Saw a pitmaster use a cheap charcoal chimney as a drip pan at a comp in Kansas City

I was walking around the American Royal last weekend and noticed a guy had a beat up charcoal chimney under his brisket catching drips. He said it keeps the grease off his coals and makes cleanup a breeze. I always thought you needed a fancy drip pan for that, but he just let the chimney do double duty. Now I'm wondering if there are other tools I'm overthinking that have simple workarounds. Any of you use regular hardware store stuff in your pits?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_mitchell802d agoTop Commenter

My buddy Frank from down the street actually uses a clean paint tray from Home Depot as his water pan in his offset. He drilled a couple holes in the lip and hung it from the grate hooks. Works perfect and costs like 4 bucks instead of 30 for a stainless one. I tried it once and the only issue was the plastic started warping a little after a long cook, so I switched to the metal version.

patkelly2d ago

That's a pretty solid hack, but has anyone thought about using a disposable aluminum turkey roasting pan? They're like 2 bucks at the grocery store, way bigger than a paint tray, and they already have those little wire handles on the sides. I just bend those handles over the grate bars in my offset, no drilling required. The only catch is they're pretty flimsy so you have to toss them after a couple cooks, but at that price you can grab a 3-pack and be set for the season.