If you are a grilling enthusiast, there is no doubt that you want to have access to the best grills for a smooth grilling experience. An infrared grill is one of the technical yet convenient grills you can use for your grilling journey. So, what is an infrared grill?
An infrared grill is one of the latest trends in the barbecue industry. It uses a gas burner to heat plates made up of ceramic, metal, or glass, producing infrared waves. The plates used for these grills heat faster than air and attain a higher temperature within the shortest time possible.
The fact that the infrared grill uses infrared energy for cooking makes it convenient as it heats up quickly and more evenly. Read on to learn more about how the grill works and its merits and demerits in outdoor cooking.
What Is An Infrared Grill?
As the name suggests, infrared grills employ infrared technology to radiate heat to the food, hence cooking the food. Ideally, there are three ways you can potentially cook your food: convection, conduction, and radiation. The infrared grill uses radiation technology which uses electromagnetic energy to heat the food.
Most infrared grills are designed to sandwich an infrared burner between a conventional gas burner and the cooking surface. The gas burner heats the infrared burners, which send direct heat to the food on the grill.
How Does An Infrared Grill Work?
An infrared grill uses radiant energy to execute its function. To be precise, an infrared grill uses infrared energy to heat the food you cook on the grill. The surfaces of an infrared grill are specifically designed to emit infrared energy to the food. While gas and charcoal grills typically rely on the movement of air by convention to cook the food, infrared grills are designed to emit infrared energy to the food directly.
What Are The Benefits Of An Infrared Grill?
Although infrared grills are a new entry into the market, they are gaining popularity at a high rate, and this is attributable to the fact that the grills come with numerous benefits. The innumerable benefits of infrared grills make them superior to conventional gas and charcoal grills. Here are some of the benefits associated with infrared grills include the following.
Even-Heat Distribution
Even heat distribution is essential in ensuring that you evenly cook your food. Unfortunately, achieving uniform heat distribution in your cooking surface with other grills can be frustrating, especially when you do not have the right cooking equipment.
Nonetheless, you may not struggle with even heat distribution with infrared grills because they rely on uniform radiant energy to do the cooking. Moreover, these grills are never affected by wind, meaning they can quickly provide even heat across the entire cooking surface.
Excellent Flavor
While most people believe that the grilling skills and the quality of meat affect the flavor of the food, the truth is that even the type of grill you use can impact the flavor. Infrared grills can achieve consistent grilling results because they are not affected by external factors. Generally, if you use an infrared grill for cooking your food, you will discover that it tastes great. The high heat makes it possible to caramelize the surfaces, hence locking the juices.
Moreover, since these grills do not rely on air to heat the food, they can maintain enough moisture to cook a delicious meal. In other words, the food can retain most of its moisture when cooking using an infrared grill.
Fast Cooking
While not every food requires fast cooking, there are some instances where you may want to cook your meals fast. In such situations, an infrared grill will not disappoint. Gas and charcoal grills cook through convection which can be slower than infrared technology. In infrared technology, the surrounding air does not impact the intensity of the heat produced by the grill, making it possible for the grill to achieve high temperatures within the shortest time possible.
Enhanced Fuel Efficiency
The problem with convection grills is that they take a while to preheat, resulting in the wastage of gas and energy in general. Infrared grills generate a high-temperature rate that is not affected by atmospheric conditions. Generally, infrared grills are energy-efficient. Therefore, if you are looking for a grill to help you minimize energy consumption, this is the grill to get.
Self-Cleaning Mechanism
After using your grill, you must ensure that it is clean for future use and preservation. One of the unique traits of an infrared grill is that it has a self-cleaning mechanism. Once you finish cooking, you only need to turn the heat up and leave it for a few minutes. The high heat will burn any food residue and grease to evaporate, making cleaning the grill a simple task.
Preheats Quickly
Another advantage of an infrared grill is that it preheats fast. While the charcoal and gas grills can take at least 20 minutes to preheat, the infrared grill takes a maximum of 5 minutes to preheat. Therefore, the infrared grills will be a perfect option if you are preparing your meals for a busy weekend. Furthermore, the grill offers a superior flavor for your dishes.
Steakhouse Quality
Every BBQ enthusiast desires to make a five star-restaurant dish from the comfort of their backyard. With the right skills and equipment, cooking fabulous meals from the comfort of your backyard should never be a hard nut to crack. The infrared grill makes it possible to prepare a delicious and juicy steak since it promotes moisture retention. Additionally, the grill is excellent in temperature control making it easy to control the temperature as you deem it necessary when cooking.
How To Clean An Infrared Grill
Cleaning an infrared grill is never a complex task because it has a self-cleaning mechanism that makes cleaning easy.
The self-cleaning mechanism entails increasing the grill’s temperature so that the food debris and grease on the grill grates can evaporate, making your cleaning task pretty simple.
After evaporating the food debris and grease, and you are certain that the grill has cooled down, use a grill brush to clean the grill thoroughly. This way, you will ensure that you get rid of any dirt that might still be clinging to the grill.
Lastly, clean the grill’s surface, ensuring you get rid of any food deposits.
How Often Should You Clean Your Infrared Grill?
It is wise to clean your grill on a biannual basis for the best results. Grilling your food when your grill is dirty can easily interfere with the quality of your meals. A well-cleaned grill is perfect for preparing delicious meals. Moreover, it is an ideal way of maintaining your infrared grill.
How Long To Preheat An Infrared Grill To Make It Safe?
Preheating your grill before preparing your meals is essential because it kills bacteria. For a traditional gas grill, you need to preheat for about 10 minutes, while a charcoal grill will take up to 20 minutes to ensure it is ready for grilling.
However, the process is pretty fast for infrared grills as you only need 3-5 minutes, and any bacteria on grill grates will be gone. It is vital to grill your meat until it attains a safe temperature if you want to be safe from disease-causing bacteria.
Conclusion
Infrared grills make use of infrared energy to make grilling easy and enjoyable. Even though the infrared grill is a new technology, its numerous benefits make it quite popular despite its expensive price tag. The only disadvantage with these grills is that you may need some adjustments when cooking foods that require low cooking temperatures.
Scot has loved smoking food in his free time for the last few years. Each major holiday or off-weekend, Scot spends days testing and prepping new recipes for perfection.