Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [7]
10. Electric Grill
Instead of a flame, a metal coil serves as the heat source for these inexpensive grills ($50 to $100). Otherwise, electric grills usually resemble hibachis and are designed for the same purpose: quickly cooking small amounts of small or tender foods over direct heat. Some models have lids and can be used outdoors, but most are designed for simple, indoor grilling. The heating coil typically rests below the cooking grate, but on newer models the heating element is built into the cooking grate, which limits flare-ups and smoke. Heat is easily controlled with a knob that increases or decreases the flow of electricity. Almost any food that is grilled over direct heat on a charcoal or gas grill can be cooked on an electric grill, including the recipes throughout this book. For that matter, most grill recipes using direct heat will work under a broiler as well (minus the grill marks).
11. Contact Grill or Grill Pan
Another option for the indoor cook, contact grills and grill pans dispense with the firebox altogether. A contact grill looks like an electric waffle iron with grill grids. The George Foreman Grill is a popular model. Preheat the grids, add food, and close the top, and the hot grids on the top and bottom create nice grill marks in your food. Grill pans have the same effect, although they cook only from the bottom and are heated by the burners of your stove top. The flavor and texture of foods “grilled” on a contact grill or grill pan are quite different from those of foods cooked on outdoor charcoal and gas grills because the heat is not as intense, there is no smoke flavor, and moisture remains on the cooking surface as the food cooks, creating a hybrid cooking method somewhere between grilling, sautéing, and steaming. Contact grills and grill pans range in price from $20 to $120.
B. How Grills Work
All grills work by generating intense heat that sears food and creates intense flavors through deep browning (grill marks). Known as “Maillard reactions,” these browning reactions are partly responsible for the bold, complex taste of grilled food. Smoke generated by burning wood or charcoal or by fat dripping onto the heat source also contributes to the characteristic flavor of grilled food.
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The higher the heat in a grill, the more browning reactions you will get. For this reason, a grill’s fuel or heat source is by far the biggest determining factor in how it works, although a grill’s material and dimensions also play a role. Fuel is so important because different fuels require different amounts of energy to ignite and different amounts of oxygen to become combustible at a rate suitable for cooking. Once a grill’s fuel source is burning, however, all grills cook food through a combination of radiant heat from the fire, conduction of heat through the metal grill grate and food, and, when indirect grilling, convection of hot air around the food. See page 34 for more on the science of heat transference. Here’s a glimpse into the inner workings of the two most common grills: charcoal and gas.
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WHY GAS GRILLS CAN’T SEAR AS WELL AS CHARCOAL
To get a good sear on a steak, you need a raging hot fire and dry surfaces on the meat and the grill grate (oil on the grate is okay). With those two constants, you might think the fuel is irrelevant, but grill aficionados always claim that you can’t turn out as good a grilled steak from a gas grill as you can from a charcoal grill. Well, they’re right. Here’s why: Charcoal burns drier than gas. When charcoal or wood burns, it produces primarily carbon dioxide, but when propane or natural