Novice BBQing question

[mdmost]

Which is better to use for grilling using propane, the ceramic bricquets(sp) or Kingsford charcoal. I cooked using the ceramic ones tonight for the first time and it took forever for my burgers to cook.

 

[NickDanger]

You will get people squaring off over charcoal v. gas, but I think the real question you are asking is why did your burgers take so long and the simple answer is heat. Gas is a little easier to control heatwise and charcoal arguably imparts a better flavor TO BURGERS. Cooking burgers is probably more accurately called grilling than barbequeing. Grilling, loosely described, is cooking meat (or veggies or fruit I guess) with high heat designed to bring the temperature of the product fairly quickly to a desired level. Using ceramic briquets and gas, you are trying to get them heated up fairly high so that THEY will be the source of the heat and when juices fall on them they flare up and give a compromise of the same flavor that is supposed to emanate from charcoal. I have never done real well with ceramic briquets. Lava rocks have been easier for me with a gas grill and at the moment I have some sort of wavy metal yingyang that is the flare up instigator. Seems to work fine. Brinkman. More likely than not, you needed to let the burgers wait inside and leave the grill going with the top down to get the temp of the briquets and rest of the grill higher before you started. If you were going to bake burgers (shudder) you would do it at 450 or above. I used to see my novice friends throw the meat on the grill around 250 and expect good things to happen. They won't. Let those briquets heat up for 10-15 minutes before you tos the burgers on and let them flare up a little. You don't want to burn them, but a little flare up, even with briquets, will give them some flavor.

 

[Hornin NYC]

The key I've found is preheating and having a thermometer.

my grill has the thermometer built in, turn your grill on for awhile (5-10 mins) before you start grilling and you will have much betet results. And keep the lid closed.

 

[mdmost]

Thanks. Yesterday was a trial run on my new grill. The wife and I are throwing a party at our house on Saturday and I have to cook burgers and hot dogsfor about 40 people. I think I am going to flip to charcoal since the ceramics never seemed to get hot enough. I had the top down for about 15 but I just didn't see the flames nor results I see when my brother cooks them.

 

[cbs]

I'm not sure I'm understanding the choice of charcoal or ceramics on the same grill. If it's a gas grill, I don't think you can use charcoal. But if you end up using charcoal on a separate grill, I'd suggest you get lump charcoal --- pure wood v. filler in the Henry Ford style charcoal. And avoid lighter fluid. To start it, you can use the Weber starters or a charcoal chimney (extremely easy and effective). Although I don't have ceramic briquettes in my gas grill, I have a completely ceramic grill (a Big Green Egg). The beauty of the ceramics is that they'll get damn hot and hold heat forever. When I use my egg for a high temperature grill, it will stay hot for a long time even after the fire's been snuffed. I think you just didn't let them heat up long enough or set it high enough in the first place.

 

[Brak]

Is this a joke? You're not supposed to use real charcoal in a propane grill, are you? If your propane grill is working right, you should be able to cook the burgers in 10 minutes easily. As a matter of fact, the problem with propane is that it is very easy to burn your meat if you aren't carefull as the grease will ignite and scorch the meat. The ceramic briquets won't "catch" fire, they retain heat.

I have seen that you can now get a propane grill without briquets at all. It uses a metal plate to dissapate the heat.

 

[NickDanger]

I guess I didn't really focus on the idea of switching back and forth in the same grill. There are supposedly grills that would allow you to do this, but I've never seen them. I'm pretty sure that you have to allow the briquets to get seasoned before they will flare up and impart flavor. With a grill like that, there's not much reason to use anything other than HIGH to get things going. 15 minutes should have been good. Are you using a regular size propane bottle? Sometimes the little ones will freeze up.

 

[horn4life]

Ha! I cooked 44 burgers last weekend for my daughters' 9th birthday pool party.

I echo the horror of potentially using charcoal in your gas grill, as it's not a good idea. If you have two grills then use the charcoal one for sure. i will suggest you buy a "chimney" and use it to start your coals as it gets them going evenly and quickly. They are about 6 bucks at Academy, but work well, just wad up two pieces of nespaper in the bottom light and dump (USING A GLOVE) into the grill after the coals go white.

There is simpy nothing that compares to a charcoal grilled burger.

If you have gas and are cooling that many here is a good hint. Initially preheat the entire grill, then after searing the burgers turn off one side of the grill (assuming you have two burners). Slightly undercook the first burgers with a good hard sear and place them on the indirect heat to slow cook.

You will end up with a large stack of burgers all still warm on the indirect side of the grill. Of course you have to keep closing the grill to get the heat for the indirect side.

My other suggestion is buy your burgers at COSTCO 40 regular for like $17, or 18 Sirloin 1/3 lb for like $13 the buns are dirt cheap as well. PLUS TWO 24# bags of kingsford are presently $6.97 at COSTCO. which is dirt cheap.

Think much hotter heat to sear the burgers then put them on indirect heat for a longer lower heat finish. You will end up with a nice seared burger exterior and a juicy interior.

Good luck and make sure to have a GIANT cocktail at your side when you toss the first of your 40 burgers on the grill....

PS- you are Grilling not BBQing..

 

[hornhooper]

Horn4life, Peggy Hill would disagree with you.

 

[horn4life]

But I don't look like Homer and wouldn't bother to bang Peggy so her opinion would be.... useless.