe everything down.
I normally wait a day or two to do this so I don’t have to deal with any hot ash and I do this every time.

Is this much different than what you do?
You mentioned grease burn but it reads fire to me and sounds different.

Also to add, I bring my smoker to camp and when we have camp fires I just chuck the plate into the fire and let it burn off. It’s made out of 3/16 stainless and when I use it I flip it every cook.

 

[TonyUK]

Thanks for the reply. I have no problem with small
Items but when I get to bigger things the greases overwhelms it and kindof smoulders. I will try and find a shallow tray to see if that helps. The only downfall I can see happening is chocking some of the holes off on my make shift “fire dial”.

I put a circular disposable foil pan on the heat diffuser, (which sits on the waterpan tabs), to catch 95% of the drippings.

.

I wouldn't worry about choking off the holes in your makeshift FD. I got rid of my FD. The drippings fell through the cut-outs & stifled the fire three times. A gimmick......imo. A solid SS disc is infinitely better.