Alton put the meat right on the coals!

Hark! I heard Isaac Wingfield <[email hidden]> say:

Quoted message said:

Pretty neat, I thought; I like fast-cooked beef, seared
outside, nice and rare inside. But I have a gas grill,
with "lava rocks".

Can I put the skirt steak right on them?

I wouldn't -- those lava rocks get pretty dirty after a
grilling or two...

--
J.J. in WA (Change COLD to HOT for e-mail) ~ mom, vid
gamer, novice cook ~ ..fish heads, fish heads, eat
them up, yum!

Isaac Wingfield said:

Pretty neat, I thought; I like fast-cooked beef, seared
outside, nice and rare inside. But I have a gas grill,
with "lava rocks".

Can I put the skirt steak right on them?

Isaac

I wouldn't. You'd get the residue of everything else you've
ever grilled previously on the steak. Ugh.

gloria p

Gloria and others answered Isaac:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Can I put the skirt steak right on them?

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I wouldn't. You'd get the residue of everything else
you've ever grilled previously on the steak. Ugh.

There are two other things to consider:

1. Before putting the steak on the coals, Alton used a hair
dryer to get the coals burning fiercely. I don't think a
gas grill could get the lava rocks that hot.

2. Alton made a big deal out of mentioning that the coals no
longer had oxygen, so flare-ups couldn't occur. In a gas
grill, wouldn't that mean you'd have gas bubbling up
under the steaks, and wouldn't that affect the flavor?
(Unless you shut the gas off, I suppose...but that kind
of defeats the purpose.)

Bob

In article <[email hidden]>,

Socks said:

Isaac Wingfield said:

Pretty neat, I thought; I like fast-cooked beef, seared
outside, nice and rare inside. But I have a gas grill,
with "lava rocks".

Can I put the skirt steak right on them?

i'd think not. the lump charcoal he used was burning down
to a brand new (and "clean"😉 ash. it hadn't been used in
multiple barbecues and picked up all their juices.

(There were several comments about the "crud" on the rocks).

I don't know about yours, but my lava rocks get RED HOT.
There's no "juice" on there, and certainly no organic matter
of any sort worth caring about.

Flavor problems? Maybe. Grit from crumbling lava? Same
answer. But "unhygenic" in any way that matters? I
don't think so.

I was wondering if anybody had ever tried it, curious about
grit or flavor. I guess not.

Isaac

Quoted message said:

1. Before putting the steak on the coals, Alton used a
hair dryer to get the coals burning fiercely. I don't
think a gas grill could get the lava rocks that hot.

i think he was using the hair dryer to remove the excess ash
before placing the meat on the coals.

A.C. replied:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

1. Before putting the steak on the coals, Alton used a
hair dryer to get the coals burning fiercely. I don't
think a gas grill could get the lava rocks that hot.

i think he was using the hair dryer to remove the excess
ash before placing the meat on the coals.

I'm pretty sure he stated outright that he was using the
hair dryer to get the coals to their peak hotness. I've got
his book _I'm Just Here for the Food_, which talks about the
same thing, even giving a diagram for hooking a hair dryer
to a kettle grill to keep the coals hot continuously.

(I'm at work as I write this. I see that the episode in
question is just about to start, so I won't be able to
verify what I just wrote. Oh well, it'll be on again
tomorrow.)

Of course, excess ash is *also* removed by the breeze.

Bob

Bob said:

I'm pretty sure he stated outright that he was using the
hair dryer to get the coals to their peak hotness. I've got
his book _I'm Just Here for the Food_, which talks about
the same thing, even giving a diagram for hooking a hair
dryer to a kettle grill to keep the coals hot continuously.

I just watched that episode for the second time, and he
called it "ash management." No mention of using it to
peak the heat.

Now, he has the right to revise and extend his remarks in
his books, but the videotape don't lie.

BTW, using a hair dryer continuously would tend to cool the
meat, even if it gets it more radiant heat, because radiant
heat isn't the only effect of a grill.

--Blair "Then again, there's
this place called
Pittsburgh..."

Bob virtualgoth@die_spammer.com said:

Blair said:

BTW, using a hair dryer continuously would tend to cool
the meat, even if it gets it more radiant heat, because
radiant heat isn't the only effect of a grill.

Er...you mean the way a bellows cools a forge?

No, the way blowing air through a convection cell pushes the
heat out the other side. You're increasing radiant heat
(didn't I just say that?) by increasing oxygen flow to the
combusting surface but pushing heat that would have been
convected to the food over to the exhaust.

If the hair dryer weren't a cooling device in that system,
you might as well just cook the food with the hair dryer.

--Blair "It's called a
convection oven."

Bob virtualgoth@die_spammer.com said:

Blair said:

Quoted message said:

> BTW, using a hair dryer continuously would tend to cool
> the meat, even if it gets it more radiant heat, because
> radiant heat isn't the only effect of a grill.

Er...you mean the way a bellows cools a forge?

No, the way blowing air through a convection cell pushes
the heat out the other side. You're increasing radiant
heat (didn't I just say that?) by increasing oxygen flow
to the combusting surface but pushing heat that would
have been convected to the food over to the exhaust.

If the hair dryer weren't a cooling device in that
system, you might as well just cook the food with the
hair dryer.

"It's called a convection oven."

Sorry, I didn't go into depth on AB's grill setup with the
hair dryer. The hair dryer is mounted in such a way that it
doesn't blow air across the food, it blows air across the
coals. Yes, that increases radiant energy. And since the
convection currents aren't sent across the food, convection
cooling of the food isn't an issue. That's why the setup is
more akin to a forge than a convection oven.

"NOW do you understand?"

Yes, because I always understood, and I understand that
you're not understanding.

You're not "convection cooling" the food so much as blowing
away all the convection-borne energy that would have gone
from the coals to the food.

Now, if the setup was designed merely to recirculate the
air in the enclosed grill space while still managing to
increase oxygen flow to the coal surface, you'd have
invented a means of creating oxygen from combusted
material...so it wouldn't work.

You necessarily must blow hot air out of the grill to get
more oxygen to the coals.

So your best bet is to duct the air leaving the coals so it
at flows directly onto the food before it leaves the grill.

Is this what AB's setup did?

--Blair "Are you making fun
of my quotes?"

Blair said:

BTW, using a hair dryer continuously would tend to cool
the meat, even if it gets it more radiant heat, because
radiant heat isn't the only effect of a grill.

Er...you mean the way a bellows cools a forge?

Bob

Blair said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

BTW, using a hair dryer continuously would tend to cool
the meat, even if it gets it more radiant heat, because
radiant heat isn't the only effect of a grill.

Er...you mean the way a bellows cools a forge?

No, the way blowing air through a convection cell pushes
the heat out the other side. You're increasing radiant
heat (didn't I just say that?) by increasing oxygen flow
to the combusting surface but pushing heat that would have
been convected to the food over to the exhaust.

If the hair dryer weren't a cooling device in that system,
you might as well just cook the food with the hair dryer.

--Blair "It's called a convection oven."

Sorry, I didn't go into depth on AB's grill setup with the
hair dryer. The hair dryer is mounted in such a way that it
doesn't blow air across the food, it blows air across the
coals. Yes, that increases radiant energy. And since the
convection currents aren't sent across the food, convection
cooling of the food isn't an issue. That's why the setup is
more akin to a forge than a convection oven.

--Bob "NOW do you understand?"

Blair said:

So your best bet is to duct the air leaving the coals
so it at flows directly onto the food before it leaves
the grill.

Is this what AB's setup did?

--Blair "Are you making fun of my quotes?"

No, that wasn't AB's setup at all. If you like, I can e-mail
you a diagram. (Unlike some, I respect the text-only nature
of this group.)

Of course, you'd have to disclose your e-mail address, and
I'll understand if you don't want to. In that case, hunt
down the book and look on page 47.

Bob

"I love to go down to the schoolyard and watch all the
little children jump up and down and run around yelling
and screaming...They don't know I'm only using blanks." --
Emo Phillips