"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
"Muddle" wrote in message
et...

wrote in message
oups.com...

I'm having the damnedest luck researching this, and I don't know why.
Maybe it's just not made??

I want to grill my own steaks. At home. On a table. That's all!

But electric doesn't seem to really do the job, on account of the low
temperatures. So gas seems the way to go. But, heck, where are these
things?? Doesn't anyone make a simple gas grill that sits on the table
or counter top and can be used indoors? Okay, so I need ventilation:
I'll leave the window open and have a fan blowing.

I tried looking and looking but no one seems to make such a thing! I
just need to directly cook over flames in an apartment, and I can't buy
some huge fancy restaurant-grade contraption.

Now, in the meantime, I came across something called infrared grilling!
Sounds interesting, but they are at least a grand and a half for the
low-end models, and I need them smaller, anyway.

So does anyone have any recommendations? Or am I forced to use a
portable tabletop CHARCOAL grill indoors?? (That means I'll have to
buy an industrial-strength fan, too, in all likelihood!)

I can't believe it's so hard to get a fire started in 2006 A.D. =)

Thanks in advance for any advice! I want to cook meat directly over
flames, but indoors, in an apartment, no less! I don't know why, but
all the grilling stuff I can google are either outdoors or electric or
over fireplaces!!

As Alton Brown on one of his shows once said: "A broiler is nothing more
than an upside down grill."
The only thing you won't get is a crosshatch pattern on the meat. If
you'd
like a crosshatch pattern burnt into your steak, go purchase a hunk of
steel
diamond grate and heat it in the broiler as the broiler heats up. A
steel
diamond grate has a pattern similar to a chain link fence. Why grill
manufacturers don't use a diamond pattern for their grill grates is
beyond
me. Everybody wants that diamond pattern on grilled meat, then they
have
to
turn the steaks and cook them to long on each side to get it.
Place your meat on the broiler pan and place the hot diamond grate on
top.
When you flip the meat, flip the grate. The result is a steak that
appears
to have been grilled outdoors.


I've got one of these, which works nicely for the diamond pattern:
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/prod...1&SKU=13844518

I only used it that way once because of the spattered grease, but it DOES
work, and it's a nice solid product. The other side's flat, for pancakes.
And, it's perfect for defrosting frozen food. Remember the TV ads for the
"miracle aluminum thing that defrosts food in no time at all"? That was
just
a useless hunk of aluminum. This is a hunk with more than one purpose.


A diamond pattern steel grate does not look like that, it looks like this.
http://click-onsource.com/metals/images/grate2.gif
To get a diamond pattern on meat with the product you posted, you'd have to
turn the meat after 5 min. by 45 degrees and cook it 5 more min. If I want
to cook a steak 5 min. on each side I can't get this device to put a
caramelized diamond pattern on it. You'd get that device at Bed Bath and
Beyond, the one I'm talking about comes from the nearest Welder and he uses
the welder to cut steak sized hunks off of a huge piece of diamond grate.
In essence this grate is being used as a branding iron, to brand the steaks
with a traditional grill diamond pattern while it's in the broiler, not on
top of a burner.