GrillGrate provided product for our testing, and for the giveaway. No other compensation was provided. Our honest opinions and review are our own.
GrillGrates are interlocking grate panels that sit right on top of your own grill grates. The raised rail design is a drastic improvement to the standard grates that come with your BBQ grill, preventing flare-ups from dripping fat and provides more even heating.
How GrillGrates Work
According to GrillGrates, the grate radiates heat, magnifying the heat to your food. Normally, in regular grilling, the flames at the bottom of your grill directly heat your food. With the GrillGrates in between your food and the flame, the fire heats up the grates, and in turn, the grates provide even, hot, infrared heat that cooks your food.
This design also prevents flare-ups. Dripping fat from your food that falls onto the flames causes an intense surge of fire that burns and chars your food. Most people will keep a cup of water or spray bottle to tame the flare-ups.
The GrillGrates on the right prevent the drippings from reaching the flames. In fact, the drippings and juices fall on the valley of the GrillGrates, sizzle and vaporize as moisture to further flavor the food.
GrillGrates Test
This past weekend, we took the GrillGrates for a test drive on our Memphis Wood Pellet Grill, with grass-fed beef burgers (Sauté sweet Maui onions in a pan until caramelized, then chop finely. Season ground beef with salt/pepper, mix in the chopped onions, form into patties).
Grass-fed beef can be a little tricky to grill, they cook much faster than the regular beef, so the window of “perfect burger temperature” is much smaller. This would be a great test for the GrillGrates.
GrillGrates Installation
The GrillGrates locked together easily. I like that it sits on top of my regular grates, so that I didn’t have to remove them at all. Removing the GrillGrates was easy, too, just lift them off the grill.
The GrillGrates come with a special pronged spatula that looks like a fork! This allows the spatula to go in between the grates to lift your food, and not scrape the food. This is important when grilling delicate foods like fish or vegetables. For our delicate burgers, it meant easy lifting and flipping without the burgers falling apart.
We watched the fat from the burgers drip down to the valley of the GrillGrates, but with no flare-ups. The burgers cooked fast – we shaved about 30% off the cooking time! Normally, we cook the burgers at a high temperature to get the sear, then lower the temperature to cook the rest of the way without burning the surface. Since we have a wood pellet grill, it works a little differently than your regular charcoal or gas grill – we control our grill based on a temperature gauge, which then allows the grill to regulate the amount of wood pellets that enter into the chamber.
Measuring the heat above the GrillGrates vs the area without, we saw an increase of 18% higher temperature. (We used a laser thermometer to measure the temperature).
The grass-fed burgers were juicy, perfectly cooked (even pink throughout burger) and no burnt spots.
Final Thoughts
Pros: We grill a lot of vegetables, and most of the time, we are too lazy to use a basket or skewers on the grill. But the problem is that smaller pieces fall through the grill and gets lost in the fire. Because of the GrillGrate design, the vegetables don’t fall through. Just use the pronged spatula to lift up and out. The GrillGrates did in fact, increase the temperature of the grill, and the infrared cooking improves upon the evenness of the heat. We normally don’t get many flare-ups anyways with our Memphis Grill, but I can definitely see the benefits if using a charcoal or gas grill. No flare-ups means no burnt fat. I love that it’s made in the USA. Its hard-anodized material does not rust. We also use a lot of marinades in our chicken and pork grilling – brushing on high-sugar marinades used to be a problem – we used to get burnt areas where the marinade would drip down into the fire. The GrillGrates prevents this – and actually the dripping marinade sizzles and evaporates, providing more flavor to the food.
Cons: The grates are a little too far apart in my opinion – I wish they were just a bit more narrow. While delicate fish and vegetables won’t fall into the flames, they do fall into the valleys of the GrillGrates. It’s an easy lift to get them back onto the rails, but less space between the rails would work much better. A standard grill brush cleans the top of the GrillGrates. But if you really wanted to clean in between the rails, or scrub to remove any charred bits, it is more difficult.
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The GrillGrates come in different sizes and shapes, so you can configure it to fit any grill, from rectangular to the round, kettle style grills and the Kamado and Big Green Egg. The panels interlock easily, so you can install/remove as you need. Check out all of their sizes here. Prices vary, depending on configuration- from $39.99 to $100+
We highly recommend the GrillGrates! They are an inexpensive investment for grilling better food.
Enter the GrillGrate Giveaway.
Giving away (1) set of 13.75″ Panels + The GrateTool.
