Char broiler fail

[Oak Smoke]

I’ve been looking at char broilers for a while now and am as close to paralysis by analysis as I’ve ever been. What I have learned seems to be that for the true char broiler flavor I want the drippings need to fall on either lava rock or ceramic briquettes. There are several opinions as to which creates the best flavor. I thought I’d do a bit of experimenting and get some answers. I put about a foot long area of lump charcoal in my PK360 then placed the grill above that with lava rock on it. I then used my elevated grill rack for the 360 as a grilling rack above the lava. It was truly a thing of beauty, no way it couldn’t work. I fired up the lump and when it was to the point that it was super hot I set the lava on above. Did you know if you super heat some lava rocks they explode, neither did I. I’m not talking about little pop, I mean blowing pieces of hot rock everywhere. I shut the lid and after a while the explosion’s died down to a point I thought I’d put the grill on and let it heat for a while with the lid closed. When the temp gauge reached 450 F I opened the lid and put a ribeye on the grill. It didn’t even sizzle. Turns out lava rock is an incredible insulator and with fresh air the fire was reinvigorated and the lava started exploding again. I quickly raked the lava away from the coals and just threw my steak on above the coals to sear it. Today I started looking at char broilers again. I’m pretty sure I’m in the ceramic briquette camp now.

[Purc]

I thought I felt the earth move.......

[LA Pork Butt]

Stay safe! That sounded like a dangerous experiment.

[Oak Smoke]

I was in my safety glasses by the time the second one exploded. Some times the quest for knowledge is challenging but someone has to do it!

[jfmorris]

Are you talking about the lava rocks you buy for the old style grills that used it? Or just randomly sourced lava rock aka basalt? I imagine the stuff for grills has the moisture baked out of it...

I imagine in either case, the rocks need to heat up gradually - not get dumped just above some 1000F+ fully engaged charcoal...

[Oak Smoke]

I think you’re right about the lava needing a good drying. I was on a pretty steep learning curve there for a few minutes. I just bought a bag of lava rocks like they use for landscaping. They looked just like the old ones that used to be in grills. Who knew?

[Jerod Broussard]

I need flat GrillGrates, that's it.