The steak had nice grill marks while keeping a medium doneness on the inside. The worst was our Tacklife review unit, which didn’t hold much heat and didn’t sear while cooking. The steak on that grill needed an additional five minutes to get to a temperature of 135 F, the minimum for medium rare. We placed two steaks on each grilling grate near the center and seared them for five minutes before flipping them over and searing for another five minutes. With a good, reliable grill, this will give you a steak with a seared outside and a medium rare to medium center.
Its rack came out well too, though like the Napoleon, its bark was more pronounced than what the Weber produced. Interior temperatures had a greater swing, jumping up to 300 degrees F during periods of cooking. Its rack of ribs was ready in a short 4 hours, 30 minutes. While its ribs came out tender and juicy overall, the exterior bark had a few burnt spots. The Nexgrill definitely gets hot enough to create a nice sear, but you do have to work a little harder than you do with the Weber to avoid overcooking your meat.
One thing that’s not disputed is how easy it is to grill up a masterpiece with good old-fashioned charcoal. This fuel source is inexpensive, efficient, and weber charcoal grill easy to use. Not having to guess how much propane is left in your tank is a nice bonus. So, once you’ve decided on a charcoal grill, which one is for you?
For the high-heat, whole-grate burger test, we lit a chimney’s worth of briquets—the equivalent of six quarts, or about 90 coals of a former runner-up from our extensive briquet tests. We then oiled the grates and distributed 10 to 12 six-ounce patties across the whole cooking surface . While the burgers cooked we kept an eye out for undesirable flare-ups, which can char the meat and create acrid smoke, and examined the evenness of cooking on the different areas of the grates. After about 10 minutes of cooking , we compared how well each grill had seared the burgers, looking for any patties that were charred or unacceptably raw, and took a taste. Testing charcoal grills requires a lot of hands-on cooking, and your results will obviously vary based on your technique and ingredients, among other factors. Depending on the season and how your charcoal grill is set up, your experience cooking and grilling will likely be very different from ours.
Weber even supplies a simple plastic tool to help you attach the thermometer without digging out a wrench. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver to attach the side handles, and something dense to tap the end caps of the wheel axle into place. One person can have the grill up and running within minutes of opening the box. Every grill we tested had a hinged grate, a nice feature that lets you add or adjust the coals without lifting the whole grate off. We preferred the Weber and Napoleon designs, which each have a pair of hinged sections, on opposite edges of the grate, that let you directly access the entire bed of charcoal below. We noticed no performance differences, and all worked well, with no notable sticking of the items we cooked.
If napalm in the morning is the best smell in the world, burgers on the grill must be a close second. It doesn’t matter if the yard is covered in freshly cut grass or a foot of snow, sizzling meat over an open flame satisfies an almost primal hunger. We can debate the merits of grills that use charcoal, propane, or wood all day long, but they all make delicious food.
You will receive a shipping confirmation e-mail once your order has shipped. The e-mail will provide your tracking number and link to the shipping carriers tracking page. Burgers for my kids—no cheese, weber charcoal grill please, and not too pink in the center or else Dad will have to bring them back to the grill for a little extra cooking. For the Egg, we weighed out 3 pounds of lump hardwood and lit it.
They’re handy, no doubt, but if your patio or deck already has a table or countertop, you’re paying for something you don’t need and giving up valuable living space, too. On balance, gas is probably the better choice if you favor no-fuss cooking or weber q grill often . If you’re an occasional griller or you enjoy getting hands-on with your cooking, charcoal is an economical choice that, with a bit of practice, produces superb results. Napoleon delivered excellent cooking results in our ribs test.
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