There are some things that even the best grill – gas or charcoal – just can’t do well. Like make a hamburger with a nice crust on the outside. Or make hash browns. The usual way to overcome this flaw is to use a pan or some sort, like a cast iron skillet. Or to get a fancy new grill with a side burner and some kind of cheap accessory griddle. My grill came with one – it’s about the size of two postage stamps and has a cheap non-stick surface that barely browns anything.

And those are the major problems with most solutions that try and address this issue: they’re either too small or they don’t really brown things. What I’m talking about of course is a real restaurant style griddle. Having one of these really opens up cooking possibilities – especially if you can use it with your grill. I mean, a lot of things that are typically cooked on a griddle can be stinky or spray grease, so all the better if they can be cooked outside. Especially in the summer.

Enter the Little Griddle Company, makers of the Griddle-Q and Sizzle-Q grilltop griddles.

These are advertised as restaurant-like griddles for your grill. I first heard about them on the BBQ Source message boards that I frequent and a few guys there have them liked them. So this summer I took the plunge.

I looked at the Griddle-Q site and almost choked … the smallest one costs $169.99! for a 12″ x 16″ surface. Whoa! I understand that they are thick stainless steel and have a lifetime warranty and all, but wow. For some reason that was just more than I was willing to spend. And, the sizes didn’t really work for my current grill. The 12″ x 16″ was too small for what I thought I’d be cooking and the 21″ x 13.5″ was a bit too wide.

Fresh on the Sizzle-Q

Thankfully, they also make a model that is much less expensive: the Sizzle-Q. 18″ x 13″ for $69.99 MSRP. Now we’re talking. I looked around online to see if I could find it anywhere less expensive and I did – on EBay. I picked one up, brand new, for $59.49, shipping included from a seller called CSNStores.

So- how does it work? Great. Exactly as advertised. My first meal was a couple of frozen hamburgers and they turned out just as I hoped. Medium rare but with a nice crust on the outside. On a cheap white roll they are the perfect all-American diner burger. There’s a picture of them on the left. Later I also made an ambitious meal of grilled sausages, peppers, onions, and hash-browned potatoes. Although this size is somewhat constrained in space, it did an admirable job with the peppers and onions – certainly better than anything I could have done on the grill itself.

Even though the Sizzle-Q is the cheaper model, it feels and looks plenty sturdy to me. All the welds look well done and the finish is very good. I honestly can’t imagine that the Griddle-Q really improves much in this for almost three times the price.

My advice is this: if you like to cook outdoors and are looking for a way to expand what you can do, the Sizzle-Q is a great accessory. On my grill it covers about 3/4 of the grill surface so I still have some area left for regular grilling. The stainless surface of the Sizzle-Q cleans up easily just by spraying it with a little water and hitting it with a scraper. And the stainless surface really browns and cooks food much better than any non-stick surface out there and cleans up just as easily. Is this really that much better than a cast iron pan? I think so – the squared corners and larger surface make moving food around a little easier, and the clean up is easier. I’m satisfied that this is worth the $60 I paid for it. But I still balk at the $190 or $200 prices of the Griddle-Q models. I’m not sure those can be justified.

So I say go ahead and get a Sizzle-Q and expand your cooking options. Happy grilling.

For Bar-B-Que That Is

If you’ve decided to tackle bar-b-que, particularly spare ribs, you will eventually run into a problem that has vexed many a home cook. That is: home cookware wasn’t made to deal with large slabs of meat. A trimmed St. Louis cut rack of ribs is more than 22 inches long. That’s wider than a half sheet pan (a large cookie sheet) which is only 18 inches edge to edge. So if you intend on seasoning a rack of ribs and giving them eight or more hours in the refrigerator, you need something substantial to hold it. And if you want to do two or three or even four racks at a time … well, you’re into commercial equipment.

My favorite container for large slabs of ribs or multiple shoulders or bellies is a commercial 18″ x 26″ x 6″ food storage box. I have a clear Lexan version but you can also get them in white polyethylene. The whole rig cost me $43.99 including shipping from EBay. The only downside is that these boxes are actually 26¼” wide. That’s a problem for me because my second refrigerator is exactly 26″ wide inside. So I need to put the box in a little slanted to fit. When something drains liquid this can be an advantage, but it is a pain in the ass. So I suggest you measure your fridge before you go and buy something like this.

But in the end, it is really convenient to have a container large enough to accommodate full racks. I recommend a little EBay shopping of you have a refrigerator big enough to hold one of these tubs. It’ll make your life easier.

Springtime is just around the corner, and just as I am often asked about what equipment someone should buy for their grilling friend/spouse/neighbor, I am also asked by people about what kind of grill someone should get. Gas grill, charcoal grill, wood smoker, electric smoker, or some hybrid device? Believe it or not, this can be a complex question. Hopefully, I can help sort it out for you.

Your basic choices are:

Grills

• Charcoal
• Gas
  - Traditional
  - Infrared

Smokers

• Vertical/water
• Horizontal / dedicated pit
• Electric

Hybrid

• Ceramic
• Grill/smoker Combinations

As always, there are myriad factors effecting this decision. Each of the devices listed above is better at one aspect of cooking than another. Rarely can a single device prove competent at the wide range of tasks from cold-smoking salmon and sausage to hot-smoking ribs and pulled pork to grilling vegetables and fish at low heat to searing a steak. So the first question to be answered is this:

What kinds of food will you cook and how often?

The main division is between grilling and smoking, because these techniques are done at such divergent temperatures – grilling typically above 350°F (and searing meat above 700°F) while smoking is done at or just below 250°F. With few exceptions, a grill with the burner capacity to heat to 700°F will not easily maintain a low temperature of 225°F. And of course, having multiple specialized devices is best, but other considerations will affect this.

Next, you need to answer the one question that affects everything:

How much money are you willing to spend?

The simplest small charcoal grill can cost as little as $20 and make a decent steak once and a while. Yet you can also drop $20,000 or more on a large custom BBQ Pit. The amount you spend is limited only by how much you have.

Finally, there are some logistics that come into play:

How much room do you have?

Most people are limited by the space available to store their toys. Either the size of their deck or patio or the space in the garage is going to limit the number of pieces of equipment you’re going to buy.

The Pros & Cons

So, factoring in all the information above, what’s the recommendation? That’s still a tough decision. I’ll start with what I own and why, and then make some recommendations.

My Stable of Grilling and Smoking Devices

1. A Char-Broil RED 4-burner infrared gas grill. I bought this grill three years ago when the 2008 models first came out and I have been absolutely thrilled with the results. This is the first grill I have ever personally used that can get to 800° F and sear a steak, and also hold a steady 250° F temperature and turn out competent bar-b-que. I have written extensively about this grill in the Char-Broil forum on my favorite message board, the BBQ Source. Since this is such a versatile grill, it’s a good foundation to build from.One word of caution: after the initial debut of this grill in 2008, several quality problems have been reported, particularly with the similar but smaller 3-burner model of this grill. The issues are well documented in the Char-Broil forum mentioned above, but please check into the issues before buying!
2. 

   Modified NBBD Smoker

   New Braunfels Black Diamond smoker. I bought this in 2002 when I moved into my current house. It has taken some modification, but it’s now a competent bar-b-que pit. Every year I break it out in the summer to smoke for my Carnivore’s Carnival. The first five years I did four racks of pork ribs at a time. Last year I added pulled pork to the menu and did two shoulders and four racks of ribs. The smoker performed flawlessly for two days straight (14 hours for the shoulder and 6 hours for the ribs). This smoker is now sold as the Char-Broil Silver Smoker mentioned above.

3. Brinkmann Smoke-n-Pit vertical water smoker. I’ve had this for about 10 years now. The Smoke-n-Pit was the first real wood smoker I ever had the gave me the first confidence that I could produce real bar-b-que ribs by myself. Unfortunately, I haven’t used it since I bought my Black Diamond. But this was the device that got me and my friends hooked on bar-b-que, so I make sure it stays sheltered in my garage. At one point in my life, this was also the grill that let me eat good food when I had, literally, no money to my name. My first one was a gift from a friend and was well used. But an hour with an electric drill and wire brush and one can of high-temp paint and it was back in working order. When the food budget was low, I cooked hamburger and cheap pork cuts over a fire built from branches from the trees in my yard. I had several apple trees and the apple-smoked pork loin was amazing.
4. Bradley Digital Smoker. This is my newest purchase, and it’s only a month old. But I already love it. The Bradley is, IMHO, better than the Mastrbuilt because the smoke generator is a separate unit and this facilitates cold smoking better. It makes a decent hot smoker, but is really the only choice (other than a custom built device) for cold smoking. In fact, I have a nice salmon fillet that cured in salt and sugar for 12 hours waiting to go into my Bradley as I write this.

Great, So What do I buy?

OK – here are my recommendations.

If You Want to Cook and Hot Smoke

If your budget is unlimited, you can have the best of everything. Of course I recommend the equipment I have – a good quality gas grill, a dedicated smoker, and a nice electric smoker for convenience.

But if you have a medium budget — like $400 to $600, I recommend starting with a good gas grill with at least an infrared searing burner. Many people have luck with Chinese produced grills from the big-box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Just read the imported grill message board at the BBQ Source forums and you’ll get an idea about what’s working in any given year.

If you are really limited in budget, I recommend a good charcoal grill, like a Weber kettle. A One Touch Silver starts at $89.99 retail, and as long as you are willing to put in the work, you can learn good fire control techniques and sear steaks and make passable bar-b-que all on the same grill.

The Only Thing I Smoke are Marlboros … What Grill Should I Buy?

If you want to improve your grilling technique the single best thing you can do is invest in something that allows you to really control the heat. Most cheap gas grills don’t allow this: even turning their knobs through a full range only changes the burners from really hot to very hot. So, if you have the budget, I’d recommend a good quality gas grill. And note that good quality doesn’t mean stainless steel. Stainless is a convenience feature — it does nothing to aid cooking. Weber gas grills have a great following. Jenn-Air used to have a loyal following, but I’ve read that their grills have declined in quality over the last couple of years. A company called Nexgrill makes a few models under different brands (sold at Costco and Sam’s Club for instance) and while a lot of their stuff seems like junk, a number of the people on the BBQ Source seem happy with them. Realize though, that a decent grill these days starts at ~ $600 and goes to $2000. If your budget is more modest, I recommend looking for a used deal on Craigslist and putting a little elbow grease into cleaning it up.

I Have the Grill … I Want to Smoke.

If you just want the end product and have the budget, an electric smoker can allow you to experiment with everything from sausage to ribs to shoulder to fish. For versatility and convenience, an electric smoker can’t be beat.

But, electric smokers aren’t the best for real, large cuts of bar-b-que like ribs and shoulder. For this you need something that burns wood (or charcoal). A cheap offset horizontal smoker is usually the way to start, but you can buy a pit that stretches any budget. Running a wood pit requires a commitment … smoking shoulder can mean 14 to 18 hours of tending a fire every 30 minutes to keep a constant temperature. But the reward is worth it. Nothing makes the great tasting bark on a shoulder like a long slow smoke over real hardwood.

Full disclosure - I got the picture from Wikimedia Commons. I usually eat my food rather than photograph it.

Grilling continues to gain popularity in the United States. And message boards all over the internet are alive with people asking how to achieve the perfect grill marks on their steaks. Grill marks are those blackened lines on a grilled steak, often in a diamond pattern when seen in a restaurant or on the Food Network. Most people quest for these grill marks believing that they offer the final aesthetic touch to their food. And there are all sorts of hints and tips and processes discussed for how to go about getting them.

But these people are missing the point. Grill marks are not created as part of the perfect grilling process. They are the result of the perfect grilling process. Grill marks are not made — they emerge when things are done well. They are a symbol of perfection.

What’s required to achieve this perfection? Many things must ace in harmony to enable these marks:

1. Proper heat: the grill must be hot enough to sear the meat and create the Maillard reaction, but not so hot that the part of the meat not touching the grates is also charred. This also requires flame / flare-up control. Thus, grill marks indicate that the cook understands heat control.
2. Proper heat transfer: well defined grill marks are produced when the grill grates can transfer a sufficient amount of heat over a sufficient amount of time into the meat to enable the browning reaction. Not all grates can do this. Cheap thin grates do not have enough thermal mass to build up a reservoir of heat to maintain the temperature necessary. And shiny, smooth grates don’t have enough surface area to enable the reaction. So showpiece grills made to look nice don’t work. Real tools are required — a quality grill with heavy (usually cast iron) grates is necessary. And these grills require more care and effort than something made of shiny stainless steel. Thus, grill marks signify that the cook has invested in quality equipment.
3. Grill marks are achieved with a minimum of movement of the meat. Again, this relates to heat control. The meat must be left in one position long enough to allow the grates to sear the lines in the meat, but not so long that the lines burn or the rest of the meat cooks too much. To achieve the diamond pattern, one rotation on each side is required.  Then the meat is flipped and the technique is repeated on the other side. Why a single turn and a diamond pattern? Because, a grill cooks through several heat transfer methods (conduction, convection, radiation, etc.) but conduction is a critical component and the most efficient. So putting the meat on a grill with sufficiently hot grates and leaving it without a rotation would result in areas touching the grates cooked more than other areas not touching the grates. So the meat must be moved at least once to even out the cooking process. Therefore, the bare minimum number of movements for a perfect steak is four: on the grill, rotate, flip, rotate, serve. More than four movements result in lines all over the steak. While making five or eight or ten movements might not make much of a difference on your home grill, for a professional working dozens of steaks at a time, efficiency is paramount. Too many movements and the cook won’t be able to keep up with all the orders. Thus, grill marks signify the cook’s mastery of the cooking process. Diamond grill marks show that the cook understands the heat, equipment, and technique well enough to properly cook a steak with a minimum number of movements.

So if you want to know how to get good looking grill marks on your steaks, it’s simple. Get good equipment. Learn to control the heat properly. Practice knowing how long to cook a steak. Master these things and the grill marks will come on their own.

What do grill marks demonstrate? That the cook knows what he or she is doing. The ultimate test: when a cook can put multiple steaks on the grill and cook them all to different requested levels (rare, medium, etc.), each with four movements, and with even grill marks so that the lines in each direction and on both sides are all the same color. That is the mark of a master.