Spirit 2 310 no sear

[Matt Currie]

Hi guys,

been cooking on my weber kettle for a few years and cooked on gas a couple weeks ago (cheapo gas grill) and I loved it.Seared the meat, nice char. Nice and simple!
So decided to go all in and get a spirit 2 310. What a piece of kit. Apart from the sear and char is hardly anything compared to the cheap no brand thing and my charcoal Weber’s.
whats going wrong? it’s got cast iron grates, I’m pre heating to 500 and then cooking. Just don’t some sausages and had them over high direct heat for 6 mins and then they reached temp without hardly any char. Not sure what’s happening.

 

[Matt Currie]

Do I sear my food with the lid open??? I’ve been searing to get colour with the lid closed, this may be why there not charred enough but cooked all the way through

 

[Bruce]

While I am sure the Spirit is a better grill than your Chinesium one, it is not what I would call going "all in". Even Weber's flagship model (Genesis II) is a higher grade grill than the Spirit.

If you really want to sear your meat, then here is the $30 solution. Don't laught, it works...really.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

Bruce vividly makes the point very well.

Putting a big time sear on a steak requires a short burst of big heat energy. Steakhouses use a gas broiler that gets to like 1800 degrees an inch or two from meat surface.

Low quality gas grills can often deliver a lot of high heat (at least in the hot spots) but have a hard time delivering even heat without incinerating flare ups. So the #1 goal of higher quality grills is to control and distribute the heat and prevent flareups. That's the main issue that needs to be solved in a gasser. Hence all the diffusion plates, flavorizer bars, ceramic briquettes, lava rocks, etc. etc. etc.

A kettle can do a very good job on this with a direct/indirect set up. Putting your steak briefly and directly over 2,000 degree charcoals will do it. In contrast, a Weber gas grill is designed to do a great job in conveniently providing even heat and no flare ups from 250 up to 500-600 degrees. But 600 degrees is not going to rival a blowtorch or direct charcoal heat. For the more limited task of searing, many gas grills and grillers use a supplemental tool. Like infrared sear burners, cast irons pans, griddles. Or a blowtorch...

My tool of choice is a set of GrillGrates. Some folks on here don't like them, but I love them. An easy add-on/mod that will fit right onto your Spirit. Especially good at searing when flipped over to use the flat side -- hot metal sears better than hot air. Meathead has a good review of them on his website.

 

[Jon Tofte]

With GrillGrates:

 

[J Grotz]

If I understand your problem, you are not getting good sear marks on your steaks when using your new Spirit II E-310.

I think your model comes with porcelain enameled cast iron grates.

First, make sure the grates are installed properly. For good sear marks, the flat side of the grates must face up:

(Link to the original 4705x4705 pic to really see the grate surface: https://pollocksbbqs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/45060001G.jpg )

Second, to pre-heat your grill, turn all burners on high for at least 10 minutes. Pre-heating all burners on high for 15-20 minutes is even better when you are going to be searing steaks. Those cast iron grates take time to really heat up. You mentioned you preheated your grill to 500 degrees. Your grill puts out 30,000 BTUs, so it should be able to reach temps higher than 500 degrees if you let it pre-heat for 20 minutes.

Third, after seasoning your steaks, brush them with a little oil before putting them on the scorching hot grates.

Let us know how you make out.