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.
The 4th 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!
Grab a box ofBubba Burgers.
Bubba burgers are packed with
flavor and the pre-made patties go frozen to the grill.
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!
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!
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
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 2nd person in 26 years to
repeat as champion. It gets better. His partner, Dustin Sanders
placed 2nd. 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!
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?
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!”
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!
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 SCAand
find out what all the fun and excitement is about!
Learn more about grilling the perfect
steak and steak cook-offs:
This is the question that gas grillers
have to decide and this blog post is designed to help that decision.
When we introduced GrillGrate eight
years ago, it was one size and one application, to sit on top of the
existing surface of any grill, like re-surfacing a road by going on
top of the old one. We began offering longer lengths and
different shapes to cover more and more grill surface and more types
of grills. Last year we began a custom cutting service due to strong
demand for precise lengths. WHY? To replace the old, rusty, nasty
grill surface, not sit on top of it.
My grill is two years old and my
grates are shot. We hear this every day.
We've always believed that over time
GrillGrate would become a standard grill surface, not just an
accessory. Today many of our customers are covering most or all of
their surface either on top or replacing the existing grates. We are
now in the business of full grill replacements as well as an "on top"
solution.
GrillGrates cook food identically
whether they sit on top of existing cooking grids or not.
The difference is how the grill
performs and it can be a big difference, especially if the old grates
are cast iron. Cast iron is a heat sink. It takes a long time to get
hot and a long time to cool down. The opposite is true with
aluminum. Stainless steel does not slow down GrillGrates heating up
as much as cast iron.
Replacing your grates with GrillGrates
will turbo-charge the
effectiveness of your grill:
Very responsive- faster to
heat up and cool down, and adjust grill temperatures.
More efficient- GrillGrates
trap and hold more of a grills' heat, so gas consumption will be less. That
saves you money each time you grill.
Precautions with GrillGrates in complete grill replacements:
Your grill will run significantly
hotter, you may never use high heat setting again.
Clean
out the grease tray and any grease in
older grills before installing replacement GrillGrates.
Ideally, leave a gap on the left
and right to allow heat to escape into the hood. The gap helps
keep
heat from building up inside the The
GAP is your friend and can be used to separate your grill into zones
for searing and roasting as shown.
After a long hard winter, it was time to
clean my GrillGrates and tune up my grills. The GrillGrates have not
been off my grills since last spring- so it was time for their once a
year deep cleaning.
Here are the steps to deep clean and
“re-set” your GrillGrates:
Remove GrillGrates to a driveway
or area suitable for hose and water.
Use the GrateTool on each panel
starting at the hinge and scrape the build-up off as much as
possible.
Soak in a large (long) plastic
container. I used Simple Green this year based on positive feedback
from customers. 10:1 dilution. Soak for minimum of 3 hours, even
overnight.
Remove from soaking and use a
scrubby on the raised rails and in the valleys. The rails should be
smooth and slick after using the scrubby.
You can also use brillo on the
raised rails if they are not smooth and slick after using the
scrubby.
Hose off to rinse any remaining
residue away.
Back to the grills for a long
summer ahead of grate grilling!
Other Deep Cleaning Methods:
Power washing also works well.
Face-down burn-off, just don't go
to your neighbors for a beer! This will dry out the cooking rails
requiring re-seasoning.
Self cleaning oven works well but
only if you have good exhaust. Do not use your oven to burn off
without good exhaust- the smell is not something you want in the
house. This will also require re-seasoning.
Do NOT Use:
Aluminum foil over hot GrillGrates
as it can cause temperatures to spike to over 1000F and cause
warping or even melting.
Oven cleaner or other caustic
degreasers as they will pit and tarnish GrillGrates over time.
Got any tips to share how your care and
clean your GrillGrates?
Now its official, I brought out the
summer shorts over the weekend and they confirmed what my tight jeans
were telling me... I packed on a few pounds over the winter and it
looks like I gave up a belt notch too!
Time to get back to the griller's diet
that helped me drop those pounds and inches in the first place. I've
dedicated April to be healthy grilling month with two simple rules to
grill by:
Never let the meat grill alone.
I'm taking this one a bit further by dedicating a grill just to
vegetables when we have friends and family over for dinner. Family
style vegetables off the grill really helped my broaden my eating
habits.
Grill more fish, chicken and lean.
You would think we're practicing for Steak Competitions with the
amount of red meat we grill. Time to sharpen the shears and get
spatchcocking chicken! Instead of rib-eye steaks, I'll be grilling
salmon and tuna like a steak- hot and fast!
Two Zone Grilling Vegetables Roasting while Steaks are Searing
These vegetables are the top 5
vegetables that are most often on my grills. They pack tremendous
health benefits beyond helping with weight! GrillGrate, Eat Well on the Grillers Diet.
Food
Antioxidants
Benefits
Beets
Betanin and vulgaxanthin, Lutein and zeaxanthin
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support. Protects the skin and promotes healthy eyes
Red Bell Peppers
Cartenoids-alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin. Vitamins C
prevention of cardiovascular disease and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Promotes healthy eyes. Anti-cancer benefits, anti-inflammatory properties
Sweet Potatoes
Beta-carotene, peonidins and cyanidins, sporamins
antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory properties, helps prevent oxidative damage to our cells, may reduce the risk of breast and other types of cancer, promotes healthy eyes
Yellow Squash
alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-cryptoxanthin, Vitamin C
prevention of cardiovascular disease and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Promotes healthy eyes. Anti-cancer benefits, anti-inflammatory properties
Asparagus
asparanin A, sarsasapogenin, protodioscin, and diosgenin, quercetin, rutin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin, vitamin C, beta-carotene, vitamin E, and the minerals zinc, manganese, and selenium, glutathione
Anti-inflammatory, reduces risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, helps regulate blood sugar, supports healthy eyes
Those are some of my favorite words! I
don't know about you but I am not taking my sweetheart out to dinner
on Valentine's day. We'll be grilling dinner for two at home.
Granted we grill a lot, GrillGrates has taken over the menu. Before GrillGrates I was more a bystander in the kitchen
and only occasionally at the grill doing the regular old routine-
hamburgers, steaks, chicken. We've or should I say I have come a
long way since.
Happy Valentines Day! Honey You Can
Start the Grill!
It's hard to believe we are entering
our 8th season with GrillGrate. Eight years and a lot of
customers later my enthusiasm and excitement for this business
continues to grow. What a blessing to be working in such a
terrific industry.
Rewind to 10 years ago:
I owned one grill, a Weber Kettle
( I did most of GrillGrate testing and development on the
Kettle)
I did not use (or know about) a
charcoal chimney. I loved lighter fluid!
I never used an internal
thermometer. I even cut into steaks to check doneness!
I enjoyed grilling but it was
stressful and I put plenty of over cooked and undercooked food on
the table.
I never did ribs on a grill, only
the oven.
I never grilled a pizza, veggies
went in foil, fish too. I pretty much grilled the same things over
and over. Steaks, hamburgers, chicken and chops.
10 Years later:
I use 4 grills regularly all with GrillGrates including that old Weber Kettle.
Sometimes I use 2 or even 3 grills for one cook.
I always use an internal
thermometer and own a good number of BBQ accessories.
I've learned the difference
between BBQ and grilling, and love low and slow as much as hot and
fast!
I no longer get stressed grilling
and have greatly expanded what we grill. My wife thinks I'd grill
her if she stood still long enough!
Many of our customers own several
grills and have followed a similar path to grilling prowess. The
grill industry is hot and healthy, and I am proud to be a part of it
with GrillGrate. Grateful is an understatement. GrillGrate, Eat
Well!
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