How to Get the Most out of Your Inexpensive Cooking Grills

Cooking Grills and the Taste of the Great Outdoors

The taste of grilled food is the quintessential taste of summer. Cooking grills not only give your food that great BBQ flavour. They are fun to use. In fact, of all cooking equipment, they have the reputation for fun. No wonder barbeque cooking grills are the cooking pots that men feel they have to take charge of.

Which Cooking Grills best suit your style - and your budget?

The range of cooking grills on the market is truly astonishing. Remember, this is the only area of cooking that is traditionally the preserve of men. And men like their gadgets. They compete. And they demand value for money. So many BBQ cooking grills are inexpensive for what you pay for.

The most basic - and usually the cheapest - type of cooking grill has a small. circular pan mounted on three legs - good for stability - and uses charcoal briquettes to cook the food. These are classic BBQ cooking grills. And even premium brands such as Weber make this kind of barbeque cooking grill. They are easy to use and maintain, as long as you don't mind getting a handling charcoal. Buy one with a lid and you can even use it as an oven.

A couple of tips for using basic BBQ cooking grills

- It's really worth making sure that all the cooking grills you ever buy have a lid. Why? Try throwing a handful of fresh herbs cut from your own garden on top of your steak five minutes before you're ready to serve, and close the lid. your steak will absorb the subtle flavours and aroma of the herbs. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. That's why. And you can do this to anything you put on your cooking grills. Even vegetables.

- Treat yourself to a charcoal firestarter. Cheap to buy, these are a simple aluminiium cylinder with a circular grill halfway up the inside. You put your charcoal on the grill and stuff balls of newspaper underneath it. Stand it on your unlit BBQ's cooking grill and light the newspaper. The charcoal will be hot enough to cook with in ten to fifteen minutes. No need for paraffin. Easy to start. Guaranteed.

Why it's worth maintaining your BBQ cooking grills

The actual cooking grills themselves are usually stainless steel. These are easy enough to clean with a wire brush after use. But it's always a good idea to brush your BBQ food with oil before you put it on the grill. It makes cleaning it much easier when you're done eating.

You can get hold of cooking grills of porcelain-coated steel. These are usually for cooking inside as they are liable to chip under more robust outdoor use. They are much easier to clean though, so they are worth investing provided you don't mind treating them with kid gloves.

The old cast iron cooking grills have fallen out of fashion these days. Not surprising. They're extremely heavy. You need pretty sturdy cooking grills to support them. And of course they don't come cheap. Their biggest disadvantage, though, is that they rust. Perhaps that's being a little unfair as all cooking grills rust if they're left outside where it's damp. That's why it's important to store your BBQ cooking grill somewhere dry and undercover outside BBQ season. Do that, and you'll enjoy barbeques year after year with the same BBQ cooking grill - even if it didn't cost you much in the first place.