Ouch, I Stuck the Hamburgers on My GrillGrates Bad!

June 8, 2012

I am trying to better utilize the GrillGrate Blog and make this a place to find more detailed information, ask questions, and join discussions about using all things GrillGrate! In addition to Grate recipes and other news from time to time I want to share stories and I hope you will too.
The other night we had friends over we had not seen in a while and I was not as attentive to the grilling job, I didn’t want to miss the conversations. I pre-heated the grill and frankly don’t remember how long it was pre-heating but it was hot! My grill was pegged over 750 on my vent hood dial. I open the lid and turn down the gas and rejoined the conversation. The stuffed burgers were made before our guests arrived and I was not even on auto-pilot, there was no pilot!
I grabbed the burgers and went outside to the grill and did not use any grill spray or canola even though I had just thermally blasted the GrillGrates clean and dry like a self-cleaning oven. They needed a little slicking up. After depositing the first burger- I knew but just kept going! I was in denial or in a trance as I rejoined the conversation.
A few minutes later I grab my GrateTool and when I went to flip the burgers– they were like cement to the GrillGrate. No wiggle was going to loosen up this mess. The Tool did rescue me a little bit since the burgers did not disintegrate they just lost an ounce of flesh stuck to the rails. Reverse sear anyone? I was not laughing at myself then as I am now but I did manage to take a picture to tell on myself. Further to the point, this is not the first time I’ve stuck hamburgers on my GrillGrates. The last time was a video shoot- I knew it then as soon as I did it too. Brand new GrillGrates fresh out of the box- HOT with no seasoning what so ever, and no grill spray or canola by yours truly.
Morals and Lessons from the story:
  1. Don’t let the GrillGrates totally lull you to sleep! Pay a little attention.
  2. Use Weber Grill Spray, Pam or Canola oil the first couple of times you use GrillGrates so you won’t stick your first hamburgers
  3. If you burn off your seasoning, see #2!
  4. RTFM... Read the Freakin Manual. Something I and many men(especially) are guilty of not doing unless we hit a problem…
I watched this video and winced when I witnessed another unsuspecting soul stick his hamburgers good.  He falls under # 4 and we had a good chuckle about it. Thanks Mike! We decided to yellow highlight that one sentence in the user guide!  As Paul Harvey famously said. Now you know the rest of the story!