Does anyone know what grill/bbq cast iron plates have as a coating?
Is it a dirty/expensive process?
If it is a bare cast iron as it most likely is it will have no coating.
I think that there is some kind of coat on it that burns off the first use?? If that is what you are referring to?
So cast iron bbq plates and cooking skillets etc are raw cast iron and the users just season them with oil and keep them oiled to stop rust ? I’m just wondering if we can make them at my company. We cast metal.
There are different grades of cast iron, so I’d have to do a bit more investigation.
Yah just season them.
http://science.discovery.com/videos/how-its-made-cast-iron-cook-ware.html
I’ve seen some grates coated in porcelain… makes a nice non-stick surface.
My weber has the porcelain enameled grates, and they work much better than anything else I have used. The dont give quite the same “grill marks” as traditional bbq’s but nothing sticks to it. See link below for image
Brush a little oil on the grill when it’s good and hot before you sear the meat. That should help a bit.
The porcelain grates on the gas cook top in our kitchen are about twenty years old, and look it. The porcelain grates on my gas grill, likewise look twenty years old, but they’re only five years old. I think what happens is that the differential expansion between cast iron, and what is essentially glass, cause microscopic cracks to develop in the porcelain. Eventually food particles, grease, etc. find their way into the cracks and look like hell.
I have inherited a pretty big collection of cast iron cookware; skillets, griddles, dutch ovens, baking pans, etc. Many are near, or over one hundred years old, and they all look great, and “cook” even better. As long as you don’t wash them in soapy water the “seasoning” provides a non-stick surface (for the most part). If something does get burnt on, the quick fix is to fill the pan/skillet with water and bring it to a boil for ten minutes or so, wipe the surface dry, and wipe it with a little bacon fat, NOT VEGETABLE OIL (unless you like that gummy surface it creates).
Cast ALUMINUM… fageddaboudit… garbage.
edit -
There are different grades of cast iron, so I’d have to do a bit more investigation.
“cast iron” cookware first showed up in England around 1720… I’m guessing that the metallurgy back then was too sophisticated.
A Poll…
Do you scrub the surfaces of your barbeque grates…
Or just let them go?
Personally, I just let them go. As far as sanitation is concerned, I always pre-heat the grill to burn off old “residue”, give the surface a once-over with a scraper and call it ready to go.
A new trick I just learned/discovered; my grill has four burners… I pre-heat with all four, and then turn off the two center burners. The grates are hot enough to leave “grill marks” ( I sear each side for about two minutes) … but without the direct flame under the food nothing burns and the two outside burners supply more than enough heat to do the job.
I follow the Weber cookbook that came with my grill. It’s perfect for almost everything.
As for cleaning, I’ll either brush them or if I’m feeling particularly wasteful, I’ll crank up the heat all the way and burn off what’s on there after cooking. My grates need to be replaced though.
Im right there with Nurb. I will scrape, but if something is really on there Ill crank the heat and let it run to 550. It just smokes all the remaining stuff off. I dont do it often, but sometimes it needs it. I always have a reserve tank for brewing beer, so Im usually not too conserved with running out of fuel.
kitchen appliances have a matt black that prevents rust - done at the same facility that does the porcelain, same process just different result.
I just got one of these after having a sheet metal with the flat plate and grates bbq for 7 years.
The old one is rusted and impossible to clean and even the plates have rusted. To be honest I didn’t look after it as well as I could have if I’d known what I do now.
The Kamado uses natural lump charcoal and I can make it myself with a 44 gallon drum with a 30 gallon drum inside as I live on 50 acres. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m keen to get started.
I cooked with it on the weekend and just scraped the grill a bit with a bbq wire brush/scraper tool which has a half round concave section which fits the grates nicely.
Not sure about how to clean the weber Q hotplates though.