Preheat question...new owner


 
M

Mark Goodrich

New member
Hi, I just bought a Spirit E 315. Not by any means my first grill. I'm curious about the instruction to preheat the grill to 500 degrees and then adjust.

1. Is the recommended temp the grate temp or the reading on the lid gauge?

2. I've never done this high preheat then reduce to cooking temp, and haven't found the rationale for it...? Takes quite a while for those cast iron grates to cool down.

3. What's the secret to deciding how much to turn the burners down to get to a desired temp?

Thanks, I realize these are basic questions; I've searched the forum but perhaps didn't use the correct search terms.
 
1. Lid thermometer is totally fine for gauging whether the grill is warm, hot or very hot.

2. The grill will cool off when cold meat is added. The grates, in particular, will cool off significantly when cold food is placed on them. I think that is the reason for the suggestion.

3. Not a bad idea to calibrate your grill. Do the toast test to see where the hot spots are. Play around with some thermometers to figure out what burner settings will produce what temps for direct and for indirect.

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I think the theory behind preheating a grill higher than your target temp is so that all of the internals are heated up to and above that target temp. Just because the inside of the cook box says 500 only means that is the air temp inside. It could be the grates and flavo bars, cook box, and lid are all much lower and haven't caught up yet. So, when you open that lid and throw on the meat, and your inside temp immediatly lowers and since the internals are still not up to temp, they regress in their heat up process as well resulting in a true starting temp much lower than you think it is.

Also, you will find that placing raw meat on a 500 degree grate will stick MUCH less than if you drop it onto a 300 degree grate.
 
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