Charcoal or Gas Grill? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Cute....then I can have them sing backup for me and go out on the road as "Mark and the Briquettes"?

Now performing their hit single, "A Love as Rare as Ours" and their upcoming radio single "Baby's Got Babyback!"

 

[MarkHastings]

And don't forget when I used to cook in my fireplace...remember my old hit song: "I left my Hearth in San Francisco"?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just saw this Orion Stainless Steel Cooker in the newspaper insert. Here's a link to it on their web site:
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS...gmm.0&MID=9876
I've never seen anything like this before.

I just noticed my link doesn't work. I tried recreating it and it still doesn't work. If you want to see this cooker go to www.homedepot.com and search for orion cooker.
This thing puts charcoal below and above the food being cooked and will also steam. According to the product info, it cooks quickly using a convection effect due to the charcoal being below and above.

 

[MarkMel]

Anyone have one of the new grills with the infrared burners? I was looking at a few of them and wondering if they work well.

 

[DaveF]

And don't forget when I used to cook in my fireplace...remember my old hit song: "I left my Hearth in San Francisco"?

When the weather was briefly Spring-like, I got my grill going again. It's a $200 gas grill from Lowes I got last Fall after checking this thread out (and talking with friends). It's great! My first grill; before I had to use the mediocre charcoal grills at the apartment. Though charcoal is supposed to be the One True Way, I don't miss the mess and wait of briquets.
I bought Weber's Real Grilling to help me learn basic grill technique and recipes; I highly recommend it if you're a grillin' novice like me. I'm still learning to not dry out my chicken breast, but I'm getting there.
I also suggest Gazebo Room Greek Dressing for chicken marinade. Best dressing / marinade I've had.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I'm still learning to not dry out my chicken breast, but I'm getting there.

Buy one of these:
Instant Read Thermometer
And one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aluminumfoil.jpg
Cook over medium-high heat until 165 degrees and put under a foil tent for 5-7 minutes to let juices redistribute.

 

[DaveF]

I have such a thermometer -- very helpful. I've not tried foil.
My basic process is cook each side 4-6 min, flipping only once. With your suggestion, I'd put the foil tent over for the second half. I'll try that next time.
Part of the challenge is the chicken breasts are very thick at one end and thin at the other. Cooking the thick end properly leads to an overcooked thin end. I've not tried cutting it to more equal sized portions.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I have such a thermometer -- very helpful. I've not tried foil.
My basic process is cook each side 4-6 min, flipping only once. With your suggestion, I'd put the foil tent over for the second half. I'll try that next time.
Part of the challenge is the chicken breasts are very thick at one end and thin at the other. Cooking the thick end properly leads to an overcooked thin end. I've not tried cutting it to more equal sized portions.

Actually, the foil tent is for the rest period off the heat. Meat has to rest in order to let the juices redistrbute. If you cut into a steak, chicken, pork, etc., right after it comes off the heat the juices will leak out and it will be dry. A rest lets the meat relax and the juices are reabsorbed into the fibers of the meat.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Cook over medium-high heat until 165 degrees and put under a foil tent for 5-7 minutes to let juices redistribute.

Doesn't the meat cool down a lot in 5-7 minutes even with the foil tent?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Doesn't the meat cool down a lot in 5-7 minutes even with the foil tent?

Actually, no. There is a thing called "carryover" that can cause the inside to increase in temperature as the juices settle, depending on the size of the cut. Letting meat rest is a basic step in proper preparation. Every chef on the Food Network hammers this home any time they cook a steak, chop, etc. A large roast sometimes has to rest for 15-20 minutes and you have to cook it to slightly below the desired temp in order to account for the large amount of "carryover" heat.

 

[nolesrule]

You can learn allot about cooking meat from shows like Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network (if only they'd release the episodes in season sets rather than themed sets). His show gets into the heart of culinary "science", with much more "whys" being answered than on any other cooking show, whereas most other shows just give you the "hows" .
Carryover is the main reason why it's so easy to overcook red meat. You cook a steak to medium rare, and by the time it hits the plate, it looks medium to medium well. That's not so good.
It's best to cook meat to temperature and allow for carryover than to cook based on time and visual inspection (unless you have enough experience).

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Alton Brown is God.

 

[MarkHastings]

God? Hmmm, I always thought he looked more like Greg Proops.

 

[nolesrule]

Well, I don't know about God, but Good Eats is one of my favorite shows on television.

 

[Greg_R]

Instead of just wrapping the meat in foil, try wrapping it in foil and then place it in a cooler. This really traps the heat in and helps with carry-over. This is a standard trick with 'real' BBQ (not grilling).

 

[Philip Hamm]

Well my own follow-up again....

We got a new deck a couple weeks ago and the old Kenmore grill went on. It still cooks OK, but the wheels are falling off and it's hideous cosmetically on a brand new deck with some brand new deck furniture.

My financial situation also changed, so that a $1000 NG grill was out of the question. I had $80 left on a gift card from Home Depot, and saw that they had their store brand Charmglow 810-7440 on sale at an end-of-season $258 (in-store / web price is $299.99 - original price was $369.99). They now OEM their store brand to Brinkmann. So after all was said and done I ended up paying $190 after tax for a very nice looking low-middle-of-the-road grill.

It doesn't have some of the key things I wanted, I don't know how easy or doable it will be to convert to natural gas. But it looks great and cooks much better than the 10 year old Kenmore Cheapie. Plus, when I took the old grill off the deck I noticed that it had been flaking rust onto our brand new deck. Not gonna happen.

 

[Blu]

Part of the challenge is the chicken breasts are very thick at one end and thin at the other. Cooking the thick end properly leads to an overcooked thin end. I've not tried cutting it to more equal sized portions.

I would bet if you are charcoaling them then you are cooking them directly over the coals, try indirect heat. Move the coals to one side of the grill and cook chicken on the other side. They will cook a little slower and allow the inside to get caught up with the outside without burning the outside.

 

[Eric_L]

Anyone have one of the new grills with the infrared burners? I was looking at a few of them and wondering if they work well.

Sorry for the gravedigging of this thread, but I just had to share.
I bought a Charbroil infrared Grill from Lowe's about a month ago and just returned it today. I hated it. I suspect it is because Char Broil is a 3rd rate grill manufacturer than it is that the infrared is bad.
I returned it because the gas line kept clogging, the rotisserie interfered both with the lid of the grill closing fully AND it interfered with the lid on the burner and because the grill turned color. When it worked it was nice, but I could never recommend Char Broil to anyone. I called their customer service and it was laughably bad. Lowe's, however, was very gracious and cooperative. Superkudos to Lowe's.
I'm now in the market for a new grill and leaning toward overpaying for a Weber... quality is worth it. Too bad Lowe's doesn't have one I want in stock - I would buy from them again.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I use the 3 burner "turbo" gas grill sold by Barbeques Galore. It's really heavy duty but not cheap - current price around $600. But you get what you pay for... Mine is 14 years old and still going strong.

Actually now my Turbo BG is closer to 20 years old and still going strong.

A hint about salmon: get the salmon steaks, not the salmon filets. You know, the ones where they cut inch thick slices at 90 degrees to the backbone and leave the skin on. These won't fall apart on the grill and can easily be turned with a spatula. Just oil the fish up first with some hand-rubbed peanut oil. Molto bene!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Last summer Barbeques Galore's website went from being a friendly one with a user forum to a "cold corporate" one. No longer could you mailorder repair parts with ease.

Poking around on the web today I finally found out why. Barbeques Galore went chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2008. They closed many of their stores. They were bought out by a major mfg. of barbeques in the US. The remaining stores now push Weber gas BBQs in addition to BBQ Galore models.

Comments I've found indicate that the high-end BBQ mfgs., like Barbeques Galore and Vermont Castings, were hit hard by the real estate downturn. I presume many of these pricey units were funded via HELOCs.