The grill grates are on the ready!
So which will win overall when it comes to pitting the cast iron grates against the stainless steel grates?
Let’s find out, shall we?
Grill Grates At The Ready!
Is it better to have cast iron cooking grates or solid stainless steel cooking grates?
Which one’s better?
Here’s the thing…
Cast iron is pretty much all the same whether it is wide cooking grates or narrow cooking grates.
The idea of the cast iron element is cast iron is known to retain heat so typically that is going to be better for searing like in a cast iron pan or something like that
So you are going to sear much better with cast iron.
But why do so so many grills especially the high-end barbecues why are they using I mean there are some ten thousand dollar grills out there on the market, and they are using stainless steel cooking grates.
If it is so expensive and cast iron retains more heat why are you putting in stainless steel because stainless steel has its benefits?
And in some ways, I think it is better but cast iron relatively is the same across the board.
But when it comes to stainless steel, not all stainless steel is created equally.
For example…
The Kamado Joe Grill has a stainless steel grate and it is light, cooking grates are relatively lightweight and relatively thin in a situation.
It is not very high-end stainless steel and we don’t know the material of the stainless steel.
I would almost say cast iron’s going to be better because it can retain more heat than these tiny little stainless steel cooking grates versus when we go up to like an expensive gas grill like the Heston Grill.
Here you have laser-cut 304 stainless steel with some thick old cooking grates on them.
It is heavy…
It is way heavier than cast iron super thick super wide laser cut.
And you are not going to have a problem searing with that.
So cast or stainless steel is really all over the place and then in some exceptions.
Like the Special Edition Napoleon Cooker.
Then you have cast stainless steel, so it is kind of the best of both worlds.
You have the cast iron heat retention but the durability of the stainless steel, what the heck’s the difference?
I am going to go through the:
Pros and Cons of Cast Iron Versus Stainless Steel
So I think a lot of people or a lot of grill manufacturers do cast iron.
1 – because it’s more affordable it’s easier to manufacture and
2 – cast iron is known to retain more heat.
So it is an easy way to retain heat with a lot of or without a lot of power behind it so some of the machines out there don’t have a lot of BTUs or high burners in them.
Cast iron is a way to retain that heat and get a good quality sear so that’s the advantage of cast iron.
So cast iron will rust…
You have to be careful
1 – How do you clean it – you cannot use water on this because you will get rust of course that is a problem.
2 – You cannot use stainless steel brushes on this you will flake off the cast iron and you will ruin the cooking grate so you have to use special brushes when cleaning this so cast iron.
Although it retains more heat and is more affordable it is more temperamental and you have to be careful how you clean it if you have a five-six-year-old grill.
That could be a problem because it is going to build up a lot of gunk on it over time on the grill grates so these are the advantages and disadvantages to cast iron.
Now…
Stainless steel on the other hand although it does not have the heat retention of cast iron.
A nice solid 304 stainless steel which would as far as cleaning this thing be easy and bulletproof.
You can use water on this you can use anything you want to clean it.
You can even use stainless steel bristles you can basically get down and dirty with stainless steel and you’re not going to have any problems.
So which one is better and why do some machines use cast iron and some use stainless steel?
Here is my assumption would be that in lower-temperature machines cast iron is actually going to be better because you’re going to get the added value of heat retention.
So things like low temp triggers that only go to 450 5 even 500 you know that’s still not a ton.
And then the Traegers Grills have those really cheap cooking grates in them or the Kamado Jos Cooker with the thinner cooking grates in a machine like your kamado joe.
Yes, cast iron is better but in a machine that gets a lower temperature, you are gonna get the added advantage even though it is a lower temperature.
Cast iron is going to retain more heat so if you have a machine that’s 450 500 degrees the theory would be that this cast iron can get hotter than that it is going to retain heat and maybe climb above 500.
I think that is where the added value of cast iron comes into play when we have a machine that will not get up the temp.
But of course, you have the disadvantage of longevity cleaning uh and rusting.
I do not think it is a coincidence that all the high-end machines have machines barbecues let’s call them barbecues.
All the high-end barbecues have solid 304 stainless and the reason is that these high-end grills they’re getting eight nine hundred twelve hundred even some with infrared burners eighteen hundred degrees.
I think when you are in this temperature range that 800 1800 degree mark, who cares if the cast iron retains more you need hotter than 1800 degrees you better find yourself a new chef or a new way to uh cook something because that’s just too hot.
Pump the brakes on the heat there this thing is going to retain heat just as good when you’re above 500 degrees.
Plus as the cast iron but you are going to get easier maintenance on them.
In low-temperature settings, cast iron is very much superior so if you have a low temp Traeger or gas grill that just is not doing the job.
Make sure you have cast iron cooking grates because that is going to give you extra heat that your machine can not keep up with on high heat.
I would say it does not make a difference and you get the superiority of the longevity of stainless steel.
So if you have a low-power machine go cast iron.
If you have a high-heat machine go with stainless steel because you are going to get superior quality.
And I thought that the expensive gas grills are doing stainless steel for a reason it is because you get better longevity they are rust-proof and at that high of heat, it really doesn’t matter.
So the SHOWDOWN of grill grates is over…
As you can see there is a place for both, o the town was big enough after all.