One of Life's Simple Pleasures (pix) & BGE/Grilling ??

Pictured below is a landmark for me and one of life’s simple pleasures. You see below the first charcoal grilled hot dog I’ve ever made as an adult. It was a long time coming. One of the reasons I made it, was I’ve heard some claim that even a hot dog tastes better on a BGE. This hot dog was as good as the best hot dogs I’ve grilled on my current gas grill. Better? I can’t say that. Excellent? Absolutely. This was the first higher temperature direct grill session on my new egg. While it turned out fine, it was hot dogs for one and made me realize I’ve got some learning to do. I figured if I indulged folks with a little mid-summer food porn, I might ask them a few questions while they were here.



A landmark event: My first charcoal grilled hotdog as an adult.





Done and looking pretty good IMHO.





One of life’s simple [pleasures.



Now I know there are a lot of Eggheads around here and I also know there is the BGE message board. When I do a search there I often have trouble separating signal from noise in the search results. But frankly the main reason is I like the level of discourse around here better. Folks seem to be somewhat easier on the newb’s and don’t seem to hold (or at least express) such strong unalterable opinions. And don’t get me wrong, even though I’ve been on this board for 7 years, I am a newb when I comes to direct grilling with charcoal. I used my CG purely as an indirect smoker. The last time I grilled on a charcoal grill Sgt. Peppers was the talk of the summer of ’67.

So I’d like to ask a couple questions about the care of my BGE. Also after doing the hot dogs today, I have several big picture questions about charcoal grilling, both on the BGE and in general. I don’t expect folks to go into great depth, big picture answers that point me in the right direction are fine. But I’m not stopping anybody who wants to elaborate either.

Charcoal in General:
I somehow instinctively just knew I wanted the dogs to go over the lit coals and to put the buns away from the lit coals. I didn’t really even give that a thought. However here is my question: When the grill got up to my target temperature of 400 degrees there was an area of lit coals 10-12â€

[quote="jfm0830"]
Charcoal in General:
I somehow instinctively just knew I wanted the dogs to go over the lit coals and to put the buns away from the lit coals. I didn’t really even give that a thought. However here is my question: When the grill got up to my target temperature of 400 degrees there was an area of lit coals 10-12â€

smokin'gal wrote:

jfm0830 wrote:

1) What do you do if you are grilling say 8 steaks? Do you have to keep swapping them on and off the hot areas or do you do something to spread out the lit coals so they are more evenly distributed before putting the food on?

I'll chime in on this part of your questioning. The BGE folds indicate that when cooking low and slow, it's good if the coals are only lit in a small area. When I grill, I make sure a larger area is lit. I do this by spreading lit charcoal over the whole surface of the lump in the BGE, when getting the fire started.

Thanks smokin' gal. Sounds like you use a chimney to get your charcoal going on the BGE too. I am using paraffin squares, which I just bought 128 of. Sounds like I might be able to use a grill hoe to rake out the coals to cover a greater area. I was kinda liking the idea of not having to use a chimney.

Jim

jfm0830 wrote:

Thanks smokin' gal. Sounds like you use a chimney to get your charcoal going on the BGE too. I am using paraffin squares, which I just bought 128 of. Sounds like I might be able to use a grill hoe to rake out the coals to cover a greater area. I was kinda liking the idea of not having to use a chimney.

I was never all that impressed with the paraffin cubes. I'm actually thinking about buying a propane torch. Getting the chinmey lit in the rain here has it's challenges.

jfm0830 wrote:

1) What do you do if you are grilling say 8 steaks? Do you have to keep swapping them on and off the hot areas or do you do something to spread out the lit coals so they are more evenly distributed before putting the food on?

2)On a gasser you often do a high heat direct sear on a thick piece of meat followed by medium heat indirect cook to finish. This seems hard to do on a small grill like the BGE. Is this where the reverse sear method is used?

BGE Eggcessories
Cast iron grill grate part 1.
On my gasser the grill grates are porcelain coated cast iron-killer grill marks. The bar profile is triangular in cross section. One side is pointed and you turn the grate over and an almost flat side is up. I say almost because the profile is ever so slightly convex The idea is one side, the almost flat side, is intended if you want the best killer grill marks. The pointed side is for foods like fish where you are worried about them sticking. I have the BGE cast iron grill grate and I notice it is pointed on one side and absolutely flat on the other. So I am not sure.

3) Is this grill grate intended to be used two ways? The one side is absolutely flat and I would think it might be inclined to stick. Do folks use both sides of their BGE brand CI grate?

Cast iron grill grate part 2:
4) How do you guys clean and maintain your CI grill grates? Do you season them in any way?

Stainless Steel grate:
Since I have the CI grill grate I figured I’d use the s/s grill grate for anything I do indirectly. I also have the Grill Extender which is s/s and adds a second tier of shelving. They are turning brown from the smoke, which I won’t sweat. But when used for low temperature cooks some food deposits get on and don’t burn off.

5) How do you guys keep these clean (or do you)? Any helpful tools for cleaning the s/s grates?

Thanks so much for any light you can shed...
Jim

I'm no Steven Raichlen by any means, but I have used my BGE about 6 times per week since I've had it.... ...so here are my two cents:

1) Yep, if I'm grilling multiple pieces of meat (ie skinless boneless chicken breasts, pork chops, steaks, etc) directly, I always try to stir the coals around to get even heat throughout. Also, it helps to light the coals in at least two different places so your fire doesn't burn out........I learned that during a low and slow once where the fire burned straight down and didn't spread to the outer coals. I've read other people have had the same thing happen, so it's better to light the egg in at least two places IMHO.

2) Yep, that's why a Reverse Sear is used. You can also do the T-Rex method for thick cuts...I've had good results with that as well.

Cast Iron Part 1.....I dunno actually.... I've always just used mine curved side up. I'd be interested in knowing myself now.

Cast Iron Part 2....High Heat, clean it with a good quality wire brush, and always use cooking spray for lubrication. Mine still looks new.

Stainless Steel Grate....I just clean it like I do my CI grate...high heat, good quality wire brush and lubrication. If there are any big built up pieces of debris, I use my Billy Bar to scrape them away. For the grill extender, I usually just put it in my dishwasher to clean.

What Dyal said... except I coat my CI grate with bacon grease before/after the first few cooks.

jfm0830 wrote:

Pictured below is a landmark for me and one of life’s simple pleasures. You see below the first charcoal grilled hot dog I’ve ever made as an adult. It was a long time coming. One of the reasons I made it, was I’ve heard some claim that even a hot dog tastes better on a BGE. This hot dog was as good as the best hot dogs I’ve grilled on my current gas grill. Better? I can’t say that. Excellent? Absolutely.

Don't you wish now that you'd done this years ago?

I can't think of anything better than a hot dog for the first cook on a new grill. Everyone thinks of dogs and burgers when the subject of grilling comes up!

And now I want a hot dog. I think I can get a nukeable one for $1.50 from the vending machine here but I'd just be disappointed.

Welcome to ceramics!! These are the same type of questions I had when I got my Primo XL. Everyone has pretty much answered your questions, but I had something to add, the plate setter, that is an accessory you should consider. The setter helps in your reverse sear approach. Use the sitter with a drip pan, bake the steaks for a few minutes, then remove the sitter and crank up the heat to sear. I am not sure how hard it is to remove the setter when hot, the Primo's grates/plates are in halves, so you set it up D-plate on one side, CI sear grate on the other, and you just move the steak from one side to the other. I am sure a BGE user here will have a technique for that. Anyway, experiment and have fun!!

Thanks for the welcome and advice Nick. I do have a Platesetter and have used it several times legs up for indirect cooking. When I did pizza I flipped it legs down and set my pizza stone on top of it. I'm going to try it out for baking tonight. I've got a batch of hamburger rolls rising as we speak. I plan to do them on the BGE for some hamburgers for supper later

It's funny because this reminds me of when I joined this board in 2005. There were a lot of folks with CG's, so when I got my CG there was plenty material here to read and plenty of answers to be had. It seems like this board has moved towards ceramics in a big way the last two or three years which is convenient for me. My big "problem "was my BGE came five days early. I planned on spending the weekend boning up on the various message boards and instead I just dove in and started learning hands-on.

Jim