Outdoor grilling is a very pop method of cooking . A grill consists of a cooking surface , typically made of parallel metal bars or a porcelain - brood metal grid , over a fuel source equal to of get acute heating plant , usually up to temperatures of 500 degrees Fahrenheit ( 260 C ) or more .
There are several different type of grills , butgasandcharcoalare by far the most common .
In this article , you will memorize about the parts of a grill and how they work together . You ’ll learn what charcoal is and how it is made , as well as about the differences betweenliquid - propane(LP ) andnatural - gasgrills . You ’ll also find out about other less - common type of grill and their fuel sources .
Let ’s set out by taking apart the trusty charcoal grill .
The element of a grillwork can range from very simple to improbably sophisticated . The simple grill is a charcoal burner and has three components :
A vernacular adaptation of this arrangement use a shallow , rotund container mounted on a metal tripod , with a round cookery grille that rests on top of the container . Look at the illustration below :
Charcoal grillroom can be more complex than this — some have ahoodto cover the grill and additionaltieredcooking surfaces — but the basics are the same .
Thefuel sourcefor oxford gray grills has been around for at least 5,000 old age . No one is certain who get a line oxford grey or even what civilization first used it . grounds of wood coal has been found all over the world . It was even used in the embalm cognitive operation for Egyptianmummies !
You may not realize it , but charcoal is not a rock or even some type of ember . It is actuallywood . Charcoal is make by heating wood to high temperatures in theabsence of oxygen . That is , you take wood , put it in a sealed box ofsteelor Henry Clay and heat it to about 1000 F ( 538 one C ) .
Why would you go through such a tedious process rather of just combust the wood as it is ? Freshly issue wood contains a hatful of water — sometimes more than half its system of weights is water supply . season Natalie Wood ( wood that has been allow to sit for a year or two ) or kiln - dried wood contains a lot less water , but it still carry some . Watery wood does not make for very effective preparation . Also , when the tree was active it incorporate sap and a broad smorgasbord ofvolatile hydrocarbonsin its cellular telephone . " Volatile " means that these compounds evaporate when heated .
When you put a fresh piece of wood or paper on a hotfire , the smoke you see is those volatile hydrocarbon evaporating from the wood . They start vaporizing at a temperature of about 300 F ( 149 ampere-second ) . If the temperature gets high enough , these compounds burst into fire . Once they start burning , there is no smoke because the hydrocarbons turn into carbon dioxide and water vapor ( both unseeable ) .
This excuse why you see nosmokefrom a wood coal fire ( or a fervor that has burned down to ember ) . This operation drives off all of the fickle organic compounds and leaves behind purecarbonandash(the non - ignitible mineral in the tree diagram ’s cell ) . When you light the charcoal , what is burning is the pure carbon . It fuse with oxygen to producecarbon dioxide , and what is left at the end of the fire is the ash — the minerals . This create a very intense heat with very picayune smoke , hold charcoal very useful as a cooking fuel that will not overwhelm the flavor of the food for thought with the element found in normal wood smoke .
grill enthusiasts passionately reason the meritoriousness of charcoal versus gas grilling , citing especially the difference inflavor . Charcoal does allow a distinctive flavour that is not easily reproduced . It is a tough decision for many people : the convenience of a natural gas grillroom against the flavor of charcoal . Let ’s take a look at gas grills and how they work.
