Cooking With Gas - gas barbecues

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, June, 2000 by Jane Bennett Clark

FOOD | Jumbo OUTDOOR GRILLS have set the barbecue industry on fire.

AH, AN APPLIANCE that merges Flintstone and Jetson, hunter and gatherer, steak and sizzle, all the while impressing the neighbors. That would be the outdoor gas grill, whose sales have more than doubled since 1989, out-selling charcoal grills by almost two to one as homeowners rush to add glitz and gadgetry to the backyard cooking pit. With prices that start at about $200 twice as much as most char-coal braziers--and may soar well past $7,000, gas grills have fueled "tremendous growth in the entire barbecue industry," says Donna Myers of the Barbecue Industry Association. "Retailers are telling us that people are saving to buy a grill like they used to save to buy a car."

And the secret ingredient for people selling grills is not the sauce, but testosterone-fueled grill envy. When a retailer sells one grill in a neighborhood for $4,000 to $5,000, "you can also count on selling three or four more in the same neighborhood within four to six weeks," says Myers. For Mark Lobel of Purchase, N.Y., grill envy meant forking out about $2,500 for a 27-inch Frontgate model he spotted at a friend's cookout. Lobel, a fifth-generation butcher, had an excellent reason for coveting his neighbor's grill: "It was really pretty," he says.

Bragging rights aren't the only draw of a good gas grill. Good-quality gas grills "are as easy to operate as your indoor range," says Daniel Lally of Frontgate, which sells grills by catalog and over the Internet (800-537-8484; www.ultimategrill.com). "And making them easier to use also means that people aren't just using them on weekends." As for the rumor that grills are a guy thing, believe it: Men are not only more likely than women to decide what grill to buy, but are also twice as willing to fire it up. "It's a big-boy's toy, "says Paul Faaborg of Iron Works, a Louisiana grill maker.

Feel the burn

SO HOW DO YOU find a gas barbecue that can brand steaks, broil burgers and baby brisket? For that much versatility, you'll need a unit with multiple burners that handles two kinds of cooking: direct, which is the same as charbroiling, and indirect, says Faaborg.

For barbecue classics such as ribs and brisket, which demand slow-and-low cooking, you'll need three bottom burners, one of which can be turned off so the meat doesn't sit directly over the heat source. A charbroiled steak, on the other hand, requires a temperature of at least 500 degrees, or maybe 40,000 to 50,000 BTUs, over a 400-square-inch cooking space. Burners whose firepower is spread too thin, says Faaborg, "don't cook food--they just wear it out." Lally of Frontgate, whose 36-inch grill packs 75,000 BTUs into 600 square inches of grate space, says, "We recommend that you have as much power as possible because that gives the flexibility. You can always turn the knob back to the left."

One grill, the TEC, breaks out of the box by using patented infrared burners that produce searing heat--at least 1,000 degrees at the cooking surface--with pedal-to-the-metal preheating times. Most grills need to preheat for 15 to 20 minutes to sear properly, says Shaun Taylor of Hearth USA, a small East Coast chain. "With infrared, they're ready in about three minutes and cook three times faster. You can start the grill, put the food on and have it completely cooked before another grill is ready to use." While not ideal for slow cooking, says Taylor, TECs are nonetheless great "for people who entertain and cook a lot." A TEC grill with three burners runs about $3,800 (800-331-0097).

TEC currently has a lock on infrared bottom burners. But a number of grills offer infrared back burners whose intense heat helps large pieces of meat, such as an entire turkey, cook evenly and stay moist. Some grills, such as those made by Iron Works (800-811-9890), rely on a convection system to circulate hot air around the meat. Others bring the meat to the heat with a motorized rotisserie spit, a method that traditional grillmeisters still swear by. A portable TEC called the Cherokee, with a single burner that produces about 1,100 degrees at the cooking surface, was recently introduced for less than $500.

Good grease, bad grease

MOST GRILLS HAVE a radiant layer between the grate and the burner that disperses heat and catches grease. It is burning grease that creates the smoky flavor characteristic of outdoor cooking. Problem is, says Lally, "there's grease you want and grease you don't want. You want enough to add flavor but you don't want so much that it becomes a hazard." Lava rock, a porous material, tends to collect grease and cause flare-ups, whereas ceramic and stainless-steel radiants are designed to zap the fat as it falls through the grate and divert any excess to a pan beneath the burners. (With some grills, you can upgrade from lava rock to ceramic for only $20 or so.) The TEC grill skips the radiant system altogether, using a channeled cooking surface that incinerates grease on contact.

Although sheet metal and porcelainized steel are still used on grill heads, nowadays stainless steel and cast aluminum bespeak backyard chic. Weather resistant and durable, such grill heads often come with lifetime warranties. Stainless steel is measured by grade; look for stainless steel of at least 300-grade quality. For the grill base, go for stainless steel, suggests Taylor. Groundwater seepage makes that area especially susceptible to rust, but "for an extra $100, you can upgrade the base and have it last a lifetime." Similarly, stainless-steel side trays last longer and age better than redwood, as do fiberglass shelves. A Broilmaster grill (256-740-5156) that features two stainless-steel burners, so-called solid-surface side shelves and a stainless-steel cart runs less than $1,000.