Cooking with Foil pans vs placing meat directly on grill grate

[Joe]

So I am curious if there is any advantage to cooking directly on a grill grate rather than using a foil pan other than keeping the grill clean. Does placing the meat directly on the grate allow for more smoke flavor.
I recently did 2 cage in turkey breastsYes using the beer can stand to prop them up and placed them in a foil pan.
They were awesome but I was wondering if there would have been more smoke if I did not use the pan.

Any suggestions??

 

[TheGrumpyGriller]

One potential advantage of not using a pan, or at least keeping it on the bottom grate with the meat on top is that air circulation gets to the entire "whatever you are smoking" and hence you'd expect to get a deeper smoke due to the increased surfaced area. If it is in a pan, smoke cant get to that part.

 

[Murphy's Law]

I prefer to cook on the grate as much as possible for the reason mentioned above.

 

[Slimpicker]

I prefer to cook on the grate as much as possible for the reason mentioned above.

me too

 

[midwest]

I always just assumed in the pan your are not going to get near the smoke exposure to all parts of the meat.

 

[Timmy]

I prefer to cook on the grate as much as possible for the reason mentioned above.

Exactly.

 

[GrillMeister]

Always the grill grid for me, but also grid toppers for fish, bacon wrapped shrimp, stuffed Jalapeños, & chicken nuggets. Grill toppers make it easy to get stuff on and off the grill as well as turn things in one effort.

 

[Slimpicker]

Grill toppers make it easy to get stuff on and off the grill as well as turn things in one effort.

just wish I could find a bargain on them to buy them by the dozens

 

[GrillMeister]

just wish I could find a bargain on them to buy them by the dozens

Amazon.com

 

[Don C]

Cheaper at Walmart.

Robot or human?

Max Temp of 400 degrees though

 

[Dockrocker]

I use the grates for smoking only. I use a set of GrillGrates for grilling and searing in the Traeger. Grills up some mighty fine ribeyes!

 

[Don G.]

One disadvantage to the pan, depending on the meat type, is that the meat will sit in the grease/fat/oil instead of having it drain through the grate to another pan or to run off to a collector.

 

[Lynda McCoy]

just wish I could find a bargain on them to buy them by the dozens

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[Lynda McCoy]

Look up bbq grilling bags on Amazon. Teflon coated grill bags..
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[chillerman]

So I am curious if there is any advantage to cooking directly on a grill grate rather than using a foil pan other than keeping the grill clean. Does placing the meat directly on the grate allow for more smoke flavor.
I recently did 2 cage in turkey breastsYes using the beer can stand to prop them up and placed them in a foil pan.
They were awesome but I was wondering if there would have been more smoke if I did not use the pan.

Any suggestions??

You might want to try using a pan with a grate inside. This way the smoke can access all of the meat and you can add a liquid to the pan helping to keep it moist. I used apple beer on my turkey and it was quite juicy and flavorfull.