The Best of GrillGrate

2010 was a grrrrrrate year for GrillGrate!   Thousands of new customers are grilling better, more often and grilling more types of foods with GrillGrates.  Many customers  have ordered multiple sets as gifts they are so pleased.   This feedback and enthusiasm sustains us!   Please keep those recipes, emails, and pictures coming!  I think today is the perfect day to recall the Best of GrillGrate 2010 and share what has become regular grill fare for us:  Signature dishes so to speak.  Some old and some new.  We want to hear about your signature dishes too!


HAMBURGERS are the most frequent grill fare at our house.  I prefer 80 / 20 if I can get it by the boss but 83 /17 or even leaner is still juicy with GrillGrates.

Courtesy of Paul Crump- BGE Fanatic

1. Hamburgers grill perfectly with GrillGrates: I use the lift and twist method for perfect sear marks while only turning once and cooking to finish.   We often fill the grill with hamburgers and don’t forget to toast the buns just after you take the burgers off while they sit for a minute.  Caterers are using GrillGrates to grill 50 hamburgers at one time while controlling flare-ups.
2. Stuffed Blue Cheese Burgers:  It’s a bit of work and the burgers are bigger but you can definitely skip the bun with this treat.  A puddle of blue cheese mingles with the burger juices to create a flavor that puts stuffed burgers on the regular hit list.  Stay tuned for exciting new developments on the stuffed burger front!

STEAKS:

1. Ribeye:  The king of steaks with deep marbling that delivers juicy wet steaks. We only use salt and pepper to prep and grill ’em hot and fast!  Add a few sliced onions 5 minutes ahead of the steaks.
2. Sliced Sirloin:  Thick sirloins are ideal for cutting into thick slices after grilling.  Costco’s sirloins are always on the list along with Ribeyes and the occasoinal tenderloin.
3. Tenderloin:  We love doing Tenderloins for holiday meals and for larger groups.  I try to use the Weber and actually took my Weber to a friends farm this summer to make sure we would honor this fabulous and expensive piece of meat.  I always use BBQ’rs Delight smoking wood pellets in the valleys of the GrillGrates when we are grilling great steaks.

Try these old and new favorites too:

1. Steaked Prime (choice) Rib Roast:  This was one of those accidental discoveries after missing my window to slow-cook a Rib Roast.  We cut the roast into thick steaks, salted the heck out of them and let them come to room temperature.  Normally this much marbling would cause a bonfire but not with GrillGrates.  My mother-in-law ranked this as our best steak of 2010.  Seared on the outside; firm and juicy red inside.  
2. My Father’s London Broil:  A Father’s Day grilling that I like to do on our Weber.  This way my Dad’s (and my) signature dish for years.  This is an old recipe that deserves to be brought back- especially with GrillGrates. Bumper to bumper red rareness as Meathead from Amazing Ribs.com likes to say.

View Low and Slow Sunday video

• HONORABLE Mention!  
• Tommy Boy’s Pork Shoulders and Brats and Beer.  on low and slow Sundays. We mastered Tom’s honking huge gas grill to get down to 225F for an entire day while we drank beer, grilled and chilled.  I agree with the recent survey that showed smoke from grilled meat has a calming effect on men!  We need to establish a winter grilling and chilling routine Tom!

FISH:

Breaded talapia from COSTCO

1. Breaded Talapia from Costco:  Every Costco run includes a couple of fish items for the grill.  We particulary like how flaky and light the breaded talapia grills.   The crust gets very crispy on medium heat and sears nicely sealing in the fish so it is moist and flaky inside.   Great with salsas as toppings.
2. Seared Salmon from Costco:  How many ways can we grill salmon filets?  Our favorites are seasoned with Denny Mike’s Fintastic or slathered in Rikki’s Soy Ginger sauce.
3. The Whole Fish and nothing but the fish!   Rainbow Trout, Snapper and other grill size fish:  We prefer to grill smaller fish in the whole if they are freshly caught.  David B from Montana used to grill trout in foil- not anymore! David says “fish in foil is not grilling its steaming”.  David also grills fresh killed Elk and sent fantastic high mountain camp grilling photos.  I got to visit David!  We’ve got a lot of customers in Montana!

• Honorable mention shrimp and scallops.   Large scallops are fantastic without skewers. Rotate and turn by hand for perfect searing.  Skewered shrimp only needs 5-7 minutes on GrillGrates.

POULTRY: 

1. 1. Spatch-cocked Chicken:  Cutting out the backbone and flattening the bird has become our favorite way to grill chicken and turkey.   The grilling is faster, more evenly cooked and juicier. GrillGrates again provides the key to a hotter yet juicier grilling with crispy skin too.   Stay tuned for a video of Susan teaching our daughter’s boyfriend the art of spatch-cocking.  And yes Bon-Appetit magazine– there is a difference between spatch-cocking and butterflying.

Sauce Wings last 10 minutes on grill

1. WINGS!  I learned how to do great wings on GrillGrates courtesy of Randy Branch of Moe’s BBQ Sauce.  Randy and I grilled together at our daughter’s graduation from University of Georgia this spring.  He showed me how to low and slow wings on GrillGrates for over an hour for the ultimate spicy, crispy, juicy wings.

PIZZA:

1. The Ultimate Breakfast Pizza:  We grilled a bunch of these piled high breakfast creations this year.  Pre-cook the fixings makes it easy to pull together a couple of breakfast pizzas even when you are a guest!  You’ll delight your hosts when you bring the fixings of a great breakfast!  Don’t forget to bring your GrillGrates!
2. Kitchen Sink Pizza:  We keep a package of MamaMary’s gourmet crusts on hand and find great uses for left-overs to make a fast lunch or easy dinner.

Happy New Year and Grrrrrrrate Grilling Ahead in 2011!

Brad

PS  I see from the above recap we have a few recipes to add to the GrillGrate recipe web pages… and we’ll get right on it because I know we’ll be adding more signature dishes to the list in 2011!- YOURS!
Please tell us about your signature dishes!  We’d love to add them to our website.