Stainless Steel Gas Grill vs Regular Gas Grill

Yep. I broke down and got me a stainless steel barbecue grill. My wife asked if something was wrong with our old gas grill and I said nope – except it’s over 5 years old. I gave it to my daughter.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted stainless or not, but it was on sale at Home Depot and it was assembled. If you’ve ever assembled a gas grill, you know that is a key feature! It was even on sale for $20 off what it said so I got the grill for $179 plus tax. A Charmglow.

It has a Porecelain grate. Again, I knew little about that so I took cooking oil to it and I guess that’s a not needed item. The first time you grill, they recommend to turn the grill on high and burn it for 15 minutes to get rid of any oils that might be there now. It didn’t seem to hurt but looked a little oily. An important point is to get a brass bristle brush to save on the grate.

Then I’m wondering why no briquettes. That was supposed to add flavor to the gas grill cooking but c’mon. Not sure about that ever. Wood chips seemed the way to get added flavor. This doesn’t call for any briquettes and I’m not really sure they would do any good.

First time I cooked, it took a little getting use to. This has 3 burners and I turned on the right one, hit the electronic ignition a few times and nothing. Oh yeah – it does say turn on the middle burner to light. Real men don’t read instructions – do they? It lit when I turned on the middle burner. It’s the only one that needs to be on to light but check your grill when you get it in case it’s different or has 4 burners.

I wasn’t sure about how to properly grill my meat at first. The fire is somewhat covered and I didn’t know just how to grill it correctly but – it came out real tasty and juicy. The old adage is to flip the meat after a certain time or after it has loosened from the grate. Well, after a few cookouts, that definitely applies here. Let it loosen.

So far I’ve only done a small amount of meat at a time so have only used 2 burners at one time. What I like is if one seems to be cooking a little faster, I just put it on the non lit burner. Another thing I like about that is when cooking ribs, I can lay it on the non lit side, close the lid, and get slower cooking without the flare ups to burn my sauce. Still – wait till near the end to add the sauce to minimize burning. These grills say less flare up but I managed to kick it up a notch.

I also found that when I lit it, there was immediate heat. I do mean heat! So beware of that. Not a problem but should be noted, especially if you, like I do, let your 3 year old grandson or son cook on it.

My take so far on the stainless steel gas grill? I like it. I like it a lot. I’ll let you know more when I have a group barbecue.