Spring Cleaning My Weber Genesis Grill And GrillGrates

It's Spring and that means spring cleaning. For me that starts with my grills and particularly my gas grill. It has been a workhorse for me for a full year. I bought the Weber Genesis E310 last April and grilled literally 50 weeks a year 4-5 times a week. That equals 200 – 250 grillings in one year!   
I am really pleased with this Weber Genesis gas grill. It replaced an old 'built-in' that came with the house we bought a few years ago. I don't cover it or baby it either. I think it likes being run nearly every day.  But now its time to go under the hood and see what a year of hard grilling looks like, and get ready for a summer of grate grilling.
Since I've never really cleaned the GrillGrates off the grill, they have been long over due for a deep cleaning so they went off to soak in simple green while I went back to the grill to check on the burners and whatever cleaning is needed.
The first thing that struck me was the amount of debris and charred build-up that was in the bottom of the grill. I expected GrillGrates to minimize that but with my amount of grilling it reinforced how much VOLUME of DRIPPINGS are produced in grilling. Think about it- most of the charred remains are drippings and nothing more.
I am also taking my own advice and replacing my grill brushes. They too have seen an years worth of abuse and weather.  A clean fresh start, just like Spring.  This year I vow to do a better job of cleaning my GrillGrates. I admit to being my own crash dummy and erring to minimal cleaning I'm want to see how the fastidious customers care for their GrillGrates!
My Weber Genesis is ready for another grrrrrate year of grilling!

DRIP-ology: The Science of Grilled Flavor

We finally had to invent a word to explain the added flavor that GrillGrates delivers. The sizzle effect was just not descriptive enough. We needed a better way to describe how drippings sizzling in the valleys are flavor bombs.  Then we came across a great quote from the Art and Science of Cooking by Modernist Cuisine:

“The real secret to the unique flavor of grilled food is not the fuel, but the drippings. As these complex chemicals combust, they coat the food with a panoply of aromatic and delicious compounds.”

Hence:

DRIP-ology:  The creation of grilled flavor by the vaporization and sizzling of drippings from grilled food. When dripping fats and juices combust on a hot surface or in the coals they explode into flavor that literally coats the food.

GrillGrates valleys are a flavor enhancing system as drippings fall into the hot valleys where they sizzle and vaporize into flavor and added moisture. The valleys being so close to the food amplifies the flavor as the vapor and steam only has to travel an inch to reach the food.

Drip-ology- one of the secrets of GrillGrates!

Share Your Sizzle with GrillGrate!  

Stress Free Holiday Grilling, Don't Miss Your Own Party!

The 4^th of July is the biggest grilling day of the year. It seems that all Americans are hosting or attending a cookout for this All-American holiday. Many of us will be grilling for a crowd.

Here's a game plan for stress-free cookout, hit the freezer section of your local supermarket! Freezer to grill is fast, simple and delicious!

1. Grab a box of Bubba Burgers. Bubba burgers are packed with flavor and the pre-made patties go frozen to the grill.
2. Hit the freezer section for some great grilled appetizers. Cheese sticks, pot stickers, egg rolls, ravioli, pierogies, etc. Also frozen to the grill, as soon as you pull the first plate of appetizers off the grill the party will surround you!
3. Grill and chill with your guests without the stress. 

Bubba Burgers are grate for high volume grilling and pack a lot of juicy flavor

How about 2000 Cheeseburgers in Paradise?  Each year that what happens at the Cheeseburger in Paradise Event held in the Abacos (out islands of the Bahamas). Of course they are grilled on GrillGrates.  Frozen to the grill is really terrific!  So to with frozen appetizers!  We made this video to show how easy grate frozen appetizers can be! 

Grill Appetizers straight from the frozen food section to your grill!

Share DAD'S Grateness At the Grill!

Please share your pics of Dad at the grill or your favorite recipes of Dad's.  We'll pick 10 entries at random for GrillGrate pocket T shirt or hat, your choice.  Happy Father's Day!  Enter here
#FathersDay #Grateful #Sharedadsgrateness

Boy Did We Miss a Grate Weekend in Magnolia Arkansas!

2015 World Champion Joe Stump won $5500!

This past Saturday, 87 teams competed in the annual World Championship Steak Cook Off and we weren't there! We were in Chicago exhibiting at the National Restaurant Show to Chefs all over the world. That's the good news. The bad part is we missed traveling to Magnolia this year to be part of the event. Last year I vowed we would attend every year, never make promises you cant keep.

Joe Stump of Smoke House Rats, the 2014 World Champion, became only the 2^nd person in 26 years to repeat as champion. It gets better. His partner, Dustin Sanders placed 2^nd. Since last year's win, Joe and Dustin have been on a roll, easily the top money winners in steak competitions. Yes, you read that right, competition steak cooking has hit the big time. The Steak Cook off Association is now in its 2nd season with cook-offs popping up all over the US, Canada, and even Europe!

The organizers in Magnolia have the formula down to an art form, including feeding over 3,000 people who pay for a sit down steak dinner on the town's square. After the teams submit their entries for the competition, they are given steaks to grill for the public who choose which team to get their steak.

The formula for a championship steak is an art form too! With a lot of practice and observation, I've boiled down the formula into three parts:

PK Grill with GrillGrates

 

Grate Tools + Great Technique + Great Meat

GrillGrate used on Weber Kettles has become synonymous with championship steaks, but this year a new grill emerged from the past. It's called the PK Grill. Born in 1952 (same year as Weber) and recently re-introduced to resounding success. In fact, 3 of the top 5 finishers grilled on PK Grills outfitted with GrillGrates.

Steak grilling techniques could fill a book, but one thing is a given; buy the best piece of meat you can find. Shane Vaughn of Snake River Farms says marbling is key. Marbling are the small rivulets of fat that run throughout a steak and are what give it it's buttery texture and outstanding flavor. M ore marbling equals a better steak!

Read more steak tips from the champions

Next year I am again vow not to miss the World Championship Steak Cook-off in Magnolia Arkansas. We'd love to see what we missed!  Got any pictures or video to share?

Feeling Full after The National Restaurant Show

I love Chicago even more after spending 5 days exhibiting at the National Restaurant Show (NRA) by day and eating well at night. The Amex card may singed but we got what we paid for! The NRA Show was a culinary experience and a huge show with over 70,000 people and 2000+ exhibitors. Four solid days of talking GrillGrate with people from all over the world. The show also provided us with valuable contacts for cleaning products, commercial grill manufacturers, even ball caps.

The NRA show formally marks GrillGrates extension beyond the back yard. Chefs and caterers have been using GrillGrates for some time now and we felt it was time to further test and develop the commercial / professional waters. The response was down right humbling! We thought we'd have to do some serious convincing so we put out an aggressive show special to encourage chefs to measure their chargrillers and flat-tops to test GrillGrates in their environment. We even called in an order from our booth for a caterer and shipped it that day so he could use them this weekend for a 150 person event at a Chicago Whitesox baseball game! As Werner Wolf says, “film at 11:00!”

The NRA show hopefully becomes an annual fixture on our schedule even if it coincides with two of my favorite events; Memphis in May and the annual World Championship SteakCookoff at the Magnolia Blossom Festival in Magnolia, AR. Talk about a culinary trifecta!

This past saturday Grillmaster Joe Stump from Boyd, Texas repeated as world champion! Yes he grilled on GrillGrates! Over in Memphis, The SHED Barbecue and Blues Joint won Grand Champion of Memphis in May. All around a winning weekend!

We're already talking about how next year we need to split up over the weekend and converge on Chicago on Sunday. Talk about a grate problem!

Grilling The Perfect Steak is a Fast Growing Competitive Sport

Cooking the perfect steak is the holy grail for most grillers worth their salt. Now it can pay big money too! Over the past 5 years steak cook-offs have exploded onto the competitive barbecue scene. The Steak Cookoff Association was formed recently to help sanction and grow the competitive sport of grilling steaks. Brett Gallaway and Ken Phillips, the two fellows who created SCA were one of the winningest teams in steak cook-offs. Brett and Ken won the World Championship in 2011 and over a dozen first place finishes over the past few years. Brett was also featured in a Walmart commercial grilling steaks at Southfork Ranch! Now they're sanctioning events and helping create contests nationwide and in Europe. The first international SCA event was recently held in the Netherlands in early April with great success.

GrillGrate is proud to be a sponsor of the Steak Cookoff Association and recently introduced the GrillGrate Steak Challenge. GrillGrate is adding to the prize purse paying $500 to the top placing GrillGrate finisher in designated SCA contests in 2015.

Last weekend was leg #2 of the GrillGrate Steak Challenge. The winner was Cougar Pit of Magnolia, Arkansas.  Dave Nelson and Robert Baxley are no strangers to Steak Cook-offs. For the past 5 years Dave Nelson has run the WorldChampionship Steak Cookoff® in Magnolia, Arkansas. Along the way he decided it was more fun to particiapte. Now he and Robert compete most every weekend in the spring and summer.

Think you can grill a great steak? Join the SCA and
find out what all the fun and excitement is about!

Learn more about grilling the perfect steak and steak cook-offs:

• Steak Grilling Tips from the Pro's
• A Near Perfect Day at the WorldChampionship Steak Cookoff® in Magnolia Arkansas