I moved to a new place and I am considering getting a grill. Because I live in an apartment building charcoal grills are strictly forbidden. Propane gas from a bottle is the only allowed grill. I’d prefer a charcoal grill but rules are rules (and this one makes sense when living like this).
So, I have looked at articles and video reviews and, while they help me understand some of it, none really nail it down for you.
Some grills are clearly crap. They have uneven cooking, can’t get meat to temp and so on. Clearly bad is actually bad…some do not deliver.
But others…hard to tell. Are stainless steel grates better than cast iron? Do I want an infrared burner for searing (if even available at my price point)?
Honestly I am not interested in fiddly bells and whistles like lit knobs or a side burner. I live in an apartment, my stove is 50 feet away, I can deal.
And, while I gave a $500-1000 price range I am much more keen on closer to $500 but willing to be convinced a more expensive grill is worth the extra $$$. Also willing to be convinced a $100 grill will do the job. I grew up with the Weber kettle grill which is super inexpensive and rocked so many backyard BBQs…but, sadly, I cannot use that in my place.
We’ve got one of these, a Ziegler and Brown baby bbq, can feed four mouths at a time and is extremely versatile not only for grilling but for roasting and baking as well if needed.
By the time you buy a stand and a gas bottle, you’ll still come out well under $500 USD.
That is my sense of it too but, as you go up the line to really, really expensive grills they all seem to use stainless steel grates. Not sure why…cast iron will last forever so it is not durability. Cast iron takes longer to come to temp but then that is good because it has a high heat capacity so flipping meat still sears well…
Do you get a good BBQ flavor cooking on these? America’s Test Kitchen noted how just heating meat is not enough. The point of a BBQ is to get that awesome BBQ flavor.
Is cast iron more likely to rust outside? I suppose if you grill foods with fat it will stay naturally seasoned, but I’m not sure if that would season the whole surface or just where the food was. One disadvantage of cast iron holding heat is if you wanted to turn the heat down on whatever you were cooking. Maybe it’s not a big deal for steak, but things like fish and vegetables often need the temperature tweaked. Cast iron will continue pumping in a lot of heat into the food for a while after you turn the flame down.
A cheap grill will rust out in a few years, while a more expensive one will last a long time. A more expensive grill will be able to hold the heat better and get much hotter. Some grills have a side burner, which is nice for cooking something in a pot if you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. Some grills have a sear station, which means there’s a burner where there would normally be a gap. So instead of ‘burner-gap-burner-gap-burner’, it’s ‘b-b-b-g-b’. If you want to sear something really hot, get all three burners going together. I’m not sure the grate type would really matter when you’re searing with all three burners.
I had a series of cheap grills and then I got a Weber. The Weber was proportionally better in performance with it’s price. That is, it is easily twice as good of a grill than one half its price.
The gas bbqs are never going to be as good as cooking on charcoal, but I’ve found our Ziggy to give good to very good results with excellent charring on both red and white meats. Maybe you could get some smoking chips to put inside the gas ring for extra flavour?
Many (not all) are covered with a ceramic coating to avoid corrosion.
Even without that a little rust can usually be dealt with easily. Extra work but nothing that is a huge pain. And if you miss some it won’t harm anyone…might taste bad though.
Most of the people that I know use cast iron grill grates are using them on nearly a daily basis for most of the year. Rust never gets a chance. If they know that they’re not going to use the grill for more than a week, they store the grates inside.
In my case, the actual grill elements, where the flame was produced, were bare cast iron and they did crumble after a few years and had to be replaced. Whereas the enameled cast iron grates did not age noticeably. This was a decent Sears model that I left at my old house when I moved a couple of years ago.
I’d look for a Weber or Napoleon grill with cast iron grates. Once you season them they hold up as well as stainless steel (which is kinda BS as the heat oxidizes them anyway). I say this as someone who grills at -30 to +30 C pretty routinely and my Napoleon is getting new SS burner tubes after 14 years of use. The CI grates are still perfectly intact.
I’ll second the Weber Q suggestion. I both own one (Q 1200) and help sell them. The cast iron grates are very nice, in large part because they have a very heavy porcelain coat. I am not aware of anything that comes close for the money. I’d urge you to get a griddle accessory that you use in place of one of the grates. I use one for most everything nowadays in both my Weber Q and Weber Genesis. They make most things better and easier. Biggest benefits are more browned surface area (equals more flavor), far simpler cleanup, and less over-charring.
Edit: it will last a long time if you pay attention to keeping it reasonably clean.
I’m on my second Weber Genesis II. I gave my first one away and it’s still kicking ass with my brother in law at 10 years old. I’ve had my new one for a year and they are bulletproof, easy to control and no real hot or cold spots. The only real problem is I have forgotten about the drip tray twice this year and had a fairly gnarly grease fire but no damage to the grill either time.
I’ve had a 2-burner Weber Spirit-something for 5 years. I think I got it for $400.
I replaced the original enameled cast iron grates and burner shields last year for $50 I think.
It beats the tar out of the $150 steel grate Char Broil or whatever I had before that, but I do at times wish I had sprung for a 3 or 4 burner model. I’ve never been able to preheat it about about 500 degrees.
If you can’t decide between cast iron or steel, one (crazy) option is to buy an extra set of grates which are the opposite of whatever came with the grill. Then you could have half the grill with cast iron and the other half with steel.
By the by, the ONLY reason I opted for the Z&B over the Weber was that our local BBQ retailer was having a sale, and the Ziggy was $150 cheaper than the Weber at the time. Still happy though…
I’m on my second Weber, with never an issue. My current one is a 2 burner Spirit. My BiL has the identical grill, and loves it. I just bought my son a Weber for his new home. I believe it had 3 main burners and a side burner. Forget the price, but think it was under $700. IMO, can’t go wrong w/ a Weber.
25 yrs ago or so I thought it sacrilege when my wife bought me the first Weber as a Dad’s Day gift. Now, I can’t imagine I ever messed w/ charcoal. I got the 2 burner, because we RARELY cook for large groups. If you like to party, go with the larger 3-burner. Add the side element, and you basically can cook anything you want.
Weber Spirit with 3 burners is pretty nice. Mine runs off of natural gas (you have to buy a specific natural gas model).
Weber has my mindshare. Ever since I was old enough to pay attention to BBQ in the 1970’s, Weber has consistently has been “the BBQ” to get. And their customer service rocks.