Here’s to hoping everyone had a safe 4th of July weekend with plenty of good cooking to go around. But now comes the BBQ hangover: that dirty grill. To help you along, we’ve created a Dirtiest Grill Contest. Just send us a pic of your dirty grill. If it’s the dirtiest we get, we’ll send you $250.
And to fuel the fire, here’s a polemic on grilling. If you grill with gas, you’ll agree. If you’re a charcoaler, you’ll have to change your mind after this.
Charcoal vs. Gas Grilling is supposed to be a coin flip debate, with equal membership and allegiance in both camps. Normally, I can see the validity of both sides in any argument—even if I am definitely on one side or the other—but after having used a gas grill for the last 11 years, I just can’t see what criteria the charcoal chumps are using to claim superiority.
Here’s how I see it.
1. Convenience. This is the easiest point to make and why 32,540 gas grills are sold in America and Puerto Rico each year (stat completely false, though somewhat believable). Turn on the grill and you’re really to roll in less than 15 minutes. You don’t have to babysit the coals, turn the grill a certain direction if the wind is blowing harder than two knots, wait an hour before you start grilling, or buy a bag of fuel every few meals.
2. Cleaning. Gas wins again. Yeah, the grates are going to be just as dirty, coals or gas, but charcoal has ash that has to be dealt with, and yep that two knot wind that blows out the coals will become 20 knots when you try to dump those ashes, just like the memorial scene from The Big Lebowski.
3. Even Heating. Gas 3, Charcoal 0This might even rank convenience, as far as the actual grilling goes. You can create hot and cool sides of the grill by adjusting the burners, which allows you to cook different foods at different rates or just to be able to cook something slow without letting the coals die. Big bonus to propane.
4. Taste. This is the flagship theory for those using charcoal, that charcoal tastes better and is more natural flavor. Maybe. A very shaky maybe at that. Sure, if we were going to smoke ribs or make a Sunday Jazz in the Park serving size of BBQ, I’d recommend some pecan wood or apple wood, but on the average family steak, chicken, fish, or burgers, I’d bet you all the gold in Kentucky that in a blind taste test most people couldn’t tell the difference. And those that could wouldn’t spit it out.
5. Fuel Cost. Now I’m guessing here from how much my old man used to use when he charcoaled + what I can remember using before I defected to gas. I want to say that I would use five to six bags of charcoal to every new tank of gas. Best case scenario, charcoal is a tie on cost – and that is being pretty generous.
6. Environmental. As much as I would like to state that mass-produced charcoal is no better for the environment that using a non-renewable resources, Kingsford and Match Lite aren’t giving up the secrets about their processes. From what I’ve read, they use some pretty nasty chemicals and petroleum to scale their product and have it light quickly, but I don’t want to make that argument. While charcoal companies aren’t doing the environment any favors, gas loses here, without question. I’m sorry Earth; I’m a slave to convenience and options.
But overall…gas is the champ. It doesn’t have a perfect record, but in most residential cases, gas wins again and again. You smell what I’m cooking.
If you differ or if I’m missing some key points here, let’s chop it up.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Charcoal rules. The only exception being a small number of hot dogs.
Gas = less flavor. Seriously, a burger from a gas grill is not much better than a McDonalds burger. Its really a question of laziness, and the lazy choose gas.
Yes, a gas grill is easier to use than a charcoal grill, but it is definitely not better. The easiest way to cook a steak is in the microwave, but it's not going to be good!
Convenience – get a chimney, or a weber with a gas starter bottle
Cleaning – get a one touch weber, no big deal
Even Heating- definitely not. i have a weber genesis and it has hot spots. a nice level lair of coals is a nice even layer of heat.
Taste- good lord, no comment
plus, it's fun to play with fire!
Where do I start?! Oh yeah…
You charcoal diehards are completely out of your minds. First of all, I would like to know how “charcoal rules”, since you left any critical details out. I have grilled for many, many years, and used to use charcoal, and still kept using charcoal even after several iterations of crappy gas grills came out. I have a lot of experience with charcoal grills, but when it became very obvious that the quality and performance of gas grills had reached a place where they greatly surpassed charcoal grills, I switched over. I admit that I was skeptical, but after now using gas for about half the same number of years I used charcoal, I definitely do not regret switching, and there is NO reason to ever switch back to charcoal! The coy mindset of “gas is good at this, but charcoal is better at that…” is just another worn out, utopian disposition used to avoid any legitimate comparisons between gas grills and charcoal grills. The reality is that quality gas grills are better than charcoal in every way, except for initial cost. However, over time the cost of using a charcoal grill becomes more expensive due to cost of lump coal vs. propane, especially if you use a grill as much as I do.
Even heating with gas? Absolutely! The only way that I can tell the difference (on my current gas grill) in each area is by miniscule differences with a digital infrared thermometer. I found the temperature differences were very slight, yet those differences never showed up in any of the food I have grilled. If you are experiencing noticeable uneven heating on a gas grill, then you either have a cheap grill, bought a grill that is defective and need to have it replaced, have not been taking good care of it, or just don't know how to operate it correctly. Sorry.
On a charcoal grill, I don't care how great you think you are at mastering fire, you are going to have uneven heat (and even dead spots sometimes!), and you don't need a thermometer to tell the difference most of the time. It doesn't matter how great you think you are at spreading around coals, because if you decide to use high quality lump coal in its natural form, pieces will have irregularities, and some will always burn at different rates than other pieces, no matter what you do. If you use the crappy mass-produced charcoal to get a more predictable and even flame rather than higher quality lump coal, then you are just going to be adding more chemicals to your food. Regardless of the type of coal you are using, you will be adding more carcinogens to the food, while the coal (and certainly lighter fluid if you use it!) will overpower and ruin the taste of your food!
As for the comment about burgers from a gas grill tasting like McDonalds, I can only say if that is true, then the cook didn't have a clue what they were doing! EVERYTHING I cook on my gas grill, whether it is burgers, steaks, halibut, salmon, slow-cooked rotisserie chicken, etc, has ALWAYS tasted better than what I have had at very NICE restaurants, and certainly could not be compared to something as unthinkable as McDonalds!
I always hear too that charcoal grills burn hotter, but charcoal diehards never do truthful comparisons with high quality gas grills. My gas grill can heat up to 1200 degrees, and this is at the grill SURFACE. (I don't go by the dome, except for it to tell me how things are going in general without me lifting the lid.) The grill surface is hardly ever talked about by charcoal folks because they are too busy tinkering and thinking about the coals. Yeah, most coals can get to 1200 degrees easily, but that is at the epicenter of the coal stack, which is meaningless for measuring high temp performance.
The grill surface on a charcoal grill will not even come close to getting as hot as the grill grates on a good gas grill! One of the reasons is simply because most (but not all) charcoal grill grates are too far away from the heat source, unless you really pile on the coals. Secondly, the grill grates on all consumer charcoal grills are too thin and spindly to get as hot as grates on a high quality gas grill, let alone retain heat as long! They also dissipate much quicker than high quality gas grills.
It is a matter of simple facts that charcoal diehards cannot get around. The mass of grates on most gas grills today are far superior than grates on charcoal grills, which allows them to heat up FASTER and reach very high temps that are critical for searing steaks. However, high quality gas grill grates do not stop there. They also retain heat LONGER than grates on charcoal grills, which is not only important for slow cooking, but critically important to achieve EVEN HEATING as well!
Finally, as for taste comparisons, gas wins again, hands down!! Why? To burst the bubble of charcoal fans, it is the fat and drippings that provide the smoke flavor, NOT the charcoal! Yes, I am afraid so. Those that say that they like charcoal for smoky flavor, are either lying or don't know what they are talking about. Charcoal does not produce smoky flavor. It produces a caustic ashtray flavor. Moreover, the taste of charcoal and / or lighter fluid does NOT belong in food. After having countless meals cooked on a gas grill, I understand the truth that charcoal ruins the taste, especially when dealing with delicate food items. But it gets much worse for charcoal grills: Because it is the fat and drippings from food that creates smoke, most gas grills will actually produce more natural smoke flavors, and win hands down again! Why? First of all, there is obviously no charcoal to overpower the food. Secondly, gas grills have flavorizor bars just below the grill surface, so when the juices hit, the vapors immediately kiss the food you are grilling and continuously add flavor and aroma to food. Charcoal grills do not have this benefit. In most scenarios where charcoal grills have grates close enough to the fire to achieve higher temps, fat drippings will cause intermittent scorching of food, which will add even more undesirable, caustic, and excessively charring of food, which increases risk for cancer. Don't misunderstand. You can sear the meanest steaks with authority on a high quality gas grill without causing excessive charring.
Another essential element to superior cooking results that most people overlook or seem to forget, is having more precise control. Great food cannot be created without precise and accurate control. Its as simple as that. Unless, it is an “accident”. In which case, results will always have more variances, while the best cooks deliver expected results, and do so with consistency. When it comes to precise control, there is no contest. High quality gas grills win over charcoal grills without the slightest battle. Moreover, precise control and accuracy enables the cook to fine tune their recipes, also allowing them to continually increase their cooking skills. Nevertheless, before one can do that, they must truly understand the behavior and performance of their specific gas grill, and this is even more important with gas grills than it is with charcoal grills. Even though you may be using the same physical grill, charcoal grills are still different every time you use them, because you will obviously never be using the same coals. You may ballpark it by using the same type and brand of coals, but even then, there will be variances of quality in each bag of coals, and each stack will still be unique, no matter how consistent you try to layout the coals. Even if a gas grill develops a bad burner, hot spots, bad spots, etc., you will KNOW where they are at, and they will be in the same place each time, so you will be able to adapt your cooking accordingly until you decide to repair it or get a new grill.
Once they have mastered their gas grill, they will be able to repeatedly outperform the best charcoal whiz, while producing better tasting meals with increased consistency, and do it all without the waste of time, unnecessary hassles, and ridiculous throwback rituals of eons past that charcoal diehards make excuses for, while charcoalers miserably fail to defend any reason for charcoaling today with any facts. If all you have is a charcoal grill and are not in the position to buy a high quality gas grill yet, then I am terribly sorry.
If you want a true WOOD smoke flavor, as for what one would normally expect in barbecue, then buy a SMOKER. Or, you can save the money, and just use a cheap drip pan filled with wood chips of your choice, and place underneath the grill grates on a gas grill to add authentic smokey flavor, without any of the nonsene, caustic chemicals, and ash that comes with a charcoal grill. YES… even with a gas grill, you can generate as much wood smoke flavor of your choice as you can on a charcoal grill. If charcoal diehards truly did sincere experiments with this on a good gas grill, it would not seem so unbelievable to them.
The days of the worn out charcoal grill arguments are not just over, they are simply not true anymore, as charcoal grills are no match for today's high quality and high performance gas grills! Charcoal diehards today simply get raked over the coals (pardon the pun) by those that use high quality gas grills. All the convenience factors of gas grills just add icing to the cake of what is already a sound beating! If you want good food, use a charcoal grill. If you want incredibly outstanding food, get a high quality gas grill, and stop eating as much caustic chemicals and carcinogens!
There are some high end charcoal grills out there that make it as easy to grill with charcoal as it is with gas. Check out German Grill. It's expensive, but a new approach to charcoal grilling.
Gas grills were invented by the gas companies to sell more gas. Check it out. Just like Bailey's was invented by the dairy industry to sell more cream. It's the American way.
As to the taste — If you use good charcoal, and you experiment with different sources of smoke (vines, wood chunks, herbs, even tea leaves), and you appreciate the age old art of cooking over a live fire, you can get exotic flavors that no gas grill could EVER produce. There's a restaurant in northern Spain that has taken charcoal to an extreme art form. extbiarra, or something like that. Lunch at this place will set you back a couple hundred Euros. No gas grills in this place!
It's a truly American thing to abandon an age old art, then justify it as being more convenient, all in the name of commerce.
“Gas grills were invented by the gas companies to sell more gas.”
That is like saying that charcoil grills were invented by coal companies. What is your point? NEITHER one are correct. Not a single mainstream gas grill made today is made by gas companies.
“As to the taste — If you use good charcoal, and you experiment with different sources of smoke (vines, wood chunks, herbs, even tea leaves), and you appreciate the age old art of cooking over a live fire, you can get exotic flavors that no gas grill could EVER produce.”
That is simply NOT true! Your unwarranted bias and misinformed position really show through. Just as I pointed out previously, ANY smoke flavor that can be produced on a charcoil grill can also be produced on a gas grill, and not only that, it can be done so much easier because with high end gas grills, you have so much more control over the heat. Name me one type of vine, wood, herbs, or tea leaves that I cannot use on a gas grill. If it can be used on a charcoal grill, it can be used even easier on a gas grill! You really need to have someone knowledgable with gas grills show you how produce any flavor smoke you want.
“There's a restaurant in northern Spain that has taken charcoal to an extreme art form. extbiarra, or something like that. Lunch at this place will set you back a couple hundred Euros. No gas grills in this place!”
Who cares if a restaurant in Spain uses charcoal grills? That really has no relevance. Fact is, the overwhelming majority of fine restaurants use gas grills, especially when it comes to cooking steaks. What does a restaurant is Spain have to do with comparing gas grills to charcoil grills?! Absolutely nothing,
“It's a truly American thing to abandon an age old art, then justify it as being more convenient, all in the name of commerce.”
No, it is not an “American thing”, “Spanish thing”, or anything even close. Switching from charcoal to gas goes WAY beyond just the advantage of being convenient. Even if charcoal were more convenient than gas, there would still be an overwhelming number of reasons to switch to gas grills, as I have previously pointed out!
No matter how good someone is on a charcoal grill, it simply comes down to superior cooking capabilities, and gas grills wins hands down. “In the name of commerce?” If you do you not think that charcoal is not part of commerce just the same as gas, then you are truly mistaken. Ironically, it is the expense of charcoal usage (if you use a grill about 3 or more times a week) that will cost MORE than buying a gas grill and propane refills.
You are desperate to come up with explanations as to why so many people have been switching to gas over the last decade, but without facts or even any sense of logical reasoning. Also, you never addressed any of the sustaining points I made previously about how and why gas grills are FAR BETTER than charcoil grills. The most important point made previously is that there is absolutely NO advantage that charcoal has over gas, with exception of initial cost. However, over time, the cost of charcoal (if you grill about 3 or more times a week like I do) will outpace the price of a gas grill and propane refills over time. You really need someone to educate you about gas grills today, because you are incredibly misinformed!!
“Dont forget that with infrared burners and smoker burners gas grills can mearly match the flavor of charcoal.”
“Merely match”?? Not true at all. First of all, charcoal adds a caustic ashtray flavor to food, as previously pointed out. Secondly, because charcoal grills do not have flavorizer bars, fat drippings will not properly add smoke flavor like they will on a good gas grill. Even under the best circumstances, when the fat drippings hit charcoal, food will often get singed by too much or too frequent flare ups. In instances when this does not occur, charcoal will still send up ash to the food when fat drippings are significant enough to offset what would otherwise be a flareup, even when charcoal is under the best possible control. These are some of the main reasons why the flavor obtainable on high end gas grills are far superior to any charcoal grill. Both infrared burners and gas burners provide far more precise cooking control than charcoal.
Even under the best possible charcoal control, there is still ZERO advantages to using charcoal over a high end gas grill. Moreover, for all the reasons previously pointed out, the cooking control and flavor of food obtainable on a gas grill is far superior to what can be obtained by the best charcoal diehards on a charcoal grill. There is no way around these facts.
“Gas = less flavor” lees lighter fluid and ash flavor for sure.
Please explain your position or shut your pie hole!