Preheating and other preparations

I've had my Summit Platinum C4 for a few years now and after some experimentation I have found solutions to two problems I had relying on Weber publications (brochures,books,etc.). The first has to do with preheatin the grill. I've read time and time again that you need to preheat with all burners on high for approximately 15 minutes until the temp registers 550. After creating infernos time after time (especially when cooking rib eyes) with flare ups from which there was no escape, I decided to preheat all burners on high and then reduce to medium or less when the grill reached 450. I find I get very good grill marks and controlable flare ups. I used this technique yesterday on prime rib eyes and the results were outstanding. Using the recommended method resulted in bad flare ups even in areas where there was no direct heat. I should mention that I've used the lower preheating temps for burgers, chicken breasts with much better results. I let the Weber folks know this and they said they would pass the info along to Jamie Purveiance.

Briefly on another topic I'd like to offer my experience on soaking wood chips. Again, I started out soaking them for at least a half hour to an hour. I found that for a long slow cook such as ribs and brisket such long soak times were good in that I got approximately 45 minutes of smoke with my smoker burner on low. For quick cooks like steaks, burgers,chicken breast I find that a 5 and at most a 10 minute soak is the right prescirption. I like having a good volume of smoke when the meat is still raw so that it can absorb more rather than having that volume come at a time when the meat has already seared/sealed. Additionally, the shorter soak time reduces the time one has to wait for that good volume of smoke.

I've found that cooking with my gasser is considerably more challenging in some respects than cooking on my Performer. I feel that I've finally got the process down but only after departing from the "gospel" according to Weber. Let me know what you think.

Doug
Thanks for the insight and your findings. It sounds as though you have got it pretty well sorted out. I don;t get to play with a Summit very often. I demonstrate on a Genesis, Q220/Q300 and a OTG Kettle. I also own a Genesis,Q220, OTS, OTG and a Performer.

When I am demonstrating I usually advise the Customers to start off following the Weber instructions/methods first and then modify them to suit their style of cooking and dishes. There always has to be a starting point that people can use which is safe and effective.
On my genesis I always preheat for 10 minutes or more with all the burners on high and then lift the hood and brush all the grill clean. The preheat is all about killing of all the nasties and burning off any residual junk. Lifting the lid and brushing down reduces the heat of the grill. I then adjust the set-up to suit the dish that I am going to cook. For short cooks using smoke I wouldn't worry about soaking the chips. Just throw them in and when they start smoking )and the grill is up to temp) start cooking.

As we say down here "No worries Mate"

Cheers

That's some good info Doug. I've never grilled on a Summit, but I'm still hoping
I use the same warm-up technique as Phil stated, taking the grill up to 650 before dropping it back. It's my opinion that this is necessary not only for the obvious reasons, but also to stabilize the temp of the cast firebox. I've seen temps jump when the grill wasn't properly heated and that just drives me crazy. I've been spoiled by the stability of my wsm and now insist on the same performance from my Genesis.
Preheating to that kind of temp also presented a new problem for me-- I had forgotten (neglected?) to clean out the drip tray and the residual carbon, being still somewhat flamable, will smoulder and dis-colour the food (i.e. turn it black as the hubs of hell). It's not a nice tasting smoke, either, it's sharp and nasty tasting and I ruined a few chicken breasts because of it. It's critical to keep that drip tray cleaned out.
I find the higher grilling temps give a juicer finished product and a more seared exterior, but finding ones own way of doing things is part of the fun.

OK, this is going to sound really stupid so let me have it if you want. I am the worst hamburger cooker this side of the Atlantic. For the July Forth party I am cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. Should I preheat the grill to a high temperature like you guys stated to sear the burgers then cook indirect? Will that high sear cook the burgers too fast? It's funny, I can cook ribs and chicken and other meats great but when it comes to burgers forget it. They are either too rare or too well done.

I'd suggest doing a reverse sear for burgers and see how that goes. High heat and burgers are a sure way to get flare-ups because of all the fat in there. With a reverse sear you'll get most of the fat out of the burger before you put the grill marks on.

I read Daves post and I was trying to think of the answer and how I do hamburgers when I realized that it has been 6 months since I cooked a hamburger on my BBQ. The last time that I did them I useed the reverse sear method on the Performer. I did demonstrate cooking them before Xmas on a Q300 with low - medium heat about 300 - 325 F from memory. The object was to present a good loking burger that was not black all over.

Cheers