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List Price: $49.99
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I received this yesterday and tried it out on my Weber Kettle grill today. I preheated it as directed and placed some rib eye steaks on the Tuscan grill. Giving each a quarter turn after two minutes produced a very distinctive diamond-shaped pattern that makes your food look very professionally-grilled. At 14" square, you have a fair-sized grilling surface as well. It is heavy to be sure, but cast iron is one of the best grilling surfaces imaginable and the V-shaped grates will assure you that your food will not only taste great, but look really appetizing too!
NOTE: Make sure that you season this accessory before using it or you will probably get a very unpleasant metallic taste. I coated the entire surface, including the removable legs, with a light film of melted shortening. I placed two baking pans lined with foil into a 350 degree oven and stood the grill upright on the sheets. I baked it for an hour, shut off the oven and went to bed. In the morning, it was cool and completely seasoned. After using it, I let it cool down and soaked it in hot water in the sink. Then I scraped it down with a plastic brush and repeated the seasoning process. This really isn't necessary but I do it just to add a stronger finish.
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The size is perfect for camping. It's small enough to throw in the car and take with you, but big enough for grilling steaks for 4 people. The bars come to sharp peaks and make professional looking grill marks. It can also be used as a surface for cooking with pots and pans. Cast iron is the absolute best for grilling, so it's worth it to me to put in the extra effort caring for it. I suggest removing the feet for oiling so that the space between the feet and the grate stay in good shape.
About the feet: A couple of people complained that they fall off when cooking. First of all, I can almost guarantee you that they had a habit of screwing them on too tight and they stripped the threaded inserts. Just screw it on until you feel it starting to resist and then stop. That will prolong the life of the threading. What they failed to mention in their poor reviews is that the threaded inserts can be removed with a hex key and easily replaced with new threaded inserts. You can buy stainless steel threaded inserts at a good hardware store for less than $1 each. If your hardware store doesn't have them, then grainger.com has them, but you have to buy in packs of 100 for things like this for about $20 total.
For the price of this grill, it's not a bad design. I would have liked to see a more robust foot system, where you insert a rod into a slot and secure it with a pin. But, there's is nothing better than this grill available on the web (I looked a lot). Because it's cast iron and because you can replace the threaded inserts, with proper care this grill can live longer than you ever will. Everything else I've seen that is small enough to take camping is a piece of junk that won't get you the same cooking results because they are made of enameled iron or some other inferior metal that can't transfer heat properly and can't handle high heat when you want to sear meats. Plus, most other products won't last for more than 3 or 4 seasons at best.
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I have a flat bottom, terra cotta clay, fire pit. This tuscan grill sits in it very nicely. With some mesquite wood burnt down town embers, it make great flavor for steaks, burgers, about anything you can think off. And since it's cast iron, it can handle the heat. And with some protection from the elements, when not in use, this grill could last for ever.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars, instead of 5 is because the legs, are slightly uneven... very slighty. With that said, the grill still works great. On a camp fire, the legs wouldn't even be an issue. And even in my fire pit it works very nice.
Just being nit-picky.
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The legs screw off for easy storage, but I leave the legs on mine all the time. Keep in mind, this is not for delicate cuts of meat and the like. However, with it's simple design, it's open to one's own creativity. Stack some cement blocks/bricks around the grill... and wind issues won't be much of a problem....... And for me this is half the fun of this gizmo... seeing what all I can get out of this thing....... I guess it's the caveman, primal, lower-life form in all of us........It's fun and simple, and only limited to ones own bravery and talents on a open flame grill...... Heck.... throw a cast iron skillet on the top, and bada-bing.... a stove!!! Genious!!!
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What makes this grill so awesome is that if fits on a 32" dutch oven table with plenty of room for a dutch oven next to it.
I recently got back from a car camping trip, and it was awesome. it can be used as is, or you can place foil on top for a slower grill, or place a griddle on top for eggs and bacon and pancakes. Or you can wrap ribs in foil, place on this grill, and then wrap heavy duty foil over the entire dutch oven table to create a more oven like ambient heat environment. Great job Steve Raichlen. Awesome grill.
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Everywhere I go when grilling, wind is a problem. So, for this unit, if you have the same issues I do, make sure you get a windscreen. The duo green 11" windscreen is good and portable, but my new favorite is the 12" wind screen on my dutch oven table.
Assuming you have that piece taken care of, the Steven Raichlen Tuscan grill rocks. Seriously rocks.
It's awesome that it's cast iron, and instead of a rounded or flat grill bar design, this uses a triangular tube design, much like a Toblerone chocolate. That makes some beautiful grill marks on pork cutlets and steaks. Wish all grills were designed this way.
The grill size at 14" x 14" is fantastic because it's just portable enough for car camping, and large enough to put a decent amount of meat to feed 4 at a time. Really a perfect size for portability and usability.
The leg height is just right too. Since you never know if you'll be on a small campfire or a dutch oven table, the short legs means that small wood fires and briquette coals both work well. That is a huge plus.
A lot of reviews mention that the screw treads get damaged really easily, and I'm really happy to have read those reviews. tight screws aren't important for this grill, so just tighten them enough to keep the legs from wobbling to make sure the treads don't get damaged and that's good enough. Hope by being gentler with the treads, I won't have the same issues others have had. But one reviewer did note that the screws were removable and replaceable, so keep that in mind.
Used this three times already after spending two days "seasoning" the grill. I know there is a right way to season it, and read about how that's done, but my lazy method worked and I can't tell the difference from my other pre-seasoned cast iron equipment, plus the food tasted fine with no metallic after-taste, so my method seems good enough. In case anyone is interested, I just sprayed pam on it all over, brushed it in as best I could, put some coals underneath, and after it dried, sprayed again, brushed it down and put it back above the coals. Repeated this twice more and it looked fine to me. every time I use it, I spray it down again, and now it looks like a well seasoned cast iron grill. Don't shoot me....I'm just too lazy to use the oven.
I'd been looking at the TexSport cast iron grill for a long tim, and what held me back was the thinner wiring of the TexSport grill surface, so finding this Tuscan grill, which seems to be everywhere, really made my day.
If you like charcoal grilling, and want something portable, but still want cast iron, this is a pretty good way to go. Add a good dutch oven table and it's grill heaven.
Hope this helps and happy grilling!
