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What's the point of grilling with propane?

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Propane is kinda like playing fantasy football.

Its for people who can not own a real pit, and propane is as close as they can get.

Live in an apartment, can not afford another parking space for your pit, get a propane grill.
 
Dallascisco said:
Lets see, you'd rather cook in an oven which will heat up your house on an already 90+ degree day? Way to make your AC unit work that much harder.
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This too. On really hot days I will tend to BBQ simply for the fact that I don't want to generate heat in the house.

I had someone stay over to my house for a few months during the summer. He used to do lot of cooking, and all indoors. OMG I used to hate that. I don't have AC and he was making the house even hotter. There's that one time he cooked salmon. OMFG use the BBQ FFS.
 
The inside of the grill gets a light coat of ash and fatty runoff. That stuff burns and adds extra flavor when you cook meat. The grill sort of gets "seasoned" over time. You have to clean that stuff out every once in a while to avoid catching the grill on fire though. Also, open flame just cooks differently than a heated surface.
 
Lots of reasons... Higher temperatures than charcoal are better for cooking steak. With regard to cooking in an oven, propane grills are: easier to clean, doesn't make dishes, keeps odors out of the house.

Personally, I have 3 different outdoor grills:

Weber One Touch Charcoal grill
Weber Smokey Mountain charcoal smoker
Weber Spirit propane grill


Charcoal grill is used for:
Burgers, hotdogs, chicken parts (breasts, thighs, etc...), pork loin/chops

Propane is used for:
Steak, fish, lamb, and other meats that are better seared at high temperature and served medium rare.

Smoker is used for:
Ribs, briskit, pork shoulder, whole birds

I'm in the process of building an outdoor wood-fired brick oven so I can really cook some good steaks.
 
Well speaking of grilling my new Weber E-330 I ordered before Memorial Day was finally delivered yesterday. Can't wait to put it together tonight!
 
SlitheryDee said:
The inside of the grill gets a light coat of ash and fatty runoff. That stuff burns and adds extra flavor when you cook meat. The grill sort of gets "seasoned" over time. You have to clean that stuff out every once in a while to avoid catching the grill on fire though. Also, open flame just cooks differently than a heated surface.
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I can't remember if it was here I heard that, or somewhere else, but they also say it's a good idea to not clean the actual grill. Junk accumulates on it and it actually adds flavour. Given it's being heated so high any bacteria that would exist is killed anyway.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I can't remember if it was here I heard that, or somewhere else, but they also say it's a good idea to not clean the actual grill. Junk accumulates on it and it actually adds flavour. Given it's being heated so high any bacteria that would exist is killed anyway.
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The only thing you want to clean in the grill on a regular basis is the grease pan. Otherwise you'll end up with rancid grease smoking up when you cook.

Other than that, just brush the grates with a wire brush before you cook. Once a year I give the grates a thorough cleaning with oven cleaner.
 
WelshBloke said:
Nice rhyme but does it even mean anything?
WTH does heat taste of? (assuming we aren't talking chilli here as I like to taste that).
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It implies that grilling properly done it does not matter whether you use charcoal or gas because the flavor comes from the interaction of the heat and drippings, searing, direct or indirect cooking, smoking with wood chips, not whether the heat is supplied by charcoal or propane.
 
Linflas said:
It implies that grilling properly done it does not matter whether you use charcoal or gas because the flavor comes from the interaction of the heat and drippings, searing, direct or indirect cooking, smoking with wood chips, not whether the heat is supplied by charcoal or propane.
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The heats the bit that makes the meat tasty. Meat cooked without heat would be pretty bland.
 
TastesLikeChicken said:
Wrap the woood chips (after soaking them in water for a 1/2 hour to 1 hour) in double-wrapped aluminum foil, poke some small holes in the foil and place them over a burner on your propane grill. No special smoker box is required. Works for charcoal grills too. Place the foil-wrapped wood chips directly on the coals.
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On a charcoal grill you're better off putting the chips straight on the coals. If you've soaked then sufficiently they will just smolder.
 
Arkitech said:
From what I understand it's clean burning (as in no smoke). So what's the point, just throw the meat in the oven. Same difference right? Or have I been watching too much King of the Hill.
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IMO there's not a whole lot of point to grilling with propane. If you're not using natural lump charcoal you might as well not be grilling. If faced with the choice of using propane or the oven, I'd choose the oven and put the meat under the high broiler.
 
My natural gas Genesis can heat up to 500+ degrees in about 5 minutes, have a steak seared and cooked to a nice medium rare in another 8-10. Then be turned off and put away in another two or three. No charcoal to deal with on either of cook. And I can do other stuff like big loaf of bread in there while I'm at.

As far as flavor, the fat that renders off the steak hits the flavorizor bars and turns to smoke that in turns adds a bit extra shot of flavor to a steak that is already getting a nice tasty sear to it.

If I want something with more smoke flavor I'll use my charcoal smoker 🙂
 
iRONic said:
If it's your first, congrats! You're gonna love it.

My mini review
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I have had Weber kettle charcoal grills and they always did a great job then we bought a Kenmore 4 burner 4 years ago. It works great but is Chinese built crap and all the burner mount points have completely rusted away, the mount points for the burner covers have rusted away and the plates themselves have rust holes in them. Every review I have read of Weber gas grills says you can get 15 years use out of them easy so I decided the expense was worth it. Even better Lowe's stepped up to the plate and gave me 10% off because of the delay in delivery.
 
mmntech said:
All depends on what you're cooking. A gas grill is nothing like an oven because you can't sear in an oven. The biggest advantage is better control the heat. High heat is there when you need it, gone when you don't. Foods that benefit from this include tender vegetables, breads/baked goods such as pizza, and stuff that needs high heat searing like streak, lamb, and pork chops. Imparting a smoky flavor doesn't really help these types of food.
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That makes sense, I've yet to have any food cooked with propane. I might get a cheap grill just to experiment.
 
Arkitech said:
That makes sense, I've yet to have any food cooked with propane. I might get a cheap grill just to experiment.
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Don't get a cheap propane grill. They don't heat up enough, and they rust out within 5 years. You're much better off paying double for a weber and getting a good quality product that will last 5x as long.
 
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