This post brought to you by Char-Broil. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Movie TV Tech Geeks.
When it comes to barbecue grilling, there are those that are experts, but most of us just want to have the juiciest burger and steak and don’t think about what it made it so. We just want it that way now.
Here at Movie TV Tech Geeks, we were pretty much the same, but after moving to our new offices where we had plenty of outdoor space to grill, we started noticing the difference when we tried grilling on a couple different ones. Luckily, we were able to try out the Char-Broil’s TRU-Infrared™ Commercial Series™, and man, what a difference! Seriously.
The Char-Broil Commercial Series Grills heated up in no time flat, and best of all, there weren’t any of those ‘dead’ spots or cold areas on the grill that can leave part of your steak undercooked. The TRU-Infrared™ is genius in that it makes sure all the heat is evenly distributed to even the furthest away corner of your grill. Some of our writers were swearing by charcoal to have the best taste, but after trying out this grill for two weeks, they were sold since you are able to add wood chips under the grill plates to get that smoked flavor people think only come from charcoal or a high priced smoker.
One of the reasons why we decided to write about this experience is that this is pure advancements in technology that allows us to cook our meals better, faster and much tastier than before plus it falls under our Cool Stuff reviews since it’s definitely worthy of it. So most of you may have heard of this infrared technology, but here’s everything you need to know about it and why it can be your best friend when grilling.
The main type of cooking we’ve grown up knowing about are conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is the direct transfer of heat from one object to another like when you cook in a frying pan. The food comes in contact with the hot pan by transference, and this is the slowest and least efficient way of cooking.
Convection is the flow of hot air around your food like when you are boiling an egg. Another slow form of cooking. Then there’s radiation which is just cooking with electromagnetic energy that is directed at the food. The good ole microwave which can make food rubbery or just so hot you have to wait a while just to be able to eat it.
When you use charcoal on a grill, it winds up using about a quarter of infrared style cooking just to give you an idea of how much slower it is. Char-Broil has placed their gas burners under a metal barrier which isolates the direct flame from the cooking area to produce this effect. Rather than trying to keep moving your food around on the grill to be over the flame, this TRU-Infrared™ technology gives you the same quality as the best steakhouses in the country as they use infrared technology too. Char-Broil has just perfected it so that you save money by using about 30% less gas since cooking is much faster and more efficient than the traditional way of doing it.
The biggest advantage the Char-Broil TRU-Infrared™ has over traditional gas grills or charcoal grills is speed. It can reach cooking temperatures of over 500 degrees in less than 10 minutes (we tested this on ours) and can have a juicy bison burger cooked in a minute’s time (med) with a flavor that’ll make you swear you’re eating at Ruth’s Chris. It’s that good. With just a simple push of the button, you turn the grill on and in about five to ten minutes, you’re ready to get grilling on this rugged solid piece of killer technology.
With high temperatures comes caution as some things are much more delicate like vegetables. We tried grilling up a range from peppers, squash, asparagus to onions and man, they were incredible. It only took about two to three minutes and they were amazing. Onions are already great when caramelized, but this grill seemed to have taken them to a whole other level.
Best of all, this isn’t a technology that’s hard to master. It’s pretty much just experimenting and seeing what works best for you and what doesn’t. We tried putting vegetables in olive oil before throwing them on the grill, but they wound up being too oily. You can just thrown them on as is and let the grill bring out the true flavor which makes for an even healthier meal as you don’t need to slather butter on it. This was a big plus for some of our writers who’ve been wanting to eat healthier.
The only downside I can see is that everyone now has decided that for any and all cookouts, this is the place to do it so this little powerhouse of a grill has got a lot of hours of work in store for it. Especially with July 4th weekend coming up.
Almost forgot an important part. The porcelain coated cast iron burners are super easy to clean. Don’t forget to oil those burners for the first time to season it, and then after that you can spray Pam on it before cooking (when the grill is cold) and you’ll have a great non-stick experience. I always hated the cleanup after grilling, but now it’s faster than when you cook in the kitchen.
So, if you’re wondering how to get your hands on one, they’re sold exclusively at Lowes and you can get a three burner or four burner. The three burner works great for our staff of fifteen here so for an average size family, it’ll work great. Learn more about Char-Broil’s infrared technology and check out the video below that shows you how it’s done.
