Pan for upper grate


 
S

Scott Masaichi

New member
Aloha,

I have an 18" WSM smoker and will often try to smoke different meats at once. The problem that I have is trying to keep the drippings from the top grate off of the meat on the lower grate. I see a 14"x3" round cake pan at Amazon that I think can catch all the drippings from whatever is cooking on the top grate. I would be able to place a beef roast on the top grate and some pork ribs on the bottom without the pork ribs tasting like beef. There is also a 13" cooling rack that I can place into the pan to catch drippings. Has anyone done this?
 
Sure, some of us use disposable half pans for foiling butts or chuck roasts. I have a few metal 13"x9"x2" pans that just fit on the top grate because they have a rolled edge.
The ones with a square edge don't because the lip sticks out too far. Any pan with a diagonal of 17" or less will fit on the top grate with the lid on..
Hope that helps and welcome aboard.:wsm:

Tim
 
Yeah I actually use pans all the time for the simple reason it makes cleanup so much easier (I could go the clay saucer/foiled water pan route, but for now I'm content using water in the water bowl). If I'm just cooking something on the top rack, I'll put an empty pan on the bottom rack to catch the drippings and keep them out of the water bowl. If I'm using both racks, the meat on each rack goes in it's own pan. Im not sure of the exact size, but I don't think they're quite 13x9.....got 'em at Costco in a huge stack so I always have plenty on hand.

I've also tried putting the cooling rack inside the pan so the meat doesn't cook in it's own juice, and honestly I couldn't tell much of a difference in the final product. With a 6+lb chunk of meat the relative amount of the roast that is sitting on the juice/drippings doesn't seem to matter. Just foil it towards the end in a new pan and/or put it in a new pan to rest when it comes off and you still have the drippings for gravy/au ju if you want.
 
As an FYI, I stumbled on a round 16" Dutch Oven Aluminum pan at Cabela's. It seems like it would be a little small for my 22", but for the 18" it might be the hot ticket. I was thinking to use it on top of the clay saucer to avoid refoilding every time.
 
I use pans for ALL my cooking, for all my meats, at all four levels of my WSM and love it. Easy clean up and easy to move meat in and out of the smoker.
Peter
 
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