I was roaming through my neighborhood big box mart grabbing a few items and there it was. This orange-ish yellow box. It intrigued me so I picked it up. My mom was shopping with me that day so we kind of discussed it back and forth. The Bic FlameDisk. From the picture it looks kinda like a JiffyPop Popcorn disk, only on fire.
It comes one to a box, and it's about 5 bucks. It boasts "Convenient and Portable Outdoor Grilling" and "The Charcoal Alternative for your grill". I do a lot of camping and thought you know, if this does work, it might be good to carry along with me since it's light weight and I could toss this in a back pack. Let's see you do that easily with a bag of charcoal!
So we bought it and I was rather anxious to give this thing a try. Unfortunately with the rain and crazy weather we've been having it took me a couple weeks before I got the chance to try it out. But I read the box front and back to learn more about this interesting product. Certain catchy things jumped out and caught my eye like "faster, cleaner and more convenient than charcoal" and "Picnics, camping, backyard, BOATING and tailgating"...yeah, because I want an open fire on my boat in the middle of the lake...
So finally, the night came. Tonight was the night! I'm ready to grill some burgers! On the back are pretty easy instructions. Peel the film off, light any outer hole, grill, and dispose when cool. Even has cute little pictures to go with it. Again, on the back of the box it boasts "Fast and convenient". "Ample Grill time and cools quickly". It claims 35-45 minutes of grilling time. You'd figure with as many times as it shows fast, convenient, blah blah blah, you're hooked that this thing is going to rock your socks off.
Well, here's the result.
I take it out of the little box and start to pull the film off the top. Took a few minutes. That sucker is held on firm! The box says that the FlameDisk uses Ethanol as it's main fuel ingredient. Pretty cool! Clean, renewable, good stuff. I'm cookin' with whiskey baby!! Not really, but hey it sounded good!
So I finally get the film off and put it in my grill. I took a pack of matches and lit one, and got maybe 2-3 inches from this thing and WOOOF! Not a massive flame but quite the quick flame which resulted in a considerable amount of hair loss on my right fingers and that burned hair smell that we grillers love so much when grilling on an open flame! Okay, not really love, but I'm sure most of you are familiar with that smell...NOT what I want to enjoy while cooking my burgers!
I gave it a minute or two to light, which it light evenly and quickly, I will definitely say that! Fair amount of heat coming off this 10 inch disk... so then I put the grill on the cooker and gave it a quick scrape as it warmed up. This took no more than a couple minutes before I was putting the patties on. 6 nicely shaped heavenly pieces of 100% Grade A Angus Beef...oh yeah...
I made 2 rows of 3 as close to the center of the grill and centered over the FlameDisk. Now, typically for a nice thick burger you put your patties on the grill for 5 minutes, flip it, cook for 5 minutes, and you're done. You adjust your time accordingly for the well doneness that you desire. I like a good medium well to well burger. So I close the lid and set the timer to 5 minutes.
Almost 6 minutes later I come out, raise the lid and...hmm...this isn't looking good. The meat isn't so warm on the top...let's flip it and see what it looks like. So I flip the patties...and they're barely browning on the inside of the middle patties. The outside patties still look just about raw.
So, I flip all the patties and decide to give it a bit more than 5 minutes. I come back around 9 minutes later...the flamedisk is sputtering in spots...kind of reminds me of the random flame sputtering from the fireswamps in "The Princess Bride"...and my patties are cool enough I can place my hand on them without being burned...and guess what...still not cooked. BARELY that nice line where the grill sears the meat...I'm not happy. From the 35-45 minutes of "steady flame", I barely got a good 10-15 minutes. So I take my patties off the grill and finish them in a frying pan on my stove. Hmm...stove cooking. How mundane...
Fortunately with a bit of seasoning and a quick heating stove I salvaged my patties...as I was cooking on the stove I kept glancing out the window noticing the still constant sputtering flame from the flamedisk...
So I've tried the Bic FlameDisk, and I must say, I'm not impressed. For my money, and my tastebuds, I like a nice wood fire, or a charcoal fire, or a mix of both. Gives that nice smoky flavor. But this thing...heh, maybe for use as a fire starter on a campout. Other than that, I have to say, don't waste your time or money. Sorry Bic....big disappointment for you guys here. Maybe just stick to lighters instead of full on fires next time.
Till next time,
Thank you drive through.
