Cooks' Illustrated did a gas grill comparison and included a TEC which had infrared burners. It was a few years ago so maybe things have changed but they did not like the infrareds. Very hot, good for searing and flame ups since anything that drips from the food hits the burners. I saw some models just the other day that had a small searing infrared burner and regular burners for the main cooking box. That sounds like a good idea. Now if you were talking infrared rotisserie burner which is to the side and not below the food, well then I can attest that mine works well. I have done rotisserie chickens on my Weber Summit with it (it is the only burner on) or without (using main burners) and only slightly prefer the rotisserie method. It is a desired feature in my book but not a must. As for grates, both iron and SS will sear your food given your grill is nice and hot. Here is what Weber's FAQs have to say about it. From Weber.com: "Q. Which are better, stainless steel, porcelain-coated cast iron or porcelain enamel cooking grates? All have their merits, so it is mostly a matter of personal preference. All require little maintenance and give great sear marks. Porcelain-coated cast iron grates will hold the heat longer so you donÂt have to cook with higher temperatures. Stainless steel grates have a longer warranty, followed by porcelain-coated cast iron, then porcelain enameled. Replacements are readily available for all styles."

I bought a Napoleon up405 grill recently and was not impressed. I bought it sight unseen from arizona grills. It came in a sealed box that showed no signs of being previusly opened. The top had a minor gouge in the finish, I might not have noticed this except they circled it with a white marker and marked it "MD" . One of the so called solid surface side shelves had a big chunk broken out of it. The way everything was packaged this had to have happened before it was placed in the outer box. Solid surface does not mean solid surface like your kitchen counter. It means an 1/8" thick hollow piece of molded plastic. Kind of cheesy looking. The sear plates would not fit into the base without some serious force. I had to grind some notches to clear the ribs in the casting. The ignitor has a small blade type electrical connection, The wire from the grill end of the ignitor had a round connector. (Radio shack fixed that). The handle is held on with #10 carbon steel screws. The warming basket hangers were also #10 carbon steel as were some of the base mounting screws that projected into the firebox. I replaced all of these with 1/4" stainless. I would not expect any small carbon steel parts projecting into the firebox to last more than a year. The plumbing included a 3/8" copper tube with 6 right angle bends. Copper gas lines are not allowed in many areas, 3/8" line is kind of small for 45,000 btu and all the bends just make it worse. I used 3" length of SS tube and crossed over to 1/2" SS flex line. The frame that the firebox sits in is powder coated carbon steel. I have some doubts about how long that will last in the gulf coast climate. The cooking grates are stamped stainless steel. Some people may like them. They seem to have more contact area with the food and are harder to clean than round rods. The burners are heavy SS tube and work fine. The sear plates seem to cause more flareups than the ceramic bricks I used to have. The aluminum casings are flawless. hinge pins are SS shoulder bolts, very sturdy. I E-mailed Napoleon with this list of gripes but didn't get a reply. I expected better for the money. One of the problems with buying sight unseen over the internet.

I'm happy with my Weber Summit Silver bought about 6 years ago. This model has 4 burners arranged left-to-right, by the way. Performance is good - my only gripe is that the separate side burner to the right of the grill isn't very adjustable (though I rarely need it for anything). While I could probably get choosey and find a more perfect grill, I would first look at Weber's higher-end because I'm thrilled with Weber's customer support. While performing way-overdue maintenance, I called them to order some replacement parts for items that had understandably worn out or corroded over time... They sent me replacements at no charge. No questions about warranty periods or anything like that. I called them intending to purchase parts, but it seemed they volunteered to replace them on the assumption that Weber products are designed to last forever. So I'm a loyal customer of Weber's. We live not far from the pacific ocean, the grill is outside, uncovered and facing the sea, and we use it 2-3 times a week year-round. No complaints.

So I can never do anything simply. After reading a dozen variations of quick preserved lemon, and more about real preserved lemon, I ended up deciding I needed Meyer lemons. Which had me heading out of the way to Whole Foods. But then things really did get easy when I found a jar of preserved lemons. I just tried a bite and - yum - think this is going to become a favorite ingredient. Can’t wait for tonight’s dinner. Still undecided what I’m going to serve them with.