Grill Grates - Aluminum vs Steel.

Aluminum extrusion grill grates are awesome. But what if we tried making grates from steel, and why would we bother? Welp, aluminum is a great heat conductor. It heats up quickly but it releases heat quickly too. So maybe there's room for improvement?

When cooking ribeye steaks on aluminum extrusion, we need about 8" square per steak, plus another 8" square for the next turn or flip. Always working two zones like that per steak.

Cooking on iron, on the other hand, is entirely different. Iron takes time to heat up and it stays hot.

So crazy idea here - what if I welded up some 8" x 8" grates using 1 x 1 x 3/16 angle stock? Here they are after a good solid burn down and a cook using duck fat spray. The Grill Grate spatula fits like a glove on these too! I got only one cook on them so far, but me likey a lot!

Mike Twangzer said:

Very nice. They do make cast iron crates ... man grates .... however I think yours with the drip holes would function better...

Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah I pretty much tried to copy the hole pattern from the GG but I think my ruler was a little off that day - which is nothing new in my shop. I contemplated forgoing the labor intensive hole drilling in favor of a slight gap between pieces at weld time. But I wanted the GG spatula to fit.

BTW, I welded 1 x 3/16 x 8" bar stock to square the piece up, since these are angle pieces.