Gas or Charcoal?

[MrMon]

[ QUOTE ]
This poll is way too close.

Shame on you that chose gas!! [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

We Americans (not me) also like Velveeta, for some damn reason.

Like most things in food, the easiest way usually produces inferior results. If you learn to do things in the correct order, charcoal is no more difficult. Simply start the charcoal first, then go do your prep. By the time prep is done, the fire should be ready to go.

Whoever said 3-4 BBQs per bag of charcoal is using way too much charcoal unless you're cooking a ton of food. Also, with the Weber, just shut off the vents after you're done and you save a ton of charcoal for next time. Mix in with the old with the new and you're good to go.

I have a Weber that is similar to the one pictured above, but without the gas side burner and it's great. The best thing is the ash disposer, all the ash falls through a grill at the bottom and is swept out. You just take the container off every now and then and dump it.

[Mother Mucker]

We use wood that we gather from the woods behind our house. Also, we save the charcoal pieces of past BBQ's that we had to help with the new fire.

Our process is like this:
1. Put some newspaper into bottom of grill (bunch up the newspaper)
2. Put small pieces of wood onto of the newspaper. We prefer oak wood.
3. Light up the newspaper.
4. Once the fire gets going a little, add bigger pieces of wood into the fire.
5. Once these bigger pieces get going and the fire gets nice and hot, throw the old oak wood charcoal into the fire. At first, this will look like it put out the fire but it didn't. Allow the fire to come back up.
6. Put your clean grill on top of the pit and let it heat up for a minute and then go ahead and cook. I usually keep a bottle of water around just in case the flames get too high. You don't really want the flames touching the food.

[ScottieK]

Heh......I went through the exact same thing with my dad. I suggested buying the Charbroil, but he said it was way too small...so we went half & half on a Brinkman smoker that looks just like the one in your picture. We put it together yesterday. It will grill and smoke, and I'm very excited to get that thing going.

Only complaint I have is the temperature gauge looks fairly useless. There are only three areas on the gauge....Warm - Just Right - Hot. I'm sure that if I'm grilling, it will register "Hot" but who knows how hot that really is? If I want to smoke a brisket at 275, the gauge may say "just right" even if I'm at 350 or hotter. Hopefully it will be more help than I think it will, but we'll see. Planning to buy a meat thermometer with actual degrees on it anyways.

Voted charcoal. I use a coal chimney to light the charcoal, but sometimes it goes out if I use too much paper. Other than that, I don't mind waiting for it. I do wish sometimes that I had a gas grill, but not often enough to go get one.

ScottieK

[WayAbvPar]

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.biggreenegg.com/

Best grill out there.

[/ QUOTE ]

For real. One of the best steaks I have ever had in my life came off of one of these. It can get hot enough to get a good sear on the outside while keeping things nice and pink on the inside.

God, I need a steak now.

[guids]

Get one of these

you need a thermometer to get the temp of the smoker, temp control is one of the most important thing when smoking. Get one of these, and just swap it out for the one you have, its just a simple thread and nut.

[tagtastic]

I'm gonna go against the grain here. Obviously charcoal is better for taste if you know what you're doing.

However, convenience is the main reason I just purchased one of these:



I grew up with mostly gas, my father uses his constantly and we had a lot of really good meals off of it. The selling point for me over charcoal was that I turn it on and 5 minutes later it's ready to cook anything. The heat control is far easier, I can pinpoint temperatures fairly easily and create hot & cold zones for direct or indirect heat on the fly with the turn of a knob. I get a ton of cooking area, easier clean-up, plus a bunch of other cool features like a smoke box, side burner and rotisserie burner + motorized spit.

So yeah, charcoal is great for the absolute best in taste, but I think I'd be really sick of the hassle by the end of summer grilling 2-3x per week.

BTW - got two huge prime filets on deck for tonight, starting the baked potatoes right after I click submit [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[RunDownHouse]

tagtastic,

Couple questions:

How much was that? Have you ever used a charcoal chimney? Does your hectic life often coincide with times you want to grill?

I'm sure part of my perspective on this comes from my lifestyle: grilling out is a relaxing, leisurely activity, and I don't really have anything to do anyways. Its never a problem for me to set aside time to get a chimney going, because I already made the marinade hours ago and am pretty much sitting around waiting to cook meat anyways.

Also, I don't really understand the "heat control" argument with grills like this. Its not like you're doing any slow cooking or smoking in it; how precise do you need to be? If you can't get temps you're happy with for grilling steak and veggies, you're probably better off buying a $60 charcoal grill and practicing a bit than you are buying a gas grill just because you can see how big the blue flame is.

EDIT: Just saw you said it has a smoke box. That seems really strange. You just set whatever wood chips you're smoking with on the burners and let it go? It seems a bit like defeating the purpose to have a smoker on a propane grill, but I'm pretty sure I've never tasted any meat that came off such a thing, so I guess I'm uninformed.

[ICallHimGamblor]

Nice smoker.

My answer: Charcoal by a mile, and I don't see how it is in any way inconvenient. Light the charcoal chimney, come back in ten minutes, throw the coals in the grill, and some soaked wood chips and you are golden.

Getting your meals to not taste like propane shouldn't really be a convenience issue anyway.

[tagtastic]

[ QUOTE ]
tagtastic,

Couple questions:

How much was that? Have you ever used a charcoal chimney? Does your hectic life often coincide with times you want to grill?

I'm sure part of my perspective on this comes from my lifestyle: grilling out is a relaxing, leisurely activity, and I don't really have anything to do anyways. Its never a problem for me to set aside time to get a chimney going, because I already made the marinade hours ago and am pretty much sitting around waiting to cook meat anyways.

Also, I don't really understand the "heat control" argument with grills like this. Its not like you're doing any slow cooking or smoking in it; how precise do you need to be? If you can't get temps you're happy with for grilling steak and veggies, you're probably better off buying a $60 charcoal grill and practicing a bit than you are buying a gas grill just because you can see how big the blue flame is.

EDIT: Just saw you said it has a smoke box. That seems really strange. You just set whatever wood chips you're smoking with on the burners and let it go? It seems a bit like defeating the purpose to have a smoker on a propane grill, but I'm pretty sure I've never tasted any meat that came off such a thing, so I guess I'm uninformed.

[/ QUOTE ]

- It was expensive, but I can afford it. It's almost pretty much all steel, very well built and should last a very long time since I'm keeping it in my 3rd garage instead of out in the elements.

- I have very little experience w/ charcoal anything, I grew up on gas.

- My life is far from hectic, but often times I wanna eat fast and quick. For example, today, I was out doing some yard work, my fiancee calls on her way home from work saying she's hungry. I start the baked potatoes, jump in the shower, by the time I'm ready to go there's 35 minutes left on the potatoes, so I fire up the grill and the steaks are done almost perfectly with time to spare.

They came out very well, especially since they're the first steaks I've cooked on this grill. Slightly underdone (a little on the rare side of medium-rare), but obv that's far better that than overdone. A little coarse kosher salt, some fresh cracked pepper, a pinch of garlic for seasoning, then I seared them on high. Finished them on a cold spot using indirect heat, probably coulda used another 2 minutes there to be perfect.

The smoke box is a box level with the grates that's for wood chips. There's a small burner underneath it. I haven't used it yet (the grill is only a week old), but I plan to soon.

I'm young and fairly new to grilling, just saying I'm quite happy w/ my new grill - food tastes great so far and it's been extremely convenient/fast/easy. I plan on using the grill often for a lot of "normal" type meals, not just leisurely weekend grilling.

[kemystery]

[ QUOTE ]
Red Oak > wood > charcoal > gas > oven > raw meat > no meat at all

[/ QUOTE ]