Kabobs and brisket: Gas, Cast Iron or Foreman

[vilasman]

I cant have a charcoal grill where I currently live. I am getting a hankering to make my own shish ke bobs, so I can stop paying $10 for 4-6 pieces of lamb and a whole lot of white rice. I am also getting a hankering to make my own baked beans and the best I've had I believe have brisket in them, so I need to make some brisket. And finally, as per my blackened meat thread earlier, I like blackened meat.

I am game to get a small propane grill, I have been looking at this one http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=41054-40307-720-0001&lpage=none
all season and I am severely tempted to run out and get it. It's 12,000 BTU's.
Is that to small to be useful?

My real question is thou would I be better served or at least as well served
grilling on the cast iron or on the foreman or doing the brisket in the oven?

 

[keltin]

That looks like a pretty decent grill, and it looks good to boot. You can do a lot with it, but I wouldn’t try a brisket on it. Briskets need to be cooked low and slow with indirect heat at around 200 to 210 degrees, preferably with smoke. It takes about 12 hours or more on a smoker. A grill uses direct heat, and will cook the brisket too quickly and make it tough enough to patch your roof with.

However, that grill would be good for lots of other things, including lamb. Steaks can be good on it, but at 12,000 BTUs you may not get the best sear. You can still get a good sear though by pre-heating with the lid closed for 5-10 minutes. That should get the rack plenty hot, brush your room temperature steaks with oil, then grill.

All in all, that grill should serve you well for most of your needs, but not brisket or any other recipe that requires indirect heat (ribs, shoulders, butts, etc). Well, I take that back on ribs….you can actually make a decent set of baby back ribs with low direct heat. They’ll have some texture to them (not falling off the bone) but will be juicy, tender, and a nice bite (fun to eat as well….but I like “gnawing the bone”).

If you want to do a brisket, just season it, wrap it in foil, stick the foil wrapped brisket on a cookie sheet, and put it in your oven on 210 and go to sleep. Twelve hours later, check it, and it should be done. From there, you can then throw it on your grill for about 5 minutes a side to crisp up the skin and form a crust.

 

[Katie H]

You might want to rethink purchasing the tabletop grill, vilas. We bought an end-of-the-season Char-Broil grill at Home Depot a couple of years ago. Here's this year's model of our grill. It has twice the BTUs as your tabletop model and is just about $20 more. You would be able to do a lot more different types of grilling on one like this. It might be worth a trip to Lowe's or Home Depot to see what they have.

 

[vilasman]

I was hoping some one would give me a reason to re think it. I dont really have the space for the grill you suggest, but what i really was wondering was whether the 12,000 btu would be enough fire power to do some decent grilling or whether i would do better to wait and get something that got hotter

 

[keltin]

I was hoping some one would give me a reason to re think it. I dont really have the space for the grill you suggest, but what i really was wondering was whether the 12,000 btu would be enough fire power to do some decent grilling or whether i would do better to wait and get something that got hotter

Yes, you can do decent grilling, but as I said, you’ll have a hard time doing a good sear, so it is a consideration on steaks. I’ve cooked on many little grills like this, and just about every other kind you can imagine. These little grills are great for chicken, hot dogs, burgers, kabobs, small chops, etc. It is hard to do a great steak on them, but you can pan sear first and transfer to the grill for the last but there’s no reason to do that unless you’re using a smoke pack and want that smokey flavor.

Make sure the grill uses a flame bar instead of lava rocks. These bars get very hot, vaporize any fat that drips making for smokey flavor, and hide the flame preventing flare ups. The lower BTUs of this grill make it possible to do really good Baby Back ribs and awesome pork loins and loin roasts.……but steaks and other seared meats will suffer. But technically, it's easier to list the things you can NOT do well on this type of grill than it is to list the many things it will do good.

 

[Andy M.]

You will be using this grill outdoors, right?

 

[Uncle Bob]

If all you have room for is a table top grill. Surley there is one on the market that has more output than 12000 BTU. IMO with this grill, you would mainly be limited to hamburgers, hot dogs, maybe a chicken breast, pork chops, fish steaks/filets etc. A thick cut steak would stretch it a bit. So do your homework, and find a higher output grill. In the end you will be happier.



Enjoy!

 

[keltin]

12,000 BTU is pretty much the norm for a good table top grill. Some go as low as 8500, many average at 10,000 to 11,000. I did find one table top that clock in at 20,000 but the price is unreal.

20k BTU Table Top Grill

A lot of the smaller full size grills start at 22,000 BTU, so at 20,0000 that little guy is pretty hot……to bad the price is just as high as the BTU output.

Of course, there are always electric grills. The standard for a good one is 1670 watts……not sure just how hot that is in BTUs though. But the cool thing is, that one has a rotisserie!