Grill Safety – What You Need To Check on Your Gas Grill Today

Posted by on April 6, 2011 8 comments

It looks like a lot of the country is going to go into a warm up over the next few days and through the weekend. If you are pulling out your grill for the first time then you will want to give it a good cleaning. (See previous posts: Deep Cleaning Your Grill Grates and Cleaning the Inside of Your Gas Grill ) Besides giving your grill a cleaning before you cook on it the first time you will also want to check items on your grill to ensure your safety this grilling season.

Check your burners. Make sure your burners on your gas grill are free of debris and there are no cracks, holes or splits. If there are you will want to replace this burner before using your grill.

Check all hoses on your gas grill. The hoses that connect your gas to your grill will need inspected. Years of use can cause them to become cracked and cause gas to leak out. If you suspect that there is any signs of this then replace the tube immediately. This is a dangerous situation.

Make sure the venturi tubes are clean and clear. Venturi tubes is the section of your gas burners that get the gas to the burner. There are special brushes that are made to clean just this part. Why you need to make sure these are clean is because if there is something in there it can cause the gas to backup and cause an explosion on startup. Small critters like spiders often find their way into these tubes.

Test your propane tank for leaks. You will want to check your propane tank for leaks either if it is still the one from last season or a new one you exchanged out for this season. To test this get a mix of soapy water and either spray it on the tank or brush it on. Watch for any bubbles coming out. If there are then that tank has a leak and you will want to take it in and get it exchanged.

Run your grill and test for leaks. Once everything is cleaned and checked put your propane tank on your grill and fire it up. Use another soapy water solution to test for any gas leaks on the tubes that connect the tank to your grill. These will be holes that would not have been noticeable when you checked it for cracks.

If you are firing up your grill for the first time this week/weekend make sure you follow these tips to make sure you have a safe grill for cooking on. For more grill safety tips to follow read this: Grill Safety Tips.

How often do you check your grill for safety?

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What is the Meat Grading System and Why You Should Care

Posted by on April 4, 2011 2 comments

Here in the U.S. all meat has to pass through a mandatory federal inspection. This is completed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and paid for by tax dollars. They ensure all meat products are safe, wholesome and correctly labeled and packaged. After meat has passed through FSIS the producers and processors of the meat can request that their meat is graded for quality by a licensed federal grader. The agency that grades all our meat is, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. This service is not paid for with tax dollars and is paid for by the producer or processor of the meat.

Meat is graded on the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of the meat. When grading meat they grade the entire carcass and then the grade is stamped on it. When it is cut into its respective “cuts” the packaging will show the grade that particular piece of meat came from. There are two ways meat is graded. One being quality grades and the other being yield grades. The one most people see and think of is quality grades and that is what will go over in this post. Quality grades are based on the age of the animal and the marbling of the meat. Marbling is the flecks of white fat you see distributed throughout the meat.

What are the quality grades of meat?

  1. Prime Grade is the best of the best and going to be the more expensive piece of meat. This meat come from young, well fed cattle.
  2. Choice Grade is still high quality meat, but will have a little less marbling than the prime grade.
  3. Select Grade is going to be leaner than the higher meet grades, but will lack some of the flavor and juiciness of those higher grades.
  4. Standard & Commercial Grades will usually not show a grade when looking at it in the store. This will be your typical “store brand” meat.
  5. Utility, Cutter, and Canner Grades are never seen in the stores as such. This type of meat is used to make ground beef and processed meat products.

In summary the best grade is going to come from young cattle that has a good amount of marbling.

Which steak below has the better grade?

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Gourmet Burgers You Must Try This Weekend

Posted by on April 1, 2011 4 comments

We have made it to another Friday and it is time for the weekend! Hopefully you are in an area that will give you weather to grill, unlike here in Ohio where it has been unseasonably cool with snow. Even if it is cold where you are might as well still grill up these burgers because they are that good.

The recipe I am sharing with you today is called, Bay Area Burgers. I found this on the web and it had some great reviews along with some negative. The positives out weighed the negatives and I was ready to try something new in the burger arena, so I decided to try them (with some modifications). I made these this past weekend when I was down visiting my family. I had to make regular burgers as well since I have never tried this recipe before and well it was a good possibility it would come out tasting terrible. Below is the recipe and after the recipe I will give you my final verdict on these gourmet burgers.

Ingredients

  • 1lb ground beef
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used the bottled kind, not fresh)
  • 2 T extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 T worcestershire sauce
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
  • fresh mozzarella
  • red onion
  • lettuce
  • tomato
  • rosemary foccacia bread

Directions

Put the ground beef in a bowl and add the garlic, olive oil, salt, black pepper, basil, and worcestershire sauce. Now it’s time to get your hands dirty and get in there and mix it all up together. Once it is mixed well divide it out into 4 balls and make your patties.

Preheat the grill. Once the grill is preheated take the burgers and put them on the grill. Make sure you make an indentation in the middle of the burger with your thumb before putting them on. Your burger will thank you. Now cook until your desired doneness has been reached.

You could put these on a regular hamburger bun, but does a gourmet burger really deserve to be sitting on a common hamburger bun? I don’t think so. Take your fresh loaf of rosemary foccacia bread and slice it in half and then cut it into sections to create your own bun. Get out the fresh mozzarella and cut off slices for your burger. When it is all said and done you will have one the best dressed burgers you will ever see.

The Verdict

These burgers were really good with amazing flavor. With the bread you probably are not going to want to eat it like a traditional burger. A fork will probably be needed, unless you have a big mouth. Like I said at the start I did not make all the burgers this way because I was not sure how they would turn out. Well it turns out I should have made them all that way. People that I did not expect to eat them, ate them and people I thought would eat them didn’t get to eat them because of that.

If you are looking to dress up a burger every now and then you will definitely want to try out this recipe. Great recipe. I already have it back on my list to cook again once we can break this cold, snowy weather here.

Leave a comment below and give your review of these burgers after you try them out.


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Grill Charms: Changing The Way You Grill

Posted by on March 30, 2011 17 comments

Grill Charms are still a relatively new grilling accessory that is gaining more popularity each year. Grill Charms were created by Leslie Haywood out of Charleston, SC and are round, stainless steel charms that distinguishes your food on your grill as you cook. The stem of the charm makes it so you can put them on your food before putting it on the grill and it won’t fall out as you flip and turn your food.

Grill Charms History

A lot of people are still unfamiliar with what a Grill Charm is, but it has been around for several years. I happened to first hear about them about 3 years ago from a show on CNBC, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. He had a segment on the show, One Minute to Millions, where he asked two people in business about the selected persons business idea and they critiqued it if it was a good idea or not. The one gentlemen when all said and done voted it was not a big idea, the lady voted it was a big idea and Donny Deutsch voted it was a big idea. I would have to say the person that voted it was not got it wrong. If you want to see that segment it is posted here at youtube. Grill Charms – One Minute to Millions.

At that time I thought this product was a great idea, but I did forget about it until about a year later when I saw the inventor of these on tv again. This time she was on the ABC show, Shark Tank. If your not familiar with this show then head over to ABC to read about it. Shark Tank is a great show and it just started its second season last Friday, so check it out. Grill Charms left Shark Tank with a $50,000 investment from a successful internet and technology mogul, Robert Herjavec.

The Review

I finally got my hands on a set of these Grill Charms after hearing about it over 3 years ago. Each pack comes with 6 charms and come in 4 different collections: Steak Collection, Spicy Collection, Charmed Life Collection, and the Pink Collection(10% of the proceeds go to help find a cure for breast cancer). With everyone having their own preference on how they want their meat cooked on the grill these charms make life simple. You will have no doubt with these which steak is medium or medium well, which chicken has hot spices and not, which item is for someone with a food allergy. You can see that there are a lot of possibilities for these.

Grill Charms will give you the ability to cook for multiple people with different spices/marinades on each one and never have to worry about getting the wrong one. Bottom line: If you grill then you need a set of these.

You can buy them here: Grill Charms
We are also giving a set away along with a new Weber Gas Grill here: Weber Gas Grill – Grill Charm Giveaway

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Cleaning The Inside of Your Gas Grill

Posted by on March 28, 2011 42 comments

In a continuation of last weeks post on how to deep clean your grill grates we are going to show you how to clean the inside of your grill. Cleaning the inside of your grill will vary from a charcoal grill to a gas grill. The cleaning in the post is with a gas grill.

I unfortunately neglected my grill over the years and failed to ever really clean it. I would say a lot of people do this. Get a grill, cook the food, brush the grates off for the next use and that is the extent of cleaning. Not cleaning the inside of a gas grill can quickly become a fire hazard.

As small pieces of food and grease fall down to the bottom they burn up some and then become hard after the grill cools. Then the next time you go grill it does this again and continues to build up the gunk. These pieces can catch on fire as your cooking and if one of those pieces falls down to the grease drip pan then you could start a pretty dangerous fire. You definitely do not want this. This is why you want to give the inside of your grill a good cleaning each year and always empty out your drip pan as needed during the cooking season.

As long as you keep up with cleaning the inside of your grill on a regular basis it won’t take long to do.

  1. Remove your grill grates.
  2. Scrape of any loose debris from your heat plates or heat tents that are covering your burners.
  3. If they are really bad you can soak these in a soapy/baking soda mix for an hour and scrub.
  4. Brush or scrape all loose debris on the bottom of your grill into the removable catch all pan.
  5. Remove the pan and dump out all the debris.
  6. If the inside is still very dirty you can spray it with a grill cleaner and let it sit then scrub/brush the inside. If you do this you will want to hose out the inside.
  7. Put the catch all pan back.
  8. Put the heat plates/heat tents back over the burners.
  9. Put the grill grates back.

Find more information on: Cleaning Your Grill.

How often do you give the inside of your grill a good cleaning?

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Carne Asada – Mexican Flare On The Grill

Posted by on March 25, 2011 13 comments

Recipe Friday is here! Nothing is better than trying out new recipes and sharing it with others. Stay with us here at Gas Grills Now and each Friday you will receive a new recipe that you can try on your grill this weekend.

Today I am going to share with you a recipe for Carne Asada on the grill. I love Mexican food, but I have always stuck to the traditional ground beef and chicken when cooking at home. I found a recipe online for carne asada and it had some pretty good reviews. Below is how you make it.

Ingredients

  • 1-3 lbs. Skirt Steak or Flank Steak (thinner the better)
  • 1 lime, juiced (I used 3 tablespoons of lime juice)
  • 1 lemon juiced (I used 3 tablespoons of lemon juice)
  • 1 orange, juiced or 1/2 cup orange juice (I used the 1/2 cup of oj)
  • 2 T chili powder
  • 2 T ground cumin
  • 1-1/2 T dried oregano leaves
  • 1-1/2 T fresh chopped cilantro
  • garlic cloves coarsely chopped to taste (I used the jar kind and put 1/2 tablespoon in)
  • 1 medium onion, sliced

You want to get all the ingredients for this a day ahead of time. Put your steak in a zip lock bag and then mix together all the other ingredients. When finished pour this mixture over the steak in the ziplock bag. Now put it in the refrigerator and let it marinate for 24 hours. The more it marinates the better it is.

After they have marinated fire up the grill and pre-heat it. I drained out all the juice from the bag and put all the onions in a foil pouch and put them on the grill first to cook. After the onions have started cooking I placed the steak on the grill. Cooking times will vary here depending on how much steak you used and how thin it is. Mine only took about 10 minutes to cook up.

You can eat the steak and onions by itself or pair it up with a tortilla. I went the tortilla route with a little white rice, cheese and sour cream. The meat had an amazing flavor from marinating over night as did the onions. I think I actually liked the onions more than the steak. Check out the photo gallery below of the meal.

Side note:
I love Chipotle rice and thought it would be perfect to go with this meal. Here is a quick recipe to make a Chipotle like rice. Not exactly the same, but still good nonetheless. You will need basmati rice, fresh cilantro, lime juice and salt (kosher salt works well). Just cook the rice as directed and mix in some cilantro, lime juice and salt to taste and then you will have some Chipotle like rice with your meal!

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Spring Beers

Posted by on March 23, 2011 3 comments

Spring arrived this past Sunday and people’s thoughts quickly turned to warmer days. I know I started thinking about warmer weather, grilling and beer. Just like peanut butter has a companion in jelly, grilling has a companion in beer. I fired up my grill this past weekend for the first time and I knew I needed beer for the occasion. I have never really looked at seasonal spring beers before and for good reason as they are not as popular as the more dominant seasonal beers of winter and summer.

History
If there is one style of beer that is credited to spring it would be bock. Bock is a strong lager that has a German origin. Bock has several variations under it, mainly, doppelbock, eisbock and maibock.

Maibock or helles bock is usually brewed for consumption at spring festivals. This version of bock is paler and a more hopped version of traditional bock. Here in the US you will find spring beer festivals in cities all over, some bigger than others. Two of the more popular spring beer fests here are the Spring Beer Festival in Portland, Oregon and Bockfest in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Doppelbock or double bock is a stronger and more maltier version of traditional bock. This style of bock has deep roots in spring. This style was first created by monks in Munich, Germany and consumed during the time of lent. During lent monks would fast and were limited to only liquids. This version of bock was sort of a liquid bread for them during this time.

The bock style definitely has its roots tied to the spring and you will find that in the seasonal beers you see from breweries. As for some of the bigger breweries most of them have some sort of seasonal spring beer. Most of these also will be going away in a couple weeks as they make way for their seasonal summer brews.

If you want to try some spring beers you will need to get out in the next couple weeks before they are gone. Below is a list of some of the more common spring beers you will find in the store.

Sierra Nevada – Glissade Golden Bock
This beer I have seen around the last several weeks and of course when I finally decide to try it I can not find it. Sierra Nevada must pull this seasonal beer earlier than its counterparts. Here is what they say this beer is all about:

“As winter begins its slide toward the sunny days of spring, we bring you Glissade Golden Bock to help you enjoy the ride. Glissade is a remarkably mellow take on the traditional spring bock.
With restrained sweetness, we emphasize subtle malt flavor, balanced against delicate aromas of spicy and floral European hops. This complex balance helps Glissade slide across the palate—bracing us against the last cold nights of winter, while its bright golden color turns our thoughts toward spring.”

Sam Adams – Noble Pils

This seasonal spring beer is brewed with 5 noble hops which are, Hallertau Mittelfrueh, Tettnang Tettnanger, Spalt Spalter, and Hersbrucker Hersbrucker from Germany and Saaz from the Czech Republic. From the bottle it states:

“Samuel Adams Noble Pils is one of the only brews made with all 5 noble hops from the world’s oldest growing regions. Its bright flavor and lively, citrus hop character remind us that the warm days of spring are just a few weeks away. Cheers!”

Noble Pils is an easy beer to go down with just a slight ting at the end. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are Sam Adams fan.

Magic Hat – Vinyl

Magic Hat has quickly become one of my favorite breweries. I usually love the beer they put out and it is always done very creatively. Their take on the spring seasonal beer is what they call Vinyl. Here is what Magic Hat says about this beer:

“Vinyl Lager is a beer with a deep amber hue, sweet malt taste and a slight balancing hop touch. This beer is produced using a lager strain of yeast and is fermented at the low end of ale fermentation temperatures, allowing the beer to maintain its easy-drinking lager-like characteristics.”

Vinyl is definitely not an overpowering lager and fits a “spring taste”. Magic Hat has another winner with this one and I would recommend trying it out. It has great flavor.

What spring beers do you enjoy? Share below.

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Deep Cleaning Your Grill Grates

Posted by on March 21, 2011 9 comments

It’s that time of year again. Spring is here, grill covers are coming off and grills are being fired up again after a long winters nap. If your like me you might open up your grill and realize it is quite dirty from last seasons grilling (or maybe the last 4 years of grilling, oops!). I recommend giving your grill grates a good cleaning even if they don’t appear to be too dirty. This is where your food will be cooking, so it’s always good to have a nice clean surface.

Follow the steps below and you will have very clean grill grates just in time for the start of grilling season. After this make sure you keep up with cleaning your grill grates after each use. This will make this deep cleaning go a lot smoother each year. You will find how to do this here: How To Clean Your Grill Grates After Each Use.

How To Give Your Grill Grates a Deep Clean

Items you will need:
  • Grill Grates
  • Bucket
  • Dish Soap
  • Baking Soda
  • Scrubbing  Sponge
  • Water
  • Grill Brush
Steps:
  1. Fill your bucket with hot water.
  2. Mix dish soap in with water.
  3. Mix baking soda in with water.
  4. Place grill grates in the water/soap/baking soda mixture.
  5. Let sit for 60 minutes. (or a day if yours are really bad like mine!)
  6. Scrub the grill grates with a sponge to break up any debris on them.
  7. Rinse with water.
  8. Place grates back on your grill.
  9. Run your grill for 15-30 minutes.
  10. Use your grill brush to remove any remaining debris.

And to prove to you that this works very well check out the below photo gallery.

Do you have any tips on great ways to keep your grates clean?
Leave a comment below.

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