when buying a grill, understanding the thermodynamics of cooking is crucial - gas grill with cast iron grates

The outdoor grill looks simple, but it's actually a sophisticated cooking tool, and understanding how it works is essential to make delicious food outdoors, before handing over your credit card to the clerk, this is necessary.
You may think that you left physics and chemistry behind when you left school, but if you want to eat well, you need to understand that cooking is about physics and chemistry, mixing a little magic.
Here are some broad concepts that every outdoor chef needs to know.
There are four ways to heat and cook food.
When the molecules vibrate so fast that the temperature rises, the food gets hot.
Heat is transmitted to food through conduction, convection, radiation, excitation, and induction.
Let's be a little more precise: conduction is when heat is transmitted to food by contacting the heat source.
Cooking hot dogs in a frying pan is conducted.
This is also conduction when the surface of the meat becomes hotter than the inside, and the heat passes through moisture and fat to the center.
Convection refers to the transfer of heat to food through fluids such as air, water or oil.
Cook hot dogs in your kitchen oven, surrounded by hot air or fried, which is convection.
However, when the heat passes through the meat, the inside of the meat is cooked by conduction.
Radiation is the transmission of heat by direct exposure to sources or energy.
Roasting hot dogs directly on hot coal is radiant, except for the parts that come into contact with hot coal.
They cook through conduction.
How the microwave works.
Microwaves are radio waves that penetrate the food while vibrating all the molecules inside the hot dog until it heats up without heating the surrounding air.
Induction is the latest technology of the stove top.
A copper coil is placed under a smooth stove, sending the AC through the coil to produce a fast-changing magnetic field.
Electrons placed above the magnet in a conductive steel or cast iron basin are attracted by rapidly changing magnetic properties, but they resist and heat.
The pot then passes the heat to the hot dog without the stove surface or the surrounding air getting hot.
The induction is very sensitive to the control knob and is very energy efficient, but it is not suitable for aluminum, glass or copper pans.
Let's start with a different fuel: charcoal, gas, wood pellets, or electric fuel.
Again, I will not go into longer-term religious discussions about charcoal or gas better, but I will get some of you out of the deep by saying delicious words, the difference in taste between charcoal and a very hot gas grill is negligible, especially on fast cooked food such as hamburgers or steaks.
For charcoal lovers, ask yourself: remember the best steak you 've ever had?
At the steak house, right?
What fuel is used in almost all steak houses?
More information on this topic, especially before you start calling me an idiot, read my article Charcoal.
Throw Gas Grill
If you are buying a charcoal grill, please read my article review on the charcoal grill.
In the past few years, some gas grills have been promoting their advantages because of the use of "Infrared" cooking.
When marketers call their newly developed cooking system infrared, it really means radiant heat because there is a radiant surface, a plate of glass, ceramic or metal, between the stove and the stove.
The radiant surface absorbs heat from the flame and radiates it into the food.
The advantage of radiant heat is that it is more effective than convection and hotter than convection, usually in the range of 500 to 700 f, with less movement of dry air and less moisture loss.
Also, the surface of the radiation is usually very close to the food, so the dripping juice or marinade is burned and then returned directly to the meat to add flavor without blistering.
The result is no different from charcoal. Worth it? Yup.
Especially if you want a good Browning.
You will, because Brownings will bring the taste.
If your grill is not infrared, you can add it with a new commercial product called Grill.
They replace the manufacturer's grille or sit on it and work like an infrared generator.
Read more about GrillGrates here.
If you are buying a gas grill, please read my article review of the gas grill.
The charcoal grill should allow you to store coal on one side, leaving no coal on the other.
They need a tight lid and damper that can be opened or closed to control the oxygen to control the heat.
Some people have the ability to improve and reduce coal.
This is a very good thing, because according to the square inverse law, the heat will dissipate, and the square inverse law points out that the energy passed to the meat is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the energy.
In simple English, this means that if charcoal is 2 in the meat, then the energy delivered to the meat is 4 times that of coal 4, not double
You need at least two burners for the gas grill so that one can be turned on and one can be turned off.
But the more the better.
With three or four burners, you can have hot, medium and low areas.
In order to smoke, you also need a cover that is quite tight to close.
Alas, very little gas is sealed.
You also want to heat on the cooking surface.
Pay attention to the hot spots on the burner.
Other important features.
When buying a grill, in addition to the price, you want to consider the size of the cooking surface, the floor area of the grill, the space under the hood, the maximum heat, the minimum heat, the quality of the building and materials, what is made of grates, the capacity of the grill, thermometer, side rack, side burner, easy to clean, easy to assemble, safe, warranty and support, and accessories.
For more information on what to look for when buying a grill, please read my article on how to buy a grill.
Tell me about your grill and where you like it or hate it. ----------------------------
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