I was choosing between gas and charcoal. Every year, scores of articles on the same topic are published. Gas is quite convenient! Charcoal imparts smoke flavor! Gas grills are more costly! Charcoal cooks slowly! I used to tune everything out. I only had enough space and money for one grill, a charcoal-fueled Weber kettle. The decision had already been made for me, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I understand the charcoal snobs’ point of view. I do. I used to be one of them. I was one of those people who swore that I’d never buy a gas grill. What if I started cooking on gas, I might as well be cooking inside. The price difference between a gas grill and a charcoal grill made it a no-brainer.
It must have been my destiny to finally succumb to the evil side, for I have surrendered and succumbed hard. With a new yard and a little more room now that I’ve relocated to the suburbs, I did the unthinkable and purchased a gas grill.
At first, I assumed it was just the excitement of breaking into a new toy. However, it is no longer in the honeymoon phase and has entered the regular use stage. I still use my gas grill more than twice as much as my charcoal grill. It’s especially beneficial on weeknights when I want dinner quickly and easily.
A lot of what has been published about the subject is correct. There will be no profound myth-busting today, just good, solid, evidence-based support.
Let’s Get Down to Business
A basic Weber kettle grill costs around $139, but we prefer this improved model, which costs around $200. You can purchase one with all the bells and whistles, including an ignition system, for $579. You may spend more money if you want something larger or more fashionable, but even the cheapest version lasts for years.
Best Charcoal Grill for Every Budget and Grilling Style
A gas grill has more parts and will be more expensive. Sure, you can acquire the $99 sale models displayed in the parking lot in front of the big-box retailers. Still, you’ll only get a grill that lasts a few seasons before rusting and collapsing. Examine the grills on the exhibit and note how many are bent, buckled, dented, or dinged. It’s a safe guess that it’s more than 50%. A quality grill that will endure for many years will cost you a few hundred dollars and up to thousands for the best model. Based on our testing, we recommend gas barbecues from Weber, Monument, and others. The Weber Spirit E-310, our favorite grill, costs $569 at publication.
It’s natural to believe that a live, solid fuel source, such as hardwood or lump charcoal, would produce more smoke and hence a more “grill-flavored” finished product. However, side-by-side testing demonstrates that this is only sometimes the case.
Natural or Propane Gas
Natural gas, or propane, burns relatively cleanly. Their combustion produces water vapor and carbon dioxide as byproducts. Charcoal, on the other hand, emits a slew of different molecules, some of which can land on and flavor your food. Simultaneously, a rival flavor source is the vaporized drippings from your food. The tiny sizzles, pops, and flare-ups occur as your burger drips its juices, primarily fat, water, and proteins, onto the hot grill burner bars or coals. As the proteins and lipids burn, they produce new aromatic chemicals, which are deposited back onto the meat as it cooks. This occurs regardless of whether your heat source is charcoal or gas.
So, the question is whether the flavor that the charcoal itself produces is strong enough to be noticeable through the chemicals created by sizzling drippings.
The answer is no for short-cooking, high-heat items like steaks, burgers, pork chops, seafood, or vegetables. If the heat output and cooking time are the same, you won’t be able to tell the difference between a burger grilled on gas and one cooked on charcoal.
Foods cooked over charcoal have a notably smokier flavor than those cooked over indirect heat, such as ribs, brisket, and other varieties of barbecue. This makes sense: With indirect cooking, there is very little dripping vaporization, so any smoky taste comes from the charcoal itself, which is progressively coated on the meat throughout the extended cooking duration.
But that is not the entire story. For quick-cooking foods, we must consider the heat output of charcoal versus gas is one hotter than the other?; for low-and-slow foods, we must consider temperature control and our capacity to add smoke separately. Let’s go over those questions one by one.
Smoking
The mechanics of smoking are as follows: As wood smolders, it releases water-soluble chemicals into the atmosphere via the water vapor produced during combustion. As the smoke-filled mist approaches the meat, it condenses on the relatively chilly surface, generating teeny-tiny droplets of water still brimming with delicious chemicals. That water will evaporate again over time, leaving behind a smokey flavor and a dark, brownish residue.
To smoke on a charcoal grill, toss bits of wood directly into the fire. With a gas grill, wrap the wood in foil and place it close to the flames beneath the burners. I cheat by placing the bare wood straight on the fuel bar deflectors, which breaks my guarantee.
To truly allow smoke to work its magic, keep your meat and smoke source in a chamber that is open enough to enable the combustion of the wood, which requires an oxygen source, but closed enough that the smoke is kept with the meal long enough to condense. This is one of the primary distinctions between charcoal and gas barbecues.
Like your regular Weber kettle, most charcoal grills have a relatively tight seal. Close the bottom and top vents, then close the lid to create an environment that, while not wholly hermetic, considerably restricts air circulation or smoke in and out. Close those vents all the way, and you’ll eventually deprive the coals of oxygen, causing them to burn out.
A gas grill, on the other hand, does not seal effectively. This is by design and serves as a precautionary measure. The burners of a gas grill will spit out gas whether they are burning the fuel or not, so what would happen if you entirely sealed a gas grill? The oxygen within would eventually run out, and the flames would go out. Still, the gas would keep circulating, filling the grill with highly combustible fuel. Then all it would take is a tiny spark, and BOOM.
As a result, even with long-cooking dishes and a slew of wood chips, getting smoke flavor into your meat on a gas barbecue is challenging.
Extreme Temperatures
Now we’re getting to the good stuff: maximum and minimum temperatures. At both ends of the spectrum, coal outperforms gas. It’s easy to fall into the trap of evaluating heat by the temperature of a specific section of your grill. Still, the temperature isn’t the most significant factor when determining how quickly anything will brown or cook. What is essential is a metric known as heat flux. That is the ratio of the cooking surface area to the British thermal unit (BTU) output of a grill. This provides a realistic representation of how quickly food will sizzle and sear when placed on the grill.
Assume a gas grill produces 40,000 BTUs of heat. Divide that by 400 square inches to get a heat flux of 100 BTU/square inch, a sound heat output. A larger grill with the same BTU rating will have less heat flux than a smaller one. Get it?
The heat flux of a charcoal grill is determined by how much coal is ignited and how it is arranged. Coal has a BTU output of roughly 10,000 per pound, and I usually use two pounds of coal for a short cooking session. That’s 20,000 BTU, approximately 64 BTU/square inch when spread across an entire 20-inch Weber kettle grill. However, if you pile all of it under half of the grill or less, you’re looking at 130 BTU/square inch or more. The only limit is the amount of coal that can fit under the grill.
To put it simply, charcoal sears faster and hotter than gas. It’s crucial to emphasize, though, that searing isn’t everything. Most of what you accomplish on a grill does not necessitate such extreme temperatures.
On the other end of the scale, charcoal outperforms gas. The size of the flame that can be safely created without risk of blowing out and leaking un-combusted fuel into the grill box limits the low end of the range for a gas grill. Even on the lowest setting, your gas grill generates significant heat energy. It is limitless to how slowly you can combust gasoline and heat your box with charcoal. However, as with high temperatures, the occasions when you’ll want to go below the limit of a good gas grill are few and far between.