Advice on "flash grilling"

[skeeter09]

Does anyone have any advice on cooking things like thinly sliced meats? Meats such as carne asada, or thin cut short ribs on pellet grills. Usually, on a gas or charcoal grill I will keep the lid open to monitor these meats since they cook so rapidly. As I have researched, leaving your lid open is not recommended with pellet grilling. Would you suggest closing the lid and opening it in a few minutes or so to flip the meat? Will leaving the lid open for such a short period of time be that detrimental to the grill/eating up pellets to maintain heat (especially at higher grilling temps)?

Thank you in advance for any help, ideas or tips!

 

[FLBentRider]

I haven't noticed that leaving the lid open contributes to excess pellet consumption, especially with such a short cook.

I'm sure if you did brisket or butts with the lid open and in cold temps there would be a difference.

 

[TentHunter]

I agree and would add this: I've done hot grilling on both of our pellet grills set to high, but I got the grill up to temp with the lid closed first.


I grilled off a lot of sausage at the H.S. Band cookout off this past summer with the lid off and it worked fine:

Summer Band Camp Cookout

Of course it only makes sense that it would work better in the Summer than it would in cold Winter weather, no matter what kind of grill you use.

 

[skeeter09]

thank you!

 

[Big Poppa]

OK I dont ever cook a pellet grill with the hood up...but I time the cooks pretty close

 

[TentHunter]

Under normal conditions, cooking at home, I can't say that I ever cook with the lid up either. But then again I very rarely ever do flash/fast cooking at home. And in all honesty a I think charcoal setup is really more suited for that.

It'll be interesting to see how the new Flame Zone drip pans for the MAK's will support this type of flash cooking if a person wanted to cook mass amounts of burgers or what-not for large cookouts and don't want to keep a second grill just for that.

 

[scooter]

For ultra hot, quick flash grilling, pellet cookers of any make are just not suited for that, IMO. At least I've not seen one that can yet. Charcoal is the best course for that type of grilling. Not saying you can't flash grill with pellet cookers, just saying your end results will not be similar to charcoal grilling. As long as you don't mind the difference between the two, then you're good.