I’ve used all three (electric, gas and charcoal), and while electric is obviously out if you’re cooking in a park somewhere, I wonder what you’re cooking. Gas is not as bad as everyone makes out. It doesn’t taste as good, admittedly, but it is much easier to use. Don’t believe them about the charcoal chimneys, I’ve never gotten one of them to work without multiple applications of newspaper, and it seems to take forever to get them to work. If you’re going to just cook a couple of burgers, then the gas is easier on you. If you are going to cook chicken, or a steak, I’d use the charcoal, as the extra work would be worth it. I"ve cooked fish on a charcoal grill, and it’s about the only way I like fish. I coat it with a little olive oil, and grind a little pepper and salt on it. If you cook fish, you may want to get one of those grill baskets, because fish can fall apart on you.
[George Foreman]
Now listen here! If you refuse to buy my Indoor/Outdoor Electric Grill that miraculously drains fat into a large grease tray for healthier cooking — And instead opt for one of these cheap-ass Qwick-Cook Grills you seen on an infommercial where you cook your food over burning newspaper — Not only will I knock yo block off, but I’ll end-up making my cut anyway when you’re forced to drag you huge, grease-eatin, fat ass into my Casual Male Big and Tall Shop. Either way, I get you comin or goin.
[/George Foreman]
My take on it is charcoal = BBQ, Gas (natural (better) or propane) = Grilling.
Both are different from each other, and different from oven cooking, thought some attempt was made to simulate the other (using wood chips for grilling).
No, charcoal !=barbecue. If it cooked for less than fourteen hours, it ain’t barbecue. Bigass chunks of hickory in a pit over the course of 18 hours or so=barbecue. Everything else is grilling.
Charcoal? Feh. You couldn’t pay me to take a charcoal grill. They’re an enormous pain in the ass to light, even with the so-called “easy start” stuff, they take forever to get ready to cook with, and then you’ve got to clean the used charcoal out, which is always messy as hell. Way more trouble than it’s worth. If we had charcoal, we might grill a couple times a month during the summer. Maybe. Probably not, since it wouldn’t be any easier than cooking inside, especially for just the two of us (or just one of us, as the case may be.)
We’ve got a fairly nice gas grill, and we use it at least four or five times a week from mid-April to late September, and once or twice a week in the spring and fall. Hell, we use it a couple times a month during the winter. Twist a dial and press a button, wait a couple of minutes, and you’re ready to slap the food on. When you’re done, just turn the dial. No fuss, no muss, no bother, and the taste is indistinguishable from charcoal, especially for stuff like burgers and hot dogs. We usually toss some hickory in the smoker box if we’re doing a long-cooking project like a beer can chicken, but that’s about it.
It costs us $15 or so to refill the tank, and a tank usually lasts us…oh, I’m gonna say 6-8 weeks of heavy-duty use. I got it filled in early April, then had to fill it again this weekend. We’ll probably get it filled again in August or so, then sometime in the fall, and then we’ll be good till sometime next spring.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha…
Somebods has been using the propane for too long.
Propane is for chumps that don’t like getting their hands dirty.
If you’re truely intrested in FLAVOR; this is a no brainer, get charcoal.
Sure it’s more of a hassle but it’s well worth it.
I got into this discussion again a couple weeks ago.
There is no magical-spangly-pixie-dust-and-incantation difference between charcoal and gas. It is a matter of smokey taste. Trying to seperate the smoke from the taste of wood is a pointless exercise, because the difference in smoke *is[/is] the difference in taste.
Crazycatlady is absolutley right. Barbecue is slow cooked food over low buring wood for several hours. Food that is fast grilled over charcoal has an almost non-perceptable taste of smoke that gas grilled food doesn’t have, because charcoal doesn’t give off enough smoke to flavor the meat that well for a rare cooking. The taste really difference really isn’t worth the effort compared to a true smokey meat.I will defend to the death the tuna can smoker method that I endorse because it gives off enough smoke to be percieved in the meat, whether over gas or charcoal. Now if you want to to get enough of the real wood together, and heated to the proper temperature then I’m sure it would give a damn fine smoke-tasty meat(1). I just don’t personally know anyone who does that for home cooking rare meat .
Trying to seperate smoking from bbq-ing is pointless. Yes smoking is an art, used for things that are not a part of barbecueing But bbq-ing encompasses that art. True bbq-ing is cooking at a low and slow temperature while smoking. Without the smoking process you are not barbecueing properly.
The smoke is the flavor that people talk about. BBQ gives a lot of it, Charcoal gives a very little bit of it. There simply is no better taste to charcoal over gas if you take smoke out of the equation.
P.S. the lumpwood is a decent substitute for pure wood. But for rare cooking the temperature control + tunacan smoking method still works better in my experience. Going from a good sear to slow finish cooking is hard under any backyard grill set up and works better with gas .
P.P.S. (1) actually I do know it is amazing. The absolute best way to cook a kick ass rare steak. Get a huge ass pile of dried hardwood(hickory, mesquite, fruit or nut woods preferably) while on a campout. Get that sun of a bitch burning , then hang the meat over it where the smoke is pretty much cool for half an hour. Then drop to a place of about 225 degrees for ten minutes. Then season and hold about an inch above the 800 degree+ coals for 20 seconds a side to sear. Now that’s a steak someone will sell their soul for.
Well crap I screwed up the italics coding.I didn’t mean to emphasize that much, I just really believe in meat. 
Just to expand on this thought, try to light a small fire in a kettle grill (Weber is the king) with mesquite sticks ot chunks (remember, small fire) then add the charcoal. You avoid the after taste of lighter fluid (which too many people use too mush of) and you get the great added flavor.
As far as how much to use. Well, that’s why it takes us grillers years to get a meal you’ll remember for a long time. Just do it, and keep doing it. You’ll figure it out. Just not by the 4th if you’re starting now. Sorry.
Damn, forgot to mention if you want BBQ and not grilling, buy a smoker, not a kettle grill. All the difference man. Trust me, invest. They don’t cost a whole lot.
I’ve always thought grilling implied fast cooking close to high heat. Perfect for steaks, burgers, some seafood (and only chicken and ribs for “finishing” if you’ve already cooked them)
Barbeque meant slow cooking over lower heat. Brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, big pieces of chicken.
Given that, I’ve never noticed much of a perceptible difference in “grilling” using gas or charcoal, AS LONG AS YOUR GAS GRILL GETS HOT ENOUGH, which they don’t always do.
You have more heat-control options with charcoal as long as you know what you’re doing.
Gas grills can get annoying “hot spots”.
But, they are more convenient and neater.
My grill. I have the cast-iron inserst for the grate.
Also, I have 2 of those chimneys. I swear by them. I have no problems ever getting them started. I use 1 90% of the time but if I’m going to do a lot of food or a long barbeque, I’ll use both. You can also start one on the side while you’re grilling to replenish if need be.
Money saving hint: right when you’re done grilling, turn off all the vents so the coals die instead of burning out. Next time you grill, put new charcoal in the chimney, but top off with the “used” charcoal. It gets just as hot, just as fast as new stuff. If you go a long time between grilling, or it gets damp out, just burn them out and use new ones.
I grew up in Alberta, home of natural gas and propane everything. We always had a propane grill growing up. It wasn’t until I moved here that we used charcoal, and boy can you tell the difference. Go for the charcoal!
Thanks for the wealth of info folks!
I’m probably going to go with the “Go anywhere” Weber charcoal bbq. I could lug around a full size bbq but I think the smaller one would be safer.
My only concern about these small portable ones is how to transport it all back after I’m done. I’d hate to have the coals flare up while in my car! And I know from experience how messy charcoal can be.
Does any company make a “dual bbq”? Can you modify the weber “go anywhere” charcoal to also use gas when needed? I think that would probably be the best of both worlds as I’ve also heard charcoal can take a little longer to get started (if I’m just making dinner I don’t know if I want to wait an hour to my bbq to get hot 
)
I’m glad to come across this thread. I’ve been debating what to buy for a few weeks now. My new house, when it is done, will have a gas spigot on the patio for a grill (like Ginger, I grew up with natural gas everything). Currently I don’t have anything and have been thinking about getting a small charcoal grill to tide me over.
The main problem that I see for myself is the fact that I usually only cook for myself. Charcoal seems like it is more worthwhile when there is going to be food cooked for more than one person. Unless I were to get a really small hibachi, I think that there would be a lot of wasted charcoal being burnt away.
Whoa!!! STOP!!! Do not ever place a lit charcoal grill in an enclosed space such as a car or even a house. The carbon monoxide gas will kill you. You will need to dump your charcoal from the grill prior to bringing it home.
I have seen this type of grill advertised recently but can’t recall who it was made by. Unfortunately I’m sure it was a full size grill not meant for hauling down to the park in your car.
An electric smoker is what we have. I had some wood shavings shipped in from British Columbia; two bags of cherry, one arbutus, and one apple. We already had hickory and mesquite chunks from the Sears store where we bought the smoker. They’re right about the arbutus being great for salmon and we had mesquite smoked chicken breasts on Memorial Day.
Read my “money saving hint” in my above post.
Off the vents when done cooking. The next time you want to cook, you can completely reuse the unburnt portion of the charcoal. Add a little more each time.
No Way, No How!!!
What esle do I have to say, propane (even Nat. Gas) is no comparsson to the taste of charcoal. I’m not saying it’s worse, just saying it is unquestionably not the same.
But funny I felt the way you did when I got my (propane) gas grill and let it season a bit, then the same way when I got my nat. gas grill (which is better - no question), then when I let it season. Then I got back to basics and got a cheap charcoal grill, like I used to have and redicovered the unique flavor of real BBQ
I will disagree with my spouse–charcoal does impart a flavor that gas can’t duplicate, and given a straight-up choice, I’ll take the charcoal-grilled food every single time. It also can’t be beaten when you want that good 800 degree sear.
However, charcoal lacks the convenience, speed, reliability, and even heat of a good gas grill. Also, it allows you to grill something without that distinct charcoal flavor, which can mask other, more subtle flavors. You can still get a good smoky flavor with some soaked wood chips in aluminum foil.
The ideal would be to have both. In fact, when I finally get in a house where I might be for a while, I want to design and build the Grill Temple–a brick monstrosity that includes both gas and electric grills, capability for both hot and cold smoking, and a brick oven surface for pizza.
(What I really want is a grill made out of a VW Beetle, like I saw someone do on TV–I think it was on Monster Garage.)
I’ll throw my 2 cents worth in here to state that charcoal may be better but if I was going to a park on a regular basis I think I might get one these. They are pretty neat, small and portable enough and work pretty well. I usually throw some charcoal in the bottom of my grill or fresh rosemary in a foil container for some smoke. Grills heat up fast and cool down fast.
I don’t mean to keep pressing the issue like an asshole. But can anybody scientifically explain the taste diference between charcoal and gas. I have had this argument about a million times and nobody has given an answer. The difference is is smokey flavor coming off of wood, which is easily overcome with a secondary smoke source. Can someone please try to explain why charcoal is better outside of the influence of wood smoke? I just don’t believe it is, so explain why it is better or shut up.