My grate discovery

Botch

Ever since chicken prices came back down I've been experimenting with wings on my Large.  But I've always had trouble with them burning on the bottoms (I cook them raised-indirect, and don't flip them).  By the time they hit 180º the bottom would be black; I started at 450º, then 425º, then 400º, and finally did a batch at 300º, and the wings still burned before they were cooked thru.  I couldn't figure it out.  
 
There's a food channel called "Guga Foods" that I don't usually follow, but EweTube recommended one for me a couple weeks ago called "30 years of grilling hacks", and I watched it figuring I'd pick up at least a couple pointers:
 
https://youtu.be/iHVg_KEV528?si=qBXPr6vtbTtrhvgT
 
At the 9:00 mark he made a statement that goes against Conventional Wisdom: Grill Marks = Burnt, and burnt meat doesn't taste good!  He then cooked a steak on a Weber kettle in a very unusual manner; he flipped the steak every minute or so, but always laid the steak back down on the cold side of the grate, and then spun the grate 180º so the steak was back over the coals.  That steak looked gawjus, and no grill marks whatsoever.  
 
This got me to thinking about my chicken wing problem, the light bulb slowly flickered, and today I tried an experiment.  Got the lump lit with a chunk of peach wood, set up for indirect heat/legs up, CI grate on the legs flat-side up (my usual setup as I always got nice thick grillmarks), but then I added two spacer blocks, and the stainless steel grate on top of the blocks.  Got the Large stabilized to 450º, and when the peach smoke cleared I put one drumette and one flapper on the CI grate, and the rest of the wangs on the SS grate.  Biggest drumette temped at 180º at about the 35 minute mark, and lookie here!!!
 

 
Pretty easy to see which two pieces were on the CI grate; I've solved my problem!  
 
This really flabbergasted me; I'd assumed the thermal conductivity of CI and steel would've been about the same, but I was wrong:
 

 
I also tried looking up the heat capacity for different iron alloys, but couldn't find anything right off the bat.  I do know there's a heck of a lot more mass in the CI grate than the SS, and combined with better heat transfer, no wonder the bottoms of my wings were burned.  
 
I've always used my CI grate for just about everything, but that may be changing as of now.  Wow, just didn't expect this.  
 
 
  
 
And I think I've posted about this before: whenever you finish a jar of dill pickles, keep the jar of brine!  Next time you cook up some chicken pieces, marinate them in that brine for 36 hours first; needs no other sauce or seasonings, yum!  

fishlessman

Botch said:

Ever since chicken prices came back down I've been experimenting with wings on my Large.  But I've always had trouble with them burning on the bottoms (I cook them raised-indirect, and don't flip them).  By the time they hit 180º the bottom would be black; I started at 450º, then 425º, then 400º, and finally did a batch at 300º, and the wings still burned before they were cooked thru.  I couldn't figure it out.  
 
There's a food channel called "Guga Foods" that I don't usually follow, but EweTube recommended one for me a couple weeks ago called "30 years of grilling hacks", and I watched it figuring I'd pick up at least a couple pointers:
 
https://youtu.be/iHVg_KEV528?si=qBXPr6vtbTtrhvgT
 
At the 9:00 mark he made a statement that goes against Conventional Wisdom: Grill Marks = Burnt, and burnt meat doesn't taste good!  He then cooked a steak on a Weber kettle in a very unusual manner; he flipped the steak every minute or so, but always laid the steak back down on the cold side of the grate, and then spun the grate 180º so the steak was back over the coals.  That steak looked gawjus, and no grill marks whatsoever.  
 
This got me to thinking about my chicken wing problem, the light bulb slowly flickered, and today I tried an experiment.  Got the lump lit with a chunk of peach wood, set up for indirect heat/legs up, CI grate on the legs flat-side up (my usual setup as I always got nice thick grillmarks), but then I added two spacer blocks, and the stainless steel grate on top of the blocks.  Got the Large stabilized to 450º, and when the peach smoke cleared I put one drumette and one flapper on the CI grate, and the rest of the wangs on the SS grate.  Biggest drumette temped at 180º at about the 35 minute mark, and lookie here!!!
 

 
Pretty easy to see which two pieces were on the CI grate; I've solved my problem!  
 
This really flabbergasted me; I'd assumed the thermal conductivity of CI and steel would've been about the same, but I was wrong:
 

 
I also tried looking up the heat capacity for different iron alloys, but couldn't find anything right off the bat.  I do know there's a heck of a lot more mass in the CI grate than the SS, and combined with better heat transfer, no wonder the bottoms of my wings were burned.  
 
I've always used my CI grate for just about everything, but that may be changing as of now.  Wow, just didn't expect this.  
 
 
  
 
And I think I've posted about this before: whenever you finish a jar of dill pickles, keep the jar of brine!  Next time you cook up some chicken pieces, marinate them in that brine for 36 hours first; needs no other sauce or seasonings, yum!  

I tossed that cast iron grate away years ago, it doesn't work for me at all. Cazzy had a great setup. Way to cook wings, it's a bit indirect and direct. Drumets like some direct, wingettes are more indirect with the setup. Might take me awhile to find it tomorrow

Canugghead

Didn't watch the video. Reminds me of the cold grate technique, SnS (Slow and Sear) folks make special spinning grate which works great with this technique.

https://youtu.be/9ntoOcmKE7k?feature=shared

paqman

1. I enjoy watching Guga most of the time, one thing I disagree with is how he is seasoning his steaks.  The only seasoning I add before cooking is salt, everything else is added after.  I really dislike burnt pepper.  He has another youtube channel, sous-vide everything.

2. I never had a problem burning wings.  I start at 350 and finish at 425 (indirect), sounds like your CI grate is the problem.  I don’t cook wings by temp, at the 30 minutes mark, they are usually looking nice and are ready.
 
3. I have a jar of brine, marinated pickle chicken will be on the menu this weekend!