To foil or not to foil

[dennisl]

I have a pitboss and do not foil. I scrape and have a dedicated shop vac for grills. So I just clean occasionally. And i never use the temp setting on my pitboss it fluctuates way too much. I just put it on smoke and use the appropriate p setting for the weather.

My manual says to LOWER the p setting to reduce the temp swings. Has that been the case with you? Also when you put it on Smoke do you get big temp swings? Thanks for the info guys.

[Fire Art]

The controllers try to keep an average when I called tec support she recommended on higher temps o setting 3 it works for me on smoke setting p 7 runs between 140 to 200 is what I use for jerky.

[thecruiser]

I'm new here, and to smokin'. What's the "p" setting?

[Fire Art]

thecruiser the p seting is a adjustment that changes the parameters of the digital board my particular grill is has 7 setting. So in theory you can adjust your grill to your liking

[RAGBBQ]

I foil my Rec Tec 680. I also foil tightly along the edges, so air flow is not affected. This keeps the actual drip tray clean and grease free. Changing the foil is easy. But, Rec Tec says it is ok to foil on this model.

[jumbo7676]

My first few cooks on my GMG pellet grill had no foil. I've been foiling since and have no intention of going without foil again. Has made cleaning up after a long pork butt cooks a whole lot easier.

[thecruiser]

Just bought my GMG yesterday. Haven't even assembled it yet. Won't be today either as I'll be trading out my electrical panel to one with a main breaker lockout so I can plug in my generator during power outages. (no worries guys, I'm a retired Master Electrician)
Posting to Thank You for the tip. I'll try using foil also.

[Sweaty Paul]

I don’t foil my YS-640. A heavy duty metal scraper works well.

[CandySueQ]

I don't foil, but I do put full size aluminum pans underneath the cooking grates in the Yoder Cimarron (I don't use the deflector plates). I've taken to cooking chicken on the Jumbo Joe at contests. I always foiled the FEC100. Never foil the MAK or original Grilla. Took the pizza oven out of the Daniel Boone, but since I was smoking salsa in a pan no foil necessary.

[EdF]

"Coises, foiled again"!

[BigD]

I always foil on my Traeger. My dad recently purchased a pit boss and the deflector tray is curved instead of flat so he doesn't foil it. The logic behind that is that the foil might interrupt the draining process. Just our 2 cents.

[Bogy]

I've already mentioned that I don't bother foiling. Here, and on at least one Facebook group where this question has come up I've had people make comments about how they don't want to spend hours scrubbing their deflector plate. (Whether or not to foil the deflector plate has to come up as one of the top five questions, along with whether or not to wrap, are these threads started by people who have stock in aluminum foil companies?)

Saturday I cleaned and vacuumed out the Grilla. After I did a couple of butts a few weeks ago, a cook where I completely filled up my little grease bucket, the deflector plate was the "dirtiest" it had been in the three months or so I've had it. Scraped off the grease as I always do, but after the heavier deposits were gone, there was more grease residue than I've had previously. OK, so it doesn't look quite as clean. Kind of looked like a seasoned cast iron. I was OK with that. But in the intervening time since the big pork butt cook I've done beef short ribs, beef heart, brisket, steak, salmon, and pizza last Friday night, where it got cranked way up. When I went to scrape off the deflector plate on Saturday, I scraped off a crust of charred grease, and underneath was a nice clean deflector plate. So, for me, it confirms my position that foiling the deflector plate is a waste of time and foil. If all I did was low and slow pork butt, I might reconsider, but with the mix of lean or fat-free cooks I do, at varying temperatures, things seem to take care of themselves. As always, YMMV.

[Fire Art]

Interesting

[Sweaty Paul]

I always foiled my GMG. Since I’ve gotten the Yoder I have gone foil free and started scraping. Works great.

[Fire Art]

You all talk me in to it all will try to go foil less

[Bogy]

Go for it! Live dangerously!

[CandySueQ]

One other cleaning tip -- if you've got grease on the bottom of the pit, sprinkle pellets in there and wait a while. Pellets will soak up the grease and it's much easier to scrape greasy pellets than straight grease.

[Bogy]

I suppose it would use up more pellets, but I'd rather save the "good stuff" for actual cooking/smoking. Use the "other stuff" for cleaning up.

[bten]

I agree, I just couldn't pass it up. I have some pit boss pellets that I need to use up. I intend to use them to burn out and then season the Yoder I am working on.

[CandySueQ]

Just buy a bag of heating fuel -- should be less than $5 for 40#.

[BeachBlues]

Why waste pellets at an average of a buck a pound? My "Go To" for absorbing stuff is cat litter. Cheap, efficient and available everywhere. I place an inch or 2 in the bottom of my drip bucket. Easily dumped out into a trash bag with little mess. Option 2 is a bag of oil-dri, available at your local auto parts store, or have Amazon ship it to your door.

[bten]

I like the cat litter trick in the drip bucket. I don't know that I want litter inside my grill.

[CandySueQ]

Don't use the pine kind! Residuals may not be tasty. Actually, find a bag or two of heating pellets for cleaning purposes.

[Fire Art]

bten just keep the lid closed so the cat can’t comein🤓

[bten]

Lol 🤣