A First Look (for me) at GrillGrates...


 

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Here's one that will probably stir controversy, although that isn't my intention...

I have mentioned before that I am planning a post tax season video shoot comparing cast iron grates, stainless rod grates, traditional Weber stamped steel grates, and those "GrillGrates". While I can't do anything that complicated right now, our family does need to eat, so I still get to at least grill a little bit. To make my competition fair, I want to be sure that in the case of the cast iron and the GrillGrates, they are adequately seasoned.

So, I went ahead and installed GrillGrates on the Genesis Silver C I picked up for $50 a few weeks ago. (It has turned out to be a great bargain grill, by the way, supplying me with a nice set of stainless rod grates, and stuff for my Skyline grill - black knobs & starter button and a cool side burner that I hope to fix using Larry's advice.)

Anyway, I wanted to use these GrillGrats enough to get them to the seasoned look that the instruction sheet shows. So far, I have done some burgers, steaks once, and tonight pork chops. My comments that follow are ONLY FIRST OBSERVATIONS. I am not making any recommendations or comparisons until I can do as objective a test as is reasonably possible. I hope with that to come up with an unbiased, non-emotional evaluation and rating of these popular grate options.

In the meantime, I will say that my first impressions of GrillGrates are very positive. No flare-ups so far. The grates are pretty easy to scrape clean with the funky spatula-looking tool they include. (Although they show you using this tool as a spatula, too, I have been using regular spatulas for turning the food with no issue.) One negative comment that I have heard is about these type of "infrared" grates getting clogged up. On the Charbroil versions I have seen, which have very small holes, I can see why this is a problem. My brother-in-law had one of those, and, while he loved cooking on it when it was clean, he felt it was way too much work to keep clean. (Oh, and his grill also rusted out unreasonably fast:mad:.) The holes in the GrillGrates are definitely larger, and so far I have had no problem keeping them open. Obviously, if they are clogged up then all you pretty much have is a griddle with ridges.

My take so far is that the grilling experience with these grates is much more like having narrow flavorizer bars up closer to the grates than "grilling" with a griddle as is sometimes claimed. I am sure others will not agree, and I don't have enough long-term experience yet to argue the point.

As far as results, I like the sear marks and the spacing. Here are a couple of my tryouts:
T-BONES
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Pork Chops from tonight. (Note: darker chops have DizzyPig Tsunami Spin rub while lighter ones are boring seasoned salt per my wife's preference.):

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So, how does the food taste? Everything has been really good. Definitely very moist in spite of my medium well cooking style. That is a subjective opinion only.

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OK, please remember that I am only offering some first personal observations. I am not, at this point, recommending GrillGrates or claiming they are better than other options. Just thought some others would enjoy some preliminary commentary. Looking forward to a video presentation!
 
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It would be selfish and boorish for anyone to comment negatively. That is one of the things I like most about this particular forum, everyone is respectful. All we are trying to do is make some delicious food, after all!

Jon, I applaud your foray into new ground.

Personally, I'm very happy with cast iron, and have no need to change. However, if you like the grates, more power to you!

Best,

Tim
 
You know you can accomplish the exact same effect by simply putting a sheet of perforated metal under the regular grates. Glad you feel positive about them but again I think they're like oil additives. The positive feeling may not be from the effect of the additive but the need to justify the $10 you just spent for a pint of colored kerosene. I just did filet mignons on my Summit last night. Perfect char and marks nice crust outside and perfectly red center with edge to edge color inside. IT has more to do with quality of product and skill of the cook than much else.
 
Thanks for sharing. Cliff really likes his Grill Grates too and he is one of the top chefs on this site. One of these days I'm probably going to order a set.
 
They are the go-to grates for SCA steak competitions, but they aren't really my thing either. How do they compare as far as flavor? You are going to have less drippings hitting the flavorizer bars I would think. Those grill marks do look good!
 
I have no experience with Grill Grates, but any extra money I have to put in my grill goes for Stainless solid rod grates. (RCPlanebuyer).
 
Hey everyone!
Your comments have been fun (mostly), and it shows the diverse experiences and personal tastes we each bring to the forum. As I said, at this point I am only offering some limited observations until I can put together something more fact-based using real comparisons. Until then, I am completely open minded about what is the best - if there even is one best type of grate...

Larry,
I am going to talk to my sheet metal friend (who already has several unfinished projects of mine:() to see what it would take to make a set of two stainless inserts to put under a set of cast iron (or stainless for that matter) grates. Like you suggested I will have him make holes in them similar to what the GrillGrates have. I think it is important, too, that there be a modest "step down" so that the flat metal is separated from the grates themselves by about an inch or so. This would mimic the proportions of the GrillGrates "valleys". If I can get him to do this, I will add this idea as another "contestant" in my grate comparison play-off. Since it will have to wait a month, maybe I will call it "April Madness".

Jon
 
They are the go-to grates for SCA steak competitions, but they aren't really my thing either. How do they compare as far as flavor? You are going to have less drippings hitting the flavorizer bars I would think. Those grill marks do look good!

Dustin,

Thanks for your comments! The GrillGrates instructions claim that the valleys in the grates create even better smoke/flavor reaction to drippings than a standard grill. Don't know what I think, but my limited observation would at least be that there is plenty of sizzling smoke rising, but perhaps because there is less air space not very much big flare-ups. I am not at all saying that a quality standard grill can't do just as well - or better - just noting that cooking on them DOES seem to me at this point to still be grilling - not frying on a griddle.

I personally like the spacing of the rails that make bold grill marks without overdoing it.

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I also LOVE my cast iron Q, but I have decided that for many situations it is not a great idea to try for the crosshatch grill mark pattern with this grill. The cast iron bars are pretty broad and the spaces tight. That is a good thing, but when you rotate your food, a majority of the meat has dark grill marks.

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Even that is fine for some things (and some will likely prefer it), but for many grill items I am sticking with grill marks in one direction only with my Q. When using the Q I think the results are better:

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Jon
 
Jon, I appreciated the good comparison of the GG to regular grates. I agree that the regular grills with either GG or regular grates are much easier to get good sear marks. Not only are they spaced a bit better for that, but you can get them hotter. I know that meat with those cool looking cross hatched sear marks, looks great, but I have still have not completely convinced my self that they make the steak taste any better than single sear marks. :)
 
.. I know that meat with those cool looking cross hatched sear marks, looks great, but I have still have not completely convinced my self that they make the steak taste any better than single sear marks. :)

I doubt that it makes any difference at all. It's kind of like how a shiny, wire-brushed firebox gets grill buyers excited, even if a nicely seasoned (not crudded up) one works even better. I brought in that set of pork chops, and my younger son who has little interest in grilled pork perked up and even said "it tastes like steak!"
 
You know, I love anything beef, but a nice thick slab of pork is great too and it costs quite a bit less than beef. I did up a small 2.3 lb Pork Loin Roast on my rotisserie a few days ago. It came out awesome. No grill marks, but it still looked and tasted great. It only cost me six bucks.

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Yah, I used some rib rub on them and put some Cherry wood in the smoker box and that gave it a great flavor. But it came out tender and juicy which is usually hard with a Pork Loin Roast since it has little fat in it.
 
Jon: your well-written thread and observations make me want to hire you as my tax man. Seriously; I'm intrigued by your candid approach and honest, non-objective feedback. You have moved me closer to the prospect of buying a set. Thanks for the time that you have taken to share this detail!
 
Bruce,
You are making me HUNGRY and tax season has already put 5 junk food pounds on me as it is!!! That looks GREAT!

I really hope to learn rotisserie cooking. Maybe I will get one for my birthday:rolleyes:. (Would you believe that my birthday is APRIL 14?!!! When I was younger and heard people talk about the April 15 deadline I always wondered if I would spend my birthday doing my tax return. As it turned out I spend my birthday most every year doing SOMEBODY ELSE'S TAX RETURN:eek:!) With the District of Columbia holiday the due date seems to seldom fall on the 15th anymore. This year the 17th - I will need every extra day...
 
Jon: your well-written thread and observations make me want to hire you as my tax man. Seriously; I'm intrigued by your candid approach and honest, non-objective feedback. You have moved me closer to the prospect of buying a set. Thanks for the time that you have taken to share this detail!

Thanks so much for your kind words. For some reason, GrillGrates seems to put people on far opposite sides. I think it needs some REAL evaluation without bias or prejudice. I hope I can do that next month!

Jon
 
Jon
There is no need for special spacing. Actually given the "theory" of how GG works (also CharBroil's and Nexgrill's) supposedly true infrared cooking more holes would be better than less on a piece of sheet metal. Honestly just a piece of perforated aluminum sheet stock directly under the grate would do a FAR better job than Grill Grates and more closely mimic the CharBroil "effect" which for lazy man grilling actually works VERY well (when clean) which is the major gripe of the CharBroil type grates. I'll lay odds a sheet of perforated anodized aluminum can be gotten quite cheaply and work just as well as stainless steel.
It would not have to be very thick either since it would do no "structural" function it would simple be a heat shield so to speak. I have to say my own experience having cooked on a clean CharBroil TruInfrared that the theory is "sound" in that it is FAR easier to control than a regular grill, absolutely no flare or flame up, you can drop literally ANYTHING on them and walk away knowing you won't come back to a conflagration. But then that's kind of the "fun" isn't it? Knowing you have the skill to set temps and arrangement of food to avoid those troubles.
But if you're into "lazy man" grilling (and I must admit I can be at times) it would be an easy and WAY WAY cheaper "mod" than expensive pieces of stamped aluminum from Grill Grates IMO.
Here are some suppliers https://www.metalsdepot.com/aluminum-products/aluminum-perforated-sheet https://www.grainger.com/category/aluminum-perforated-sheets/aluminum/raw-materials/ecatalog/N-gd8 and http://www.accuratealloys.com/aluminum.html
Looks like about a $25 to $30 piece should do the trick. This is actually something I am going to do to my own grill(s) for some of my cooking. There are times I have been wanting to cook things that can flare up badly (sausage, burgers, chicken, etc) and am trying to "visit" with my guests and I have nearly lost food because I did not pay enough attention. This mod would allow me to do "lazy man" grilling yet be easily removable to do some TRUE grilling and FAR cheaper
 
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Jon
There is no need for special spacing. Actually given the "theory" of how GG works (also CharBroil's and Nexgrill's) supposedly true infrared cooking more holes would be better than less on a piece of sheet metal. Honestly just a piece of perforated aluminum sheet stock directly under the grate would do a FAR better job than Grill Grates and more closely mimic the CharBroil "effect" which for lazy man grilling actually works VERY well (when clean) which is the major gripe of the CharBroil type grates. I'll lay odds a sheet of perforated anodized aluminum can be gotten quite cheaply and work just as well as stainless steel.
It would not have to be very thick either since it would do no "structural" function it would simple be a heat shield so to speak. I have to say my own experience having cooked on a clean CharBroil TruInfrared that the theory is "sound" in that it is FAR easier to control than a regular grill, absolutely no flare or flame up, you can drop literally ANYTHING on them and walk away knowing you won't come back to a conflagration. But then that's kind of the "fun" isn't it? Knowing you have the skill to set temps and arrangement of food to avoid those troubles.
But if you're into "lazy man" grilling (and I must admit I can be at times) it would be an easy and WAY WAY cheaper "mod" than expensive pieces of stamped aluminum from Grill Grates IMO.
Here are some suppliers https://www.metalsdepot.com/aluminum-products/aluminum-perforated-sheet https://www.grainger.com/category/aluminum-perforated-sheets/aluminum/raw-materials/ecatalog/N-gd8 and http://www.accuratealloys.com/aluminum.html
Looks like about a $25 to $30 piece should do the trick. This is actually something I am going to do to my own grill(s) for some of my cooking. There are times I have been wanting to cook things that can flare up badly (sausage, burgers, chicken, etc) and am trying to "visit" with my guests and I have nearly lost food because I did not pay enough attention. This mod would allow me to do "lazy man" grilling yet be easily removable to do some TRUE grilling and FAR cheaper

OK, Larry, you are on! I ordered a piece of the perforated aluminum. One piece is enough to make two sets (2 pieces for each of 2 grills). I want to make them two pieces just like the grates in case I only want to use this setup for one half of the grill space on either grill.

I will include this, using cast iron on top, as another "contestant" in my April (OK, maybe May) Madness Playoff. In honor of you and your idea, I am going to call this version "LarryGrates"! Who knows, maybe this will be the next big thing;)!
 

 

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