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...and why I hate it.
As a kid, I honestly thought that cooking over propane was the only way to go. I bought into the "you taste the meat, not the fire" BS hook line and sinker. Over time my Scoutmaster influenced me otherwise to the extent that I preferred charcoal, or hardwood better, but was still open to gas.
Working a gas grill as part of my regular duties while apprenticing as a butcher changed that, largely because I just became frustrated with how complicateed the big trailer grill was, how low the heat was, and how unsatisfctory the result was. The other day, it all crystalized, and now I can comfortably say that I hate gas, here is why:
1. The heat is too low.
Propane is the petoleum of choice for many grill companies because it's perfectly moderate in temperature, meaning it's less likely to fill their forums and ears with the story: "I walked away for ten minutes, and my steak was singed" as every novice griller says, it's insurance. The peak heat produced inside the average consumer's grill is on the high side of the 600's. That's admirable for an oven, but far too low to really sear something delicate (dry aged steaks, or fresh scallops, for example) without risking obliterating the required tender, rare inner texture.
2. The heat is wet. Combustion of propane has 3 by-products:
- Carbon monoxide
- heat
- water
reactions of the hydrocarbon chains with oxygen produces water, which guarantees a soggy sear. Anybody else hate rubbery skin on a chicken? I do, but I never once realized that my grill was the cause of it.
3. The machine is overcomplicated. My old Webber genesis has gone through three sets of burners, two sets of flavor bars, a set of valves, and an igniter. The grill I used for work even had a computer that would kill the flames if it thought it was running too high.
A charcoal grill has none of these things, making it infinitely less prone to failure. Since buying my Webber Kettle, I've had to replace nothing. While working as the grill manager for the meat department, the computer put us out of busniness on more than one occaision (a week) with dead thermocouples, bad timers, and loose valves.
4. Gas grills are expensive. Excluding repairs, my family easily spends abuot a grand a year on propane, and it's a racket; you run out of gas and there's no alternative.
I now seldom buy charcoal. 35 acres of forest land in the mountains of northern California furnishes me with more than all the fuel I can use. I used to think grilled pork chops were the best thing ever, until I tried the over coals I burned down myself from oak logs.
5. This is what killed it for me: The other day, I tried a pork shoulder that had been grill-braised. This is probably my favorite cut of meat for slow heat, but it had spent so much time over that whicked blue flame, that the butylene (an odorant added to the gas so we can smell it in the air) had actually gotten into the meat. My first bite tasted like propane exhaust. My second ended up tasting like ketchup.
I'm not at all trying to disuade the use of gas. Whatever people burn their meat with is their business, but I just wanted to share why I've given up the blue-flame life for good.
As a kid, I honestly thought that cooking over propane was the only way to go. I bought into the "you taste the meat, not the fire" BS hook line and sinker. Over time my Scoutmaster influenced me otherwise to the extent that I preferred charcoal, or hardwood better, but was still open to gas.
Working a gas grill as part of my regular duties while apprenticing as a butcher changed that, largely because I just became frustrated with how complicateed the big trailer grill was, how low the heat was, and how unsatisfctory the result was. The other day, it all crystalized, and now I can comfortably say that I hate gas, here is why:
1. The heat is too low.
Propane is the petoleum of choice for many grill companies because it's perfectly moderate in temperature, meaning it's less likely to fill their forums and ears with the story: "I walked away for ten minutes, and my steak was singed" as every novice griller says, it's insurance. The peak heat produced inside the average consumer's grill is on the high side of the 600's. That's admirable for an oven, but far too low to really sear something delicate (dry aged steaks, or fresh scallops, for example) without risking obliterating the required tender, rare inner texture.
2. The heat is wet. Combustion of propane has 3 by-products:
- Carbon monoxide
- heat
- water
reactions of the hydrocarbon chains with oxygen produces water, which guarantees a soggy sear. Anybody else hate rubbery skin on a chicken? I do, but I never once realized that my grill was the cause of it.
3. The machine is overcomplicated. My old Webber genesis has gone through three sets of burners, two sets of flavor bars, a set of valves, and an igniter. The grill I used for work even had a computer that would kill the flames if it thought it was running too high.
A charcoal grill has none of these things, making it infinitely less prone to failure. Since buying my Webber Kettle, I've had to replace nothing. While working as the grill manager for the meat department, the computer put us out of busniness on more than one occaision (a week) with dead thermocouples, bad timers, and loose valves.
4. Gas grills are expensive. Excluding repairs, my family easily spends abuot a grand a year on propane, and it's a racket; you run out of gas and there's no alternative.
I now seldom buy charcoal. 35 acres of forest land in the mountains of northern California furnishes me with more than all the fuel I can use. I used to think grilled pork chops were the best thing ever, until I tried the over coals I burned down myself from oak logs.
5. This is what killed it for me: The other day, I tried a pork shoulder that had been grill-braised. This is probably my favorite cut of meat for slow heat, but it had spent so much time over that whicked blue flame, that the butylene (an odorant added to the gas so we can smell it in the air) had actually gotten into the meat. My first bite tasted like propane exhaust. My second ended up tasting like ketchup.
I'm not at all trying to disuade the use of gas. Whatever people burn their meat with is their business, but I just wanted to share why I've given up the blue-flame life for good.
