Saturday, November 8, 2008

My New Grill

For about 6 years now, I have been cooking with a Char-Griller Charcoal BBQ Pit. I have recently decided to go to Propane, don't get me wrong I love cooking with charcoal, but its just takes entirely too long and too much cleanup for my busy schedule. Propane has the edge when it comes to just putting something on the grill when time is tight. I have made many Brisket, Boston Butt, and Ribs on my BBQ pit and have loved all of it.
When researching Propane grills, I was looking for something with a large cooking surface and something I could still use wood chips in, because I love the smoke flavor. I was looking at many different kinds but couldn't decide, until one day a friend told me about "The Holland Grill". I did some research and it is more like an outdoor convection oven than a "Grill", all meals are cooked by time or temperature. Smaller items like steaks, chicken breasts, burgers etc are are cooked by time, because it cooks like an oven you just close the lid...flip half way through then your done. Larger cuts like brisket, whole chickens, turkeys, and pork shoulders are cooked with a meat thermometer to ensure that they are thoroughly cooked. The design of the grill keeps the flame isolated from the food, so burning the food is very unlikely. I have the Apex model which is Stainless Steel and has a 15 year warranty. Instead of using lava rocks like a standard gas grill, it has a drip pan below the entire cooking surface, the drippings from the meat smoke when they hit the pan giving it the "outdoor flavor". I have cooked a variety of things on it so far and i am pleased with the results. One thing odd about the grill is that there is only a "ON or OFF", there is not a temperature setting. By design it keeps between about 350-450 degree temperature(Medium to Medium High). For slow cooking meats, there is a drain valve on the drip pan, you just close the valve, fill the pan with water and it drops the internal temperature of the grill to about 275 degrees. I just refill the drip pan every hour to keep the temperature low.



2 comments:

Zu-Li Designs said...

oooohhhhh, ahhhhhhhh!

Shaw said...

Awesome on the new grill there. Hank Hill would be proud you switched to propane and propane accessories! He He.

Shaw