A leading cooking publication explained the benefits of having a cast iron grill and, in a nutshell, it's all about heat retention.
Recently, I had the misfortune of having the original steel grates on my Weber completely rust through and decided there had to be a better alternative.After a little research, I found that stainless steel replacements were readily available and was going to go with them.As I was doing my research on Amazon, I saw that there were cast iron units also available and decided to research a little further.What I learned was that it takes a temperature of around 300 degrees to brown meat and that cooking drops the temperture of the grates rapidly.For stainless steel, it took about 15 minutes to preheat a grill to 500 degrees.Once the meat was added, it took only 2 minutes for the grate temperature to drop down to 300 degrees.With the cast iron, preheat time increased to 21 minutes, but the grates stayed above 300 degrees for over five minutes.In my own experience with the cast iron, the extra time made a huge difference in how well the grill cooked both burgers and steaks, adding nice grill marks and enhanced flavor.
Cast iron will eventually rust, but these grates are heavy and are enameled so I think they will last alot longer than the original steel, even stainless will degrade over time.You should always preheat your grill and these cast iron grates will make a difference.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Weber 7526 Cooking GrateProduct Description: The Weber cooking grate is made of porcelain-enameled cast-iron and fits the Genesis Silver B and C and Spirit E-310 gas grill. The porcelain enamel is cooked into the cast iron to prevent the rust but it still really feels and looks like regular cast iron.
Buy cheap Weber 7526 Cooking Grate now Get 13% OFF
After a year and a half of heavy grilling (2-3x a week), the original flavorizers finally had had enough.I replaced them with the stainless steel, and after about 2 1/2 years, they are still standing up extremelywell.It is worth the extra 20 to 30 dollars for the stainless steel. They do the same job as the porcelein, but they seem to do it longer.
