CountryByNet.com Forums :: Re: It's BBQ season again

One thing I have noticed with this yrs model and that is they have gotten away from Lava rocks... but are designed with brass burners and heat deflectors.

Sorry, but I thought that the lava rocks helped with the flavor from previous meat drippings to add some flavor.. you might want to say were seasoned.

Metal deflectors do the same thing as the lava rocks, but they do it better. One grill mfr. has a slogan, "If your grill still uses rocks, it was built in the stone age." The drippings are vaporized on the metal deflectors and give up their flavor just the same as they do on lava rocks or ceramic briquettes. The rocks allow the drippings to fall between the rocks and hit the open flame, which is what can cause the horrendous flare-ups that engulf your food in flames when you're cooking something fatty. The rocks do not form an even layer, and some areas are hotter than others. The rocks tend to absorb fatty drippings, and eventually have to be replaced. Most people put in too many rocks -- if you do use them, they should be in a single layer, carefully placed for size to get as even a layer as possible.

The metal plates are engineered to retain just enough of the drippings to vaporize, while channeling away the remainder to a grease catcher. They are also engineered so they cover the actual open flame, which channels the drippings away from the burner, helps prevent flareups, and protects the burner from clogging. The are of consistent thickness and shape, so the heat is more even over the surface of the grill. Many are engineered to direct heat to areas of the grill which might be cooler, such as over the venturi of the burner.

If you were to add a rack and rocks above the metal plates, you would be defeating the purposes of the metal plates, and would change the amount of heat which can reach the grilling surface.

All gas grills need a "flavor" layer between the burners and the cooking grates; it's what makes the grills so close to charcoal. In fact, in a properly designed grill, in blind taste tests, most people identify the food cooked on the gas grill as coming from charcoal. The vaporized drippings are what provide the flavor, and they don't care whether they are vaporized on charcoal, rocks or metal plates.

The most important thing you can do is cook slowly with the lid closed, so you don't lose the flavor of the vaporized drippings.

...Don

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