Which Grill is Best For Your Food?

 When it comes to what you're cooking and how you like to cook, what's the best grill for you? 

Summer is officially here and that means it is grilling season!* We’re tackling the 4 major types of grills as of 2022. What prices should you expect to pay for them and which grill is best for your needs. Although we know some of us would love to have one of each, let’s assume you’re trying to narrow your choices down to just one, shall we? 

Grill Basics: 

You want your food to finish cooking at the same time so everything is ready to serve. 

This means your grill needs to either a) disperse heat evenly or b) you need to know your grill well enough that you can move food around to different "cool" spots so that everything cooks at the speed and temperatures you need. 

-Preheat your grill for at least 10 minutes before throwing food on. This allows the grill to be fully heated and the grates to be less likely to stick to your food. 

- If you want to impress your guests with the 'perfect' grill look, turn your food 90* halfway through the cooking time. It will give that look everyone loves, and you'll look like a professional. 

Gas Grill

Gas Grill from Home Depot

Let's start off with the grill that's easiest to obtain, the gas grill. These will run anywhere between $100 and $3500, depending on the bells and whistles you want.  They come in all sorts of sizes and styles, from the tiny picnic top grill to the behemoth that can feed 100 people. (Yep, we've seen those too, we just get stuck at finding the space to put it.) A gas grill is the workhorse of grills. They're capable of grilling everything from delicate fish to searing pork chops or knocking out large amounts of hotdogs and burgers. The reason for that is that they can hit temperatures as low as 150* and as high as 850*. They're also extremely easy to work with, which is why most people who grill, do so on these. They light quickly, they heat quickly, and did we mention how easy they are to work with? You can also find all sorts of attachments (or a youtube video that shows you how to make them) from pizza ovens to smokers. 

Charcoal Grill 

Charcoal grill from Home Depot

So a gas grill isn't for you? You don't like the idea of hauling around a tank you need to refill? We get that. Charcoals are the next step then. Many people see them as the next step for when you want to go from "party grilling" to "nightly grilling for good food."  Working with charcoal will give your meal a smokier flavor, no matter what you're cooking. This does mean that you need to be careful in selecting what you choose to grill though. You need something that can stand up to the smoke without losing its own flavors. Some examples here include brisket, prime rib, grilled pizza (yep, it works), rotisserie chicken, smoked turkey, and shrimp. Charcoal grills don't get as hot as gas grills do though, which means you're not going to get much of a sear on your food. It's best for foods that you want to take your time with. A charcoal grill will usually take between 20-30 minutes to completely heat up,  and the temperatures are going to only range between 150* and 550*. When it comes to lighting your best bet is to use a charcoal chimney to get it to that point, otherwise, you'll be fighting for much longer than 20 minutes.  A charcoal grill should run between $70 and $375. Not very expensive, but you have to remember the price of the charcoal as well. 

Kamado Grill 

A Kamado is the priciest of the grill options, but it's also able to get you the highest temperatures out of the four primary options. A kamado can go as low as 150* and as high as 1000*. That is going to give you a delicious sear when you want pork chops.... which your blogger is now wishing she could get. 

Anyway! Because of the supreme level of control a kamado offers you, they're great for hitting the extremes of food. Either things that need low and slow cooking like ribs, roasts, and briskets or foods that need to be seared, like we mentioned, pork chops are a good example.

Kamado Grill from Home Depot

Kamado grills come in two varieties, ceramic and nonceramic. The ceramic ones are, in our opinion, the better option because they are sturdier than their nonceramic counterparts. They are also insulated which leads to even more temperature control. Although they are more difficult to assemble, we feel like this is a grill that is worth the investment of time and money. Speaking of money, a Kamado grill should cost between $300 and $2500, depending on the type you go for. 

One thing to be aware of (that many will call a downside) is that the Kamado grill will require an hour or more before it's ready to be cooked on. If you're looking for a quick dinner, this is not a good option. If you want to spend time outside cooking for friends and family and really enjoying the craft of grilling? This might be a good choice. 

Pellet Grill 

If smoking isn't for you and you don't want the guesswork of dealing with a gas grill, a pellet grill might be for you. They're great for foods that burn easily like pork chops and chicken with the skin still on. They're also ideal for large cuts of meat that you want to toss on and not have to worry about or fuss over. 

Pellet grill from home depot

A pellet grill uses wood 'pellets' rather than charcoal, and they give a delicious smokey flavor. Plus you can choose which type of wood you use and get different flavors into your food that way. You can experiment with different wood types and foods to see what flavors work for you palette. Some examples are almost sweet like oak or pecan, while others give a very umami/smokey flavor like hickory and mesquite.  

One interesting fact about pellet grills is that although they run on wood, their temperature control is digital. As the grill works it automatically draws from the pellet hopper to keep the grill at the temperature you chose. This is a great benefit to the chef that wants to set it and forget it, but still wants something more than a gas grill. Pellet grills are well worth their price tag, running between $350 to $2000. 

Your grill choice is going to be dependent on you. What do you like to cook? How do you like to cook? These two questions will affect your choice as much as the price. 

Which one are you most interested in? Grills aren’t something we fix, but we do love grilled food as much as the next person, so we’re interested in hearing what you have to say. Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page!

If you’re not up for grilling next weekend though, that means you’re probably cooking. If your range is giving you trouble, you might want to give us a call. Whether it’s broken, behaving oddly, or you just want to give it a thorough going-over, we’re here for you. You can reach out to us at our contact page or by calling us at ((214) 599-0055).

*Yes we know you started long before this, but give us this. 

Additional Reading:

Fire in the Kitchen

7 Reasons To Build An Outdoor Kitchen

What To Know Before You Build Your Outdoor Kitchen

Build Your Own Barbecue Sauce

15 Minutes and you’ve got a customized sauce that can’t be beat. 

Everyone appears to be getting ready for Memorial Day. In case you've forgotten (like we always seem to), it's the end of this month. And now that anyone over the age of 16 can get vaccinated, you might even be able to set up a backyard get-together with some of the people you've only been able to see on Zoom or at a distance all year.

Good news! Even if you have forgotten the holiday, and you've been putting zero forethought into a party, we're here to help you make it look like you're totally on the ball with this one. You're ready for this party and you didn't even know it. Go you.

We're about to throw a fistful of things in a pan and make something awesome: homemade BBQ sauce. It's not like all that store-bought stuff that's too sweet and full of things you can't pronounce. This one will be a new "family secret" recipe that's the envy of the neighborhood block party a couple years from now.

And here's the kicker. It'll only take about 15 minutes of your time.

You're going to need less than a dozen ingredients - unless you change it to your own taste - and chances are they're all already in your kitchen or pantry.

 Ingredients:

30 ounces of tomato sauce

3 Tablespoons honey (or maple syrup, agave, corn syrup - whatever you have handy or like best; we had fantastic results with raspberry syrup)

2 Tablespoons molasses

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon hot sauce (again, choose what you like best - we like Tabasco or Sriracha)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Tools:

Measuring cups and spoons, saucepan with a lid, whisk, storage container or bottle, can opener (if using canned sauce)

Open up your tomato sauce and pour it into the saucepan. (How often do we really use a specific pot for its intended purpose? This is notable!) Light the burner and bring it up to medium-high. You might want to cover it if it's heating quickly, as tomato sauce likes to make a splatter-y mess.

Measure in your other liquid ingredients: the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, the honey/syrup, molasses and any hot sauce you might want to use. It helps to do the stickiest one last and to spray the measuring cup with non-stick spray before you start measuring. Alternatively, you can just scrape the measuring cup clean with a regular spoon and throw them both into hot water as soon as you're done. Whichever way you like, just make sure not to let the molasses and honey or syrup dry in place. It's awfully irritating to try cleaning them once they've become a congealed lump, and they like to stick to the sponge or brush as they come off the cup.

Once all your liquid (semi-liquid? Molasses can be tricky) ingredients are in the pan, give everything a good stir with that whisk you only use once in a while. Put the lid back on the pan if you chose to use one.

We know the dry ingredients don't sound like you're using enough of them. Trust us, you are. The flavors will meld together as the sauce heats. And you can always add more of an individual spice later if you really feel you need to - but remember, the only way to lessen the amount of a spice in a sauce is to make more sauce! So unless you really need half a gallon of BBQ sauce (maybe you do, we're not sure here - you could be planning a really BIG outdoor party), just start small.

Scoop up your little teaspoons and half teaspoons and tablespoons of spices and add them to the pan. If you're a big fan of making things blend easier, you could even sift them into the pan rather than lump them in - but we feel like the heat, the moisture and the whisk will take care of any clumps for you over the next few minutes. The only thing that routinely gives us trouble is the mustard.

After everything is in the pan, give it a good stir with the whisk. Put the lid back on (unless you're not using one - daredevil) and lower the heat down to medium-low. Allow everything to simmer together for about eight minutes. To prevent scorching, stir it often, and make sure to scrape the sides.

At the eight minute mark, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Give it a few minutes to cool before you attempt taste testing or moving it to any kind of plastic container. Unfortunately, your sauce will probably not be the envy of the neighborhood if it's full of melty plastic bits.

Should your sauce not be spicy enough, add some more hot sauce - or if you're super adventurous, puree a hot pepper or two and stir that in. If it's lacking a zesty, tangy note, add a little orange extract or a squirt of lemon juice. If you'd rather it be sweeter, add a bit more of your honey/syrup or stir in some superfine sugar.

Make sure you keep a note of whatever you did to make the recipe your own! And enjoy your holiday.

And that’s that! Let us know if you opt to make this in the comments below or over on our Facebook page. We’d love to hear about the different spices you add to make it your own. 

So long as your grill is fine, you’re good to go after this point, but what if it’s your stove that’s on the fritz? If that’s the case, you can give us a call  at ((214) 599-0055) or head over to our website. Wherever you live in Carrollton and the surrounding areas, we’ve got you covered. Appliance Rescue Service is here to help and here to keep your home, and your home appliances, running smoothly.