![]() ![]() If I’m cooking for one or two, I’m almost always going for a Quick Briq (which will maintain a temperature range of 450°-600° for 30-45 mins). Start by assessing your menu and deciding which Briq to use. I find that using my Spark is stupidly easy 99% of the time. With its sleek kettle (choose from black, navy, or gray) and lightweight steel base, Spark is definitely mid-century-modern-inspired millennial bait. Spark also solves a secondary problem, which is that grills are ugly. The increased level of control is thanks to a pair of internal convection fans, strategically placed thermometers, and a heat spreader (an adjustable piece of metal that goes above the flame and below the grate to direct the heat evenly). From there, the grill lights with an electric ceramic igniter and cooks like a gas grill, but with even more precision. How does Spark do it, you ask? The grill kettle (where the food cooks) has a built-in drawer designed to fit Spark’s custom, rectangular, hardwood charcoal Briqs, which come in five varieties-Quick, Everyday, High-Heat, Baking & Roasting, and Low & Slow. Spark solves an age-old grilling problem: charcoal produces great-tasting, nicely charred food but is annoying to deal with, while propane gets the job done faster but doesn’t impart the smoky flavor that true Grill Heads crave. Massive amount of packaging required to ship.Need to plan your menu in advance to know which Briq to use, otherwise you risk running out of heat or wasting some of a Briq.Igniter needs to be cleaned fairly often.Depending on where you live, this could be more expensive than gas or charcoal. Briqs cost around $4 - $8 each and need to be ordered from Spark.At $1,099 for the basic grill package, this is not a cheap grill.But mostly I just like that this thing cooks my food well more or less every time, with very little guesswork or room for human error, while I drink a spritz and chill outside. It's gas but with the taste of charcoal it's charcoal but with the ease of gas. Now I live in a place with a back patio, and since getting a Spark grill last summer, I’ve realized just how much I’ve come to rely on it-and even enjoy cooking on it. ![]() At friends’ houses and Airbnbs, gas canisters seemed to always run out as soon as the food hit the grill-with no backup in sight. If you had asked me to describe “the flavor of charcoal” I would say “burnt,” and I could not tell you what was so convenient about gas. ![]() Which is all to say, I was not out here looking for a Spark grill, a Bluetooth-enabled “smart grill” that promises the flavor of charcoal with the convenience of gas. #Spark grill briqs series#Meanwhile I moved from a college dorm room to a series of airless NYC apartments, where the closest I got to grilling was roasting my ass on some fire escape grates. I was in college by the time my parents bought a little Weber, which sat in the garage and got wheeled out for the occasional burger night. I grew up in the suburbs with a backyard-but no grill in sight. My aforementioned neighbor, however, said that the app lost connection when he went inside his half of the double shotgun home.Before I became a Spark Grill person, I was not a Grill Person at all. Since my phone was tracking the heat, I went inside to make myself a well-deserved drink, and after a few sips in, my app told me the preheating was complete. ![]() Lo and behold, the flames grew and the temperature reading on my app started climbing. Thankfully, all I had to do was plug in the power cord, drop a briquette into the drawer, and turn the dial. This is where I started to imagine many fiery worst-case scenarios-running through the neighborhood with flaming hair comes to mind, but I digress. Though my neighbor noted the packs of Briqs are pricey compared to the cost of a regular bag of charcoal, you only need one briquette for each cooking session-just open the bag and drop the singular pressed piece right into a tray underneath.Īfter seasoning the cast-iron grates with a high-heat oil (I used grapeseed), it was time to light her up. Instead of messy bags of coal, the grill comes with a variety of patented “Briqs” that allow it to function as an everyday barbecue, a low and slow smoker, and an oven, which can make Neapolitan-style pies with the pizza pack. And the charcoal experience I was dreading is nothing to worry about. (I don’t remember my family’s grill ever doing that). It comes with two temperature probes and connects to an app via Bluetooth, so you know exactly what temp the grill and food are at all times. All of the Spark’s techy aspects is where it gets complicated. ![]()
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