Gunk Floating in water tray?

[Thom E]

I assumed it was good, but looking at pictures of other Smokes, I think I may be doing something wrong.

After I'm done with an indirect cooking session, my aluminum pans have smoke residual all over them - I'm assuming that’s what that is, it's all covered except where it sat on the grill. The water in both pans also have "Gunk" floating in them. I start with lit Briquette (Stubbs) in to a pile of unlit lump wood (Ozark) mixed with Apple and Cherry chunks. Anybody else have gunk floating in the water pans?

Oh, after the first 20 minutes of white smoke, I get the blue smoke, if that matters any. Once it’s blue for 10 minutes, I add the food and the pans at that point are pretty clean. So, it has to be coming from something, just not sure what. Any ideas?

 

[timothy]

The water pan is underneath the meat.. Yes?
Than quite normal, the meat drippings will turn to a scum as the water boils. Similar to what happens when you boil or simmer a pc of meat for soup.
The smoke residue is also normal, even without a noticeable smoke trail exiting your top vent.
Sounds like your all good to me.

Tim

 

[JimK]

Perfectly normal, as Timothy stated. I like to wrap my water pan in heavy duty foil for just this reason. It's much easier to clean that way.