Use of a drip tray


 
F

FrankTR

New member
I going to use my SmokeFire to do ribs for the first time. Any thought on the use of a drip try? If I was to place it under the bottom grate will that work? Or will any liquids I place in it just boil away?
 
I don’t and never have. Only reason to run would be with water if you feel the ribs will dry out.

I’ve done…countless racks of ribs on my Smokefire and have never had any dry.

I say skip it
 
@TimA

Frank asked in his welcome thread about using a rack or laying flat. I don't have a smoke fire but I always smoke ribs flat if I can fit them.

Opinions or other tips to share ?
 
I never use a drip pan either for ribs. On other cooks where I do use one I place it below the grate unless I'm roasting vegetables in that pan. Then, I place it on the grate and rest a wire rack on the pan to hold my food (i.e. I do this on whole chickens).

If I were doing a high heat rib cook on the SF I would consider using a drip pan as a diffuser to reduce the likelihood of charring the underside. That, or cook them on the upper grate.

Thus far, I've never used a rib rack.
 
DanHoo said:
@TimA

Frank asked in his welcome thread about using a rack or laying flat. I don't have a smoke fire but I always smoke ribs flat if I can fit them.

Opinions or other tips to share ?
Click to expand...
I also do ribs flat. I bought a rack for my kettle and have used it, I think, exactly once. I don’t think I could find it if I needed it right now.
 
I use the top rack as my main cook grate. The custom top grate is 14 inches deep so there's more room than on the stock shelf. I use drip pans with water because it might help smoke stick better. This is two racks, one in foil on the hot side for fall off the bone tender and one naked on the cooler side for a slight tug tender. 1680465701088.jpeg
 
I don't use a water pan in my electric smoker or any of my grills (pellet pooper, kettles, or gasser) and the only time I use a rib rack is to fit several slabs on the 22" kettle. My ribs are never dry, regardless of whether I wrap or not.

If you're concerned with your ribs drying out, wrapping, spritzing or mopping can be helpful. Other than that, if the process you use on the gasser works well, it should be just fine on the SmokeFire, assuming you're cooking to tenderness rather than temperature or time.
 
If you use the drip pans doesn't that take away the flavorizer bars use? Or are they for mainly hotter cooks?
 
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