New Genesis, Unuseable, Everything Sticks to Grill


 
M

MCarbo

TVWBB Member
Decided to treat myself to a new Genesis about a month ago, as the old Charbroil finally took a dirt nap after ten years of service. Hearing nothing but praises for the Weber grills, I eagerly anticipated its arrival.
Well, in the month I have owned it, it has been used about a half dozen times. Each time has proven to be a disaster. Last night's chicken breasts might have been the worst of all. They stuck to the grates as if they were welded on. No amount of effort could remove them from the cast iron. Finally I let them burn to ashes and shut the grill in disgust. Today, I was out again, probably for the fourth time, scraping down the grates and coating with canola oil prepping for my next attempt. I'm frustrated, to say the least. At this point the new grill is useless, as everything I put on it sticks, no, adheres to the cast iron as if welded on. What am I doing wrong? Or are cast iron grates particularly problematic and high maintenance. :mad:
 
Did you season the grates before using them? I have the same setup and seldom pre-oil my grates. The only time anything sticks is if I try to flip things too early.
 
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Those CI grates are as close to non-stick as anything I have ever seen. So unless you're coating the food with sugar this should not happen. First make sure you're starting with clean grates. Old food residue will cause headaches. Get the grill good and rippin' hot. Brush them down well, than use a folded towel and oil them and slap the food on. It should literally slide around. Really you should not be having trouble once you do it right
 
Phil, the first thing I did when the grill arrived was to fire it up, full heat, for about 20 minutes or so to burn off all the oils and residue that comes from the factory. Followed this up with a coating of canola oil and was ready for the first use. Again, got the grill good and hot and threw on the chicken. Adhered like velcro.
The next morning I scraped the grates down with a wire brush, oiled it up and attempted another meal a few days later. Same results. This has happened each time I have used the unit. Was out again this morning, scraping and oiling. But now I'm leery about trying another meal. . .it's feeling like a pizza night tonight, (not that that's ever a bad thing :) )

LMichaels, I'm very surprised to read your description of the cast iron grates as virtually non-stick. But you did mention something that got my attention. Last night's chicken was marinated and one of the ingredients was about a tablespoon of honey. Could this be the culprit? I can never use honey or brown sugar with this grate??
 
Hmmm.... I have a new Genesis and opted for the stainless grates, but really that shouldn't matter much at all. In my experience, having clean grates is pretty important and I think better is to have the grates hot before putting on any meat. And then, when getting ready to flip I use tongs and wiggle whatever it is I'm cooking to see if it's ready to release from the grill grates. FWIW; I've used cast iron grates, SS, nickel coated and a variety of other metals. Newer grates seem to require more seasoning and become better with time. Chicken can tend to stick, but I think if you have the grates clean and heated up it shouldn't be a problem. Are you preheating your grill for a good 10 minutes or so?
 
One other thought... are you letting your chicken or other foods stay on the grill long enough before trying to move them? Generally chicken, burgers, etc. don't easily release unless they've seared on the grate. Other than that I'm at a loss to give you any useful thoughts. Maybe some of the other long time grillers here have some better advice.
 
Pete, the food was definitely on the grill long enough. No amount of searing was going to release last night's chicken.
I'll be grilling again on Friday with some pork loins. In the meantime I have cleaned and oiled the grates and chilled some wine. We'll see what happens. :cool:
 
Good luck on your next cook. Hope it comes out good. Post pics and share if you can.
 
Well Pete pretty much covered it all & you can always try to put a little oil on the food before you put it on the grill.
 
"LMichaels, I'm very surprised to read your description of the cast iron grates as virtually non-stick. But you did mention something that got my attention. Last night's chicken was marinated and one of the ingredients was about a tablespoon of honey. Could this be the culprit? I can never use honey or brown sugar with this grate?? "

Don't really know what to tell you. I have used many marinades with sugar and or honey in them. The food does become a little harder to move but certainly not "welded" to the grates. Over the years I have found SS a little less "non-stick" than CI but never with any material have I experienced your dilemma. But than too if I have a marinade with a sugar in it, I typically never throw the food on the grill "wet". I always drain and dry it off. But a couple different rubs I use have copious amounts of sugar in them and I still don't have the issue you describe. Even on my maple salmon the fish releases quite easily
 
It takes some time before Cast Iron becomes less sticky.CI can absorb a lot of oil before the right surface is created. As others have said, oil the dry food and let it stay as long as possible before moving.
 
That's weird. Maybe you got a set of grates that are simply too rough.

I hardly ever clean my grates and I don't have any problems with meat sticking. I'm of the belief that the juices and oils from previous cooks serve as a non-stick surface. At least that's what I tell my wife when she says anything about being too lazy to clean the grates.

If all else fails, you could take the grates in to the oven and season them like a CI skillet. This page has some pretty good advice;
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
 
Interesting link, Phil. Thanks for sharing! I'm seriously considering conditioning the cast iron grates as per the author, baking them in the oven with flaxseed oil.
As I mentioned above, I'm going to fire up some pork loins tomorrow, following the usual practices of preheating the grates and oiling them. I'll see what happens and report back here. I
 
MCarbo --- Other than chicken breasts, what else have you grilled that sticks? I will only have cast iron in my gas grill as I didn't care for the stainless steel when I used it. I only oil the grates one time - the day I get them. I prefer to let the natural cooking process season the grates. I'll usually make the first cook a bunch of burgers and flip them into a new section of CI.

I'd like to know your cooking techniques/time frames. Take steak or burgers for example, if you grab them with the tongs/flipper and they're not already released - they ain't ready to be flipped. If you try to force it, you'll destroy what you're cooking. Chicken thighs & legs are the same way. When I do chicken breasts (typically marinated in a honey teriyaki) there's a bit more of a "stick" with them, even when I know it's time to flip. Absolutely nothing that would cause me to order a pizza though.

You already mentioned you let the grill pre-heat 10 minutes (probably more) and that's right. Are you pre-heating with all (3) burners running wide open? I usually don't toss anything on the cooking grates unless the lid thermometer is in the 400-450 degree range. The cast iron takes more time to warm up, but once it does - it's a better surface to cook on IMO. Once you toss the food on the grate, what are your burner settings? As an FYI, I leave mine wide open - steak, burgers, all chicken, veggies, pork chops, fish, etc... (Any of my low-n-slow or smoking stuff is done over charcoal.)

Let us know how tonights pork loins turn out.

PS - these cooking grates are porcelain enameled cast iron. Not the same as raw cast iron. I'd recommend skipping the CI in the oven seasoning process.
 
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Just to pile on a bit more...

I watch a lot of America's Test Kitchen on PBS. When they oil their grates, they do it like 10-12 times using a wad of paper towels, long tongs, and veg oil on hot grates to build-up a non-stick surface, and they're using standard plated wire grates, not even cast iron. I don't think cast iron can really be considered "seasoned" with just a single application of oil to hot grates and then away you go cooking.

Having said that, I don't have CI grates, I have SS rod grates in my 12 year old Weber Summit (still on the original factory grates). Boneless, skinless chicken breasts and pork tenderloin stick like crazy to the grates and have always done that since Day One.

My solution: I season the meat or pat dry any marinade using paper towels, then spray liberally with Pam non-stick spray on the top side. Place that sprayed side down on the hot grate. When ready to turn, I spray the uncooked top side with Pam (Careful! It will flame on the hot grate!), then using a large grilling spatula, I scrape under the meat and separate it cleanly from the grate, using tongs in the other hand to get the meat flipped over. Once the meat has been sprayed and cooked on each side, I get very little sticking if I subsequently turn again.

You need to figure this out, because that grill will last forever! Hope this helps. :)
 
Chris I have one of those old Summits with the heavy rod grates. I have an old towel (well actually I change them out occasionally) I tie in to a roll with twine. No matter which of my many grills in my herd I use I use this process. Get it HOT. Brush the grates well, than wipe them down with the towel soaked in oil. I use this on every one of my grills (yes there is a variety) I have a 6 burner Wolf with plain CI grates, the Summit 450 with SS rods, the Q 220 with Enameled CI, also an old Ducane 2004 model with heavy stamped SS grates. After cooking is done the grates are brushed and oiled again and allowed to cool down like that.
Does not matter what I put on them. No sticking no problems with any of the grills. I don't believe old food residue helps them be "non-stick" as someone else mentioned. On the contrary old food deposits simply leave grunge on the new food and act like glue. Even fish (even delicate fish like cod) gives me no trouble using my techniques
 
Update on last night's grilling. . .not happy to report that the pork tenderloins stuck to the grates. Here's what I did: the grates were scraped clean after the other night's chicken disaster, and then liberally oiled with canola. Fired up the grill until the thermometer read 530 degrees. Plenty hot, I would think. Tossed on 3 tenderloins that were marinated for several hours. The instant they hit the grates they adhered. :mad: I didn't touch them for a few minutes, hoping they would sear and release. While not as bad as the chicken, they were pretty much not releasing without a fight. I managed to scrape them off and flip them, at which time they adhered again to the grates, although less. The meat stuck every time I moved it. When the meat was cooked I removed it from the grill and shut it down.
At this point I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'll be using the grill again, (It won't be long. I'm in south FL and it's 83 degrees today). My plan is to fire up the grill to 500 degrees or so, scrape the grates and oil again, and see what happens. Color me perplexed at this point.
 
MCarbo said:
The instant they hit the grates they adhered. ~snip~ I managed to scrape them off and flip them, at which time they adhered again to the grates, although less. The meat stuck every time I moved it.
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Why do you think adding cold meat to the grill, even after flipping, that they shouldn't be stuck to the grill right away? I've done many tenderloins on my CI and never fought with them. As Pete, myself, and others eluded to - the meat is ready when it's released. If it's that stuck, you're wanting to flip too early. Sorry to say, but sounds like operator error.
 
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