Good read on various grill grates


 
Meathead said:
I think we fall into two camps: S&P only, or a nice steak rub. I go both ways. But remember, ONLY SALT penetrates to the center. All the rest remains on the surface. A touch or sugar will help with browning, but I don't think steers need sugar any more than they need wolves. Pepper will only burn when it gets really hot. But to be safe I use large grain cracked pepper on steaks, not a fine grind.

And BTW, I have been a member/lurker of this great site for years, but somehow my membership was discontinued. I'm always uncomfortable showing up on someone else's forum for fear they will think I am poaching. Hence I have not posted often and I try not to post links to related articles, but much of this stuff is discussed in detail on my site.
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It would be cool if you could do a Q and A on this forum since you're a celebrity in the BBQ/grilling world.
 
Meathead said:
Grill Grates are not bare aluminum, they are anodized, meaning they are coated. Here's a quote from Alzheimers.org's page on myths: "During the 1960s and 1970s, aluminum emerged as a possible suspect in Alzheimer's. This suspicion led to concern about exposure to aluminum through everyday sources such as pots and pans, beverage cans, antacids and antiperspirants. Since then, studies have failed to confirm any role for aluminum in causing Alzheimer's. Experts today focus on other areas of research, and few believe that everyday sources of aluminum pose any threat."

Aluminum is everywhere. It is the third most abundant element on the planet. Studies always rate aluminum intake from cookware far down the list, behind air pollution, dust, drinking water, antacids, antiperspirants, buffered aspirin, occupational sources, etc. And the healthy human body has the capacity for excreting what very small levels end up in the body.
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With all due respect, I understand the merits of anodized aluminum. I posses and use some. BUT I have some that will go to the scrapper because the anodizing is worn off. BTW it's not a coating it's a chemical change of the actual surface, that actually seals it against leaching and corrosion but it CAN and DOES wear off. I have some VERY expensive cookware that is no longer in use due to that. Also my take on aluminum and brain damage is not my "opinion" it came from my mom's neurologist who showed us her brain scan lit up like a Christmas tree and noted that it was most likely from extensive use of aluminum cookware (which yes she absolutely used A LOT). Perhaps her brain had some chemical attraction to the deposits, I really don't know. After all my dad is fine. But yet her Dr pointed this out to my siblings and I. When the last of my anodized cookware is worn out it too will be scrapped and never replaced except with most likely stainless steel.
As for a good overall crust on a steak you bet! I am right there, and I get them easily without resorting to excessively high heat, but with careful cooking methodology. I also disagree on thin wire racks not because of the browning issue but I just hate cooking on flimsy stuff like that. Drives me bonkers. I like well built things that have good tactile quality. Whether it's my tools or my cooking stuff. I hate flimsy. But that is my opinion and practice and everyone is entitled to their own of each.
Nice to see you here. BTW I did not put this out there to start a contest. Simply to put out there that there really is nothing "wrong" in having different methods. It's what makes the world go round. But also to note my stance on aluminum is not some stupid opinion I pulled out of thing air or urban myth but from a bonafide neurosurgeon who was treating my mom for Lewis Body Dementia. A truly horrid thing to see someone go through
 
You are not the only one to witness firsthand a loved one lost to dementia. I, too, lost my mother to Alzheimer's, and a grandmother (on my mother's side) to dementia, and a sister to Parkinson's, which science is now saying belongs in the Lewis Body Dementia category. Dementia is becoming increasingly common, and science predicts a potentially crushing impact of dementia on our healthcare system by 2050. How I wish it were that simple, to point to aluminum cookware and say "BAD", avoid it at all costs, but it's not. Predispositions to diseases are increasingly being seen as being genetic. Predisposition to dementia can potentially be genetic and there are generations of families that develop dementia at a very early age with a known gene that provides a clue for some. There is a test to see if you have that gene, just like a test for the gene that predisposes you to breast cancer, but just because you have the gene is no certainty that you will develop the disease. So be it. Nobody gets out of this life alive.
 
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I think everyone has weighed in on this topic (aluminum cook wear) in this or another thread at least once in the last year. Can we simply end this round.
Pretty please?
 
Meathead said:
I have been a member/lurker of this great site for years, but somehow my membership was discontinued.
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Hi Meathead, and welcome!

Your having been a member here in the past sounds familiar, yet I can't find an existing account under any variant of your name. Moving forward, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to keep track of an account called "Meathead". :)

Meathead said:
I try not to post links to related articles
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It's been our practice for 20 years to discourage self-promotion of websites, blogs, businesses, products, events, etc. so I appreciate you being sensitive to this issue by sharing great information but not links.

Best,
Chris
 
Over about 45 years of grilling I've used thin wire grates, cast iron grates, and thick stainless grates. Personally I've found little difference in how these grates perform from a cooking/grilling standpoint. All the difference to me is in ease of maintenance and durability. And for me the thick stainless grates win on those 2 counts. I like things that last. And the 7 to 9 mm 300 series grates last decades and possibly even a lifetime. No thin stainless wire grate can do that.
 
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