Hi, I'm Chef Tony Matassa with BBQGuys.com Today were going to take a very close look
at some of the most important things to consider when trying to decide which gas grill is right
for you.
Now the odds are, you are going to have this grill for a really long time, so it's important
to look into these things.
Let's get started!
One of the first things I like to find out is, how much grill they want.. size wise.
At first, people generally try to answer this question with how much food they cook.
So they only need a two burner, because it's only a husband and wife, and thats all they
are ever cooking for is them and two kids so it's no big deal.
But you should also try to keep in mind, the more burners you have.. the more versatility
in cooking you have.
By that I mean..if you have a nice wide grill, even if you are only cooking for a couple
people, if you want to cook indirectly..
possibly smoke on your gas grill, you'll need more space for that.
So also keep those kind of things in mind when looking at the number of main burners
in a grill.
When trying to help people decide how much grilling real estate they needed, it was sort
of tough.
We could give you square inches, or the actual demensions.. but thats sort of.. that's kind
of hard to really put into your mind how much space that is.
So we descided to go with 4 inch round hamburgers, because we know how big that is and what it
looks like.
So we decided to lay those out on the grids, and that is how we come about our burger count,
to really give you a real world feel of how large a certain grill is.
Let's have a look at the different cooking grid types that you will find with gas grills..
we will begin with stainless steel grids.
Stainless steel grids come in a variety of options, um, thicker and thinner, you have
cast stainless steel.. sometimes they use tubular stainless steel.
But the main thing to remember is that stainless steel will probably give you the most longevity,
and also the most resistance to corrosion and rust.
The main thing to keep in mind is, the more..
or the heavier that section of grid is, the more heat it will retain, which will provide
a better sear.
Next you have porcelain coated steel grids.. these are probably the least desirable to
have on a gas grill.
They show up looking great, but from heating and cooling, and heating and cooling the grids..
they are more prone to chip and anywhere that you have a chip is just plain cold steel underneath
there, and so it's going to be prone to rust once it chips.
Another grid type that you see sometimes on gas grills is a porcelainized cast irion.
I'ts a little bit different, um, the porcelain doesn't necessarily sit on the surface of
the grids, its more within the pores.
This lasts a whole lot longer, it still eventually you could have some rust here and there..
but it's generally years after the fact, giving it more longevity than a standard porcelainized
steel.
Let's have a look at the flame taming, or flame distribution system within a gas grill.
Sometimes these are called flavorizing plates or bars, um they call them different things
but basically they sit between the burner's flame and the grid.
It helps to protect the burner from direct droppings of fat, debris, that kind of thing.
It also helps prevent flare ups from that sometimes.
The other major thing that it does is, catches the flame's heat and helps to more evenly
distribute that heat.
It also provides for better flavor enhancement, since the drippings that you have from your
marinades on your meat will fall onto the flame tamers and either be carbonized or vaporized
back up into the food.. helping to either marinate it or give it some smokey flavor
just like charcoal used to do.
The two main types that you'll most often see in gas grills is some form of metal flame
tamer, and some sort of a flame tamer that incorporates ceramics.
The main types you'll see with metal flame tamers are either a perforated sheet, sort
of like this one, in different varieties, or a tp, or a tent.. sort of like this one
with different sizes, but roughly these are the main types you'll see.
The difference between these two, is that the perforated ones usually cover more of
the area, which will protect your burners a little bit better.. and are a little bit
better at being more even with heat distribution, and protecting from flare ups.
Where as you can see, the tent, or tp is going to have some empty spaces in between the burners,
leaving it so that it will be a little bit more uneven than a perforated sheet.
With ceramic type flame taming, the main types that you will find is some sort of a rod,
as you see here in my left hand.. or some sort of a briquette like I have here in the
right hand.
The main thing to keep in mind, the issue that you will have vs. steel is when you are
cooking at high temperatures, if you need to come down to low temperatures to make say..
a dessert after searing a steak, you are going to have to wait a little longer to get the
temperature to come down because the ceramics are going to hold a lot of that heat.
And although this may sound like a negative, it's also a positive because it holds heat
very well.. will distribute it pretty well, and should help on the searing end of things
with the grill.
To descide which burner configuration is right for you, first we'll look at which types of
burners you could configure.
Generally what you'll see is a conventional style burner.. something like this, and an
infrared burner, something like this.
Generally ceramics, maybe protected by metal like this one is.
Now the way I try to explain it is a conventional style gas burner will produce heat, that is
more diffuse.. sort of like a flashlight.
Whereas the heat that comes from an infrared is more direct, more like a laser beam.
That is why these are generally used in steak houses for the intense sear that they can
produce at extremely high temperatures.
With a premium style grill, there is enough heat generally produced that if you are not
really concerned with having that intense, you know, full crust sear on everything that
you cook all the time.. then, a fully conventional burner style grill will be perfectly fine
for you.
If you enjoy having that crust style, intense sear on all of the items you cook, you know
on large batches of food.. then they also make full infrared style grills that you can
also get.
The last thing is, for people that want something in between, they may want to sear a couple
steaks and finish them off over conventional burners, or sear a steak sometimes and then
do hamburgers the other times.. or at the same time even.
Then you can do hybrid grills, which a lot of companies offer, where you have several
conventional burners in the same grill with one.. or two infrared burners.
The last thing you'll want to keep in mind with consideration to burner configuration
is whether or not the grill you're looking at has a rear infrared burner.
Now the only reason this matters is if you at some point plan to have a rotisserie kit,
even if you don't have one when you purchase the grill, you may want to add one.
You can't add the rear infrared burner that come with some models of grills, so if you
will want to have one of those, you need to make sure it has it when you purchase the
grill.
Most of the gas grills you look at will have analog thermometers, but I think it's interesting
to note that some companies offer models that come with digital thermometers as well.
Thank you for watching, I hope this video has helped to clear up some of your questions.
If you have any further questions, or need any more detail, please contact one of our
knowledgeable customer service representatives today, or check us out online.
I'm Chef Tony Matassa, and remember..
at BBQGuys.com, we smoke.. the competition!