Cooking For Engineers

[Biogeek]

This is really stupid, but I just got interested into cooking fairly recently. I've been using the same kitchen for a few years already, but I finally decided to start maximizing the tools of the kitchen, including a mid 80s Jenn-Air gas grill alongside two regular burners. But, when I turned the grill on, there was smoke coming out of it after I turned it off and a burnt smell lingered in the air.

1) Is that normal?

2) Is there something that's supposed to be underneath the grate to catch any oil or fat that might drip down? If you're putting food on the grill, some fat or oil is going to drip down and it just seems, from a design point of view, that there should be something to catch that.

[SirSpice]

I would assume there would be something to catch the grease, and if there was I would probably line that thing with heavy duty aluminum foil so I wouldn't have to scrape burnt grease.

[GaryProtein]

There IS supposed to be a humongously powerful exhaust fan in the hood when you have a gas grill with your stove.

[Biogeek]

Yes, there's a powerful fan, that's built into the system.

You know, I really don't understand the purpose or function of this indoor grill vs. using that space for more burners. All the grill is doing is using gas to heat up the grill, which you use aforementioned hot grill to heat up any food you place on said grill. But, how is that really any different from using a regular burner that everybody has in their kitchens? In both cases, you're using gas to heat up something which then heats up the food. At least, with grill where you're using charcoal, you're getting those flavors from that.

[GaryProtein]

Grilling doesn't require charcoal, and you wouldn't want to use it indoors anyway, because when charcoal burns you get your regular combustion products of CO2 and water, but you also get CO, and I don't think I would want to trust an exhaust fan with my life or have to worry about the fire department being called by my automatic CO alarm. When propane burns, there is almost zero CO as a combustion product. Natural gas probably also has close to zero CO.

Do you have a real gas grill in your kitchen? If you do, there should be lava rocks or ceramic coals just like in an outdoor grill. You use it just like a real outdoor gas grill and do real grilling on it. Its nice for when it is raining, snowing or during bad weather outdoors. If you have a large stovetop (36-48 inches wide--the equivalent of six to eight 12" x 12" gas burners) they are really nice to have, and you will still have ample stove burner space.

[Guest]

i think having a CO monitor call the fire department is too little, too late.

Rig it so it starts ventilating. And wakes you up.

That's all the FD is gonna do, anyway.