Enahs wrote on May 4, 2020, 08:48:
Blue, unfortunately gas grills take way to long to truly get to full temperature. Not worth the waste of gas for most things, especially when cooking for just 1 or 2. It is important to have the thick grill grates that have a lot of mass and will retain heat, really improving the crust. Like we discussed 15 years ago on here for your charcoal grill! Haha!

You can also add lava rocks to the gas grills, which helps hold heat in and makes it a little more like charcoal, but not exactly.

The major difference is actually burning propane produces more water vapor than charcoal, which reduces the ability for flavors from flaring and smoke from penetrating. Making sure the outside of the beef is super dry is key to allowing that flavor to get in. For steaks, "dry brining" is key, putting salt on all sides and leaving it on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, but ideally 4 hours to overnight in the fridge to really pull out some of the water in the meat to help offset the water produced in the combustion of propane. And then drying with paper towel right before to remove water.

Hamburgers, really just drying it with a paper towel right before throwing it on is about the best you can do. Unless your burgers are super lean, but why?

I have always had both grills, and both are great. But when just cooking for 1 or 2, it is damn hard not to appreciate the ease and convenience of gas, especially once you make those few adjustments. Good luck and enjoy!

Haha, I just searched the forum for our years-ago propane conversation to bring it up again, and this post from you I hadn't seen yet popped up at the top of my search. Pretty funny!

I appreciate the meat prep tips, but I also do think there's something amiss on the grill... Twice now I've run it at full blast for a good long time but it seems to stall at 550, about 100 degrees less than what the manufacturer promised. I saw a tip somewhere to disconnect the hose and turn the knobs to open for a minute to clear up some gas delivery issues. I guess it's to address if there's air in the lines? Seems weird, but easy enough to try.

You are extremely right about the convenience... I miss the way the food turns out from charcoal, but the ease of the gas grill is off-the-charts by comparison. From startup all the way through shutdown. I used to have to let the charcoal grill sit for hours to cool off when I was done, but I was able to cover the gas grill by the time we were done eating. Used be be a risk of forgetting to cover it and get it rained on, which is a thing of the past.