New BBQ - Gas or Charcaol - Discuss

[Rykard]

hi,

I am looking for a new BBQ - my question is gas or charcaol?

your thoughts please pros & cons

 

[HJ]

Charcoal has the potential to been more sustainable if you get it from a FSC certified source.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Charcoal, but use real lumpwood stuff not briquettes.
Better flavour and extra carcinogens...yummy, soulful cooking for real men

Gas BBQ's...poncy affectations for people with too much decking...

 

[Alcdrew]

The felxabilaty of gas is great.

The food cooked on charcoal has a better flavour.

Get both

 

[gavintc]

I have a gas one, it sits at the back door and we cook through the year because it is just so simple to set up and get going. So, yes, I think charcoal tastes better, but gas is much easier to use.

 

[TimO]

If you want ease if use, you could just use the cooker in your kitchen.

It's all about the flavour, the smoke, the impossibility of getting it lit easily.

 

[Nortones2]

I favour charcoal, if only because there were so many gas barbecues lined up outside the US colonial forces married quarters at Dunoon

 

[Keith Oates]

Barbecues are just an expensive way to ruin good meat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[trustysteed]

When I used to live in a colonial outpost, it was charcoal as I had a servant to clean it afterwards.

Now I use gas as I can't be bothered to clean a charcoal one myself!

 

[Cab]

Whats the point of a gas one? Just use the cooker. Charcoal all the way for barbecues.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

you can use a gas one to cook bacon on in any dry weather, thus avoiding making the whole house smell of bacon in the process.

 

[Fab Foodie]

When I used to live in a colonial outpost, it was charcoal as I had a servant to clean it afterwards.

Now I use gas as I can't be bothered to clean a charcoal one myself!

Clean charcoal BBQ's???

 

[andyoxon]

Charcoal, but use real lumpwood stuff not briquettes.
Better flavour and extra carcinogens...yummy, soulful cooking for real men

Gas BBQ's...poncy affectations for people with too much decking...

Yup - got to be charcoal...

IMHO - apart from the flavour issue...the biggest problem with gas BBQs is the lack of variable grill height...

Friends that have gas BBQs, always seem to have problems with getting the heat just right. In general gas BBQs seem have a fixed grill - because I assume it's designed so that you just turn the gas down...But - if the gas heated bricks are too hot there's nothing one can do except frantically move the meat as it chars to death...or spray water all over.

So often the end result on gas seems to be meat black on the outside and pink in the middle... (slight overstatement possible here )

In the end one of the big problems is simply that people get too distracted when cooking on the BBQ and forget to turn the meat and move it around as necessary... Highly skilled job y'know...

Andy 'Braaivleis' oxon

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yup - got to be charcoal...

So often the end result on gas seems to be meat black on the outside and pink in the middle... (slight overstatement possible here )

In the end one of the big problems is simply that people get too distracted when cooking on the BBQ and forget to turn the meat and move it around as necessary... Highly skilled job y'know...

Andy 'Braaivleis' oxon

Hi Andy

Reminds me of 2 things...
First was a quote overheard at a BBQ when a colleague was asked how he wanted his steak done "Enough to kill the pathogens but not to form carcinogens" was his erudite reply!

Secondly, when I lived in London, the flat downstairs was rented by the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital, a South African surgical Specialist was in residence for a while...it was November, dark, late at night and I could smell burning at the back of the house, looked out the bedroom window and there was the S. African attempting a Braai (apols for spelling), problem was he had house coal, not charcoal! I rescued him from his dilemma and we used the Kitchen to cook...when the coal eventually burned well we sat around our new fire and drank a bottle of Brandy together....Happy daze...

 

[Mr Celine]

What's the point of a gas barbecue? Why not just use the cooker and an extractor fan.

I like to cook outside with a chimnea fuelled by wood from the trees in my garden. Timing is more critical than with a barbie, but you can cook thicker cuts of meat and the wood gives a different flavour to the meat.