Handling grease and fat

[JDNC]

Those of you who cook pork roast and beef brisket, how do you handle the fat drippings in the bowl?  On these long cooking times do you have to empty the water bowl..and if you do how often?  I have only smoked loins in my OBS and want to try some pork roast and know from past experience with the water smokers there can be a lot of drippings. This is a small bowl and with spent pucks displacing some of the room I assume I need to empty the bowl and replace with water and maybe several times during cooking pork butts etc.

JD

[pensrock]

I would say most empty the bowl a couple times during a pork butt smoke. You can also put a large foil pan in the bottom in place of the bowl. It will hold much more liquid.

[Habanero Smoker]

Generally I will empty mine twice. Once right after all the smoke is applied, then again around 4 hours later. On occasion I have done overnight smokes and just emptied once, right after the smoke has been applied.

[JDNC]

Thanks, this gives me an idea of what to expect.

JD

[Wildcat]

Most of my smokes are over nighters (butts and briskets) and I only replace the water once.  Never had a problem.

[Mr Walleye]

I'm with WildCat. I only ever dump the bowl after the smoke is done, usually after 4 hours. I then refill it and by the time it starts evaporating, it starts getting it's supply of grease/gunk. Once the grease/gunk starts to form on the surface of the water it doesn't seem to evaporate as much. Just my experience.

Mike

[FLBentRider]

I'm with the cat and the fish on this one. Once at the four hour mark.