How do you all dispose of the water and drippings after you are done? I loathe to pour it out on my property....the racoons have enough reason to bother my stuff as it is.....After my first smoke I dumped it into an empty milk carton but the "Pan" doesn't make for a clean pour.....

I was hoping that burning off the coals would evaporate it off but I was left with about 1/2 gallon when the coals ran out.

Clay pot saucer mod.

Benefits:
No water to dump and simple clean up
Less fuel consumed
No adding water or fuel during a cook
Less chance of a big temp spike from water pan going dry

Trade off:

Harder to bring down temp if cooker gets too hot

Paper grocery bag inside a plastic one. Dump cold charcoal ash in bag. Pour pan contents into bag. Ashes soak up greasy water. All goes in the regular trash.

I used to let the grease solidify, scoop it out and dump it into an empty milk carton or similar, then pour the degreased water down the drain. Now I've stopped using water, so I pull out the foil from the water(less) pan, wrap up whatever grease is in it, and put it in the trash.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
Paper grocery bag inside a plastic one. Dump cold charcoal ash in bag. Pour pan contents into bag. Ashes soak up greasy water. All goes in the regular trash.

Great idea Doug!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
Paper grocery bag inside a plastic one. Dump cold charcoal ash in bag. Pour pan contents into bag. Ashes soak up greasy water. All goes in the regular trash.

The pioneers used to make soap by letting water drip through wood ashes (yielding lye), then mixing the resulting lye with animal fat. So, from greasy water to soap? A neat way to clean up our landfills.

Cool Thanks for the tips folks. Very helpful!!

Larry:

Beware that charcoal ash is not the same as wood ash. So I'm not sure if you would end up with lye by dripping fat into charcoal ash. Hmmm.

quote:

Originally posted by tjkoko:
Larry:

Beware that charcoal ash is not the same as wood ash. So I'm not sure if you would end up with lye by dripping fat into charcoal ash. Hmmm.

Probably true. What if one did make soap out of the fat? Would there be a market for organic soap that smells like wood smoke? Maybe people who cook with gas would buy it so they could smell more authentic (even if their bbq doesn't)?

The homemade soap (made with fat/tallow and wood ashes) that I purchased at an herb store offered a very strong cleaning action and lasted a veeeeeeeeeery long time. After washing my hands with it, I KNEW that I had used a soap product entirely different from the commercial stuff. You gotta' try real soap for once in your life.

However natural soap does feel a bit strong for facial use on a daily basis.

quote:

Paper grocery bag inside a plastic one. Dump cold charcoal ash in bag. Pour pan contents into bag. Ashes soak up greasy water. All goes in the regular trash.

It wasn't obvious to me what the paper bag was for, so I didn't use it. The day was windy, so it took a while to get the ash catcher emptied into the plastic bag without spilling, but it went OK.

When I went to dump the water/slime/grease the wind hit the plastic bag just as I was pouring -- half went down my pants and the other half went on my gravel driveway.

Use the paper bag, folks

I second David, clay saucer mod. No water, better fuel economy. Catch temp. on the way up and you'll be fine.

Maybe its me...but this one is a real no brainer. I just pour all contents of the water pan down the drain rinsing with plenty of hot water.

There is a theory that dumping too much oil & grease into a septic system can kill the system by coating the surface of the tank and cutting off air.

I never understood this since it's supposed to be the anaerobic (we don't need no stinkin' oxygen) bacteria that do all the work in a septic tank, but I'm also loath to take the chance.

I think that anaerobes require CO2, carbon dioxide, to fluorish. And the fatty content of the grease may cut off the CO2 supply to the bacteria.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
Paper grocery bag inside a plastic one. Dump cold charcoal ash in bag. Pour pan contents into bag. Ashes soak up greasy water. All goes in the regular trash.

That is so simple, its almost stupid. Why are all the ingenious ideas the simplest. I don't want to smoke dry. I want to use water to smoke and keep the meats juciy. Great advise Doug; 5 *****

quote:

Originally posted by John Bridgman:
There is a theory that dumping too much oil & grease into a septic system can kill the system by coating the surface of the tank and cutting off air.

I never understood this since it's supposed to be the anaerobic (we don't need no stinkin' oxygen) bacteria that do all the work in a septic tank, but I'm also loath to take the chance.

Not sure how it works, but too much grease going down the drain can be problematic for a septic system. A friend's wife regularly poured grease down the drain despite being told not to. When the guys came to empty the septic tank they said it was the worst septic tank they had ever seen. She promised not to do it anymore.

No septic here!!!! SO down the drain it goes!!!

I'm no drain expert but, it would seem we would be much better off with the water and fat in the landfill rather than the water supply.

I wouldn't pour greasy water down my drain - septic or not. Doug's idea is a good one if you're going to use water. Another idea is to use two pans. Fill the water pan with water as normal. Then put a pan to catch the drippings on the lower grate. Of course this means you can't use both grates, but I don't usually anyway. This way, you can just pour the water on the ground or down the drain because it has no grease. The drip pan covered with aluminum foil makes clean up a breeze.