Obviously, I am not afraid to make a thread for myself. If nothing else, it will allow me to capture my lessons learned and may be of some value to others in the future.
I am having a great Florida day for testing my new 380X... Ambient is 73, a light breeze, and low humidity (relatively), Pun intended.
Round one questions in order:
Question 1: Can I just do a burn off to clean out standing grease?
I turned on the grill and set the temp to FULL. At about 600 the grease is vaporizing and burning (but with no grease fire as long as the lid is closed). After 20 minutes, the BD was at 950 degrees (Note: Using Traeger Apple pellets). Turned the temperature back to 700 and checked the grill. All the grease was gone. Only a grey ash that will brush right out.
Answer to question 1: A burn out is the perfect way to remove all residual grease. In less than 20 minutes, my grill was clean, dry, and ready to go again. No down side noted. No grease fire with lid closed.
Question 2: Do I need Grill Grates for the BD 380X? Would Cast Iron be better for searing with the BD 380X?
I don't have an answer yet to Question 2, but I have some observations and test results that prove several things to myself.
1. Based on what I saw when I cooked frozen Costco Burgers at 400 digress,
Up until about 2 hours ago, I was concerned about whether or not the BD 380X was really able to do a measurable amount of Direct Heat cooking. Without a Drip Tray used in the standard pellet grills, in theory the cast iron heat diffuser could become a direct cooking heat source. The issue was whether the "standoff" between the diffuser and the cooking grill was so large that it would not provide effective direct heat.
Answer: After the burn out at 950, I dropped the temperature control to 700. I wanted to see if it would catch itself and stay at 700. It did this perfectly.
At 700,
I went to the kitchen and brought back a split English muffin and a thick (3/8") slice of thanksgiving ham. I put the muffin halves and the ham directly onto the cooking grate (no butters, oils, etc). I basically closed the lid and gave it a couple of minutes.
When I opened the lid, the english muffin was browning nicely, the ham slice was starting to bubble a bit. Closed the lid and gave it about 3 minutes (more or less) and I was smelling charred bread.
The english muffins were charred black on the outer edges, the muffins were well browned and crunchy. At 700 degrees, there is enough direct heat to make very crunch toasted bread.
I flipped the ham and gave it a couple of more minutes. It came out with a good black char (way to dried for a planned recipe item) but crispy like bacon.
My observation is that at 700 dome temperature, the heat diffuser is putting out enough direct heat to char ham and toast bread.
More testing is needed.
Still looking for more real world observations from the community, but I am intrigued by my new BD 380X.
I am on my way to Costco to buy coffee and maybe a piece of beef to grill.
v/r r
