Charcoal is the only way to go, and natural lump charcoal is the only way to go.
I use a Big Green Egg to do both my smoking and grilling.
I can smoke at 200 degrees for upwards of 24 hours on a single load of lump, or I can sear a steak at above 1000 degrees if I choose. To be honest I have to use a fan to get much above 800 degrees, so usually I will let the unit get to about 750 and then slap the steak on for 1-3 minutes per side, then close the vents and let the steak dwell in the egg for an additional 3-7 minutes. Results? A steak that puts most steak houses to shame.
As far as the amount of time to get the charcoal lit, lump charcoal does not have to get all grey like briquettes, and the egg is shaped like a chimney. Light the bottom of the charcoal ( I use a MAPP torch ) for about 15 seconds and then just close the lid. With in 5 minutes the egg is at 300, with in about 7 it is over 750.
Charcoal. I had a gas grill for about a month, and geez, you may as well just broil it in the oven. I like the lump charcoal.
Amen to that!!
We just bought our second Weber charcoal grill; the first one finally rusted through after 21 years of service.
Gas.
Plus there is the added bonus of driving around with a full propane tank in your trunk thunking about after you refill.
[Marvin the Martian]
Where’s the Kaboom? There’s suppose to be an earth shattering Kaboom!
[/MtM]
Speaking of grilling:
My old Hibachi is on it’s last legs. The only thing I can find are the thin steel kind and the $$$ cast iron type. (Neither of which have adjusting grill height!) Jeez, Hibachi’s used to everywhere for $20 bucks.
If anyone knows where I can get a cast iron Hibachi (including grates, grills and supports), let me know.
Another vote for gas grills. I have found that it is quicker and that I get better control on heat. The front area is cooler than the back burner so I can rotate the food as needed. I put some charcoal on the gas covers and sometimes place rosemary or wood chips inside for smoke flavoring.
And yet you insist on reverting back to the primitive technology required when you leave your kitchen.
Apparently, I have a defective Y chromosome. The only time I grill food (on our Weber charcoal kettle) is when Deb insists that we need to do so. Mind you, I am not trying to avoid the responsibility of cooking: I cook +95% of our meals, anyway. However, I see no reason (and can taste no advantage) in going outside and messing around with a bunch of charcoal, beating off mosquitoes, hauling food out and back in through the sliding screen door, and trying to keep the pets off the utensils just to be able to say that we grilled the stuff rather than cooking it on a temperature-controlled range or oven.
Tom - it’s possible what you said about the Y-Chromosome is true. That said, Grilling is a preference. Outside popular belief, in my opinion there is no gender specifically attached to it. My wife is as good a griller as I. And we love grilling. The Weber Grilling Bible is our friend. 
When my 20 year old charcoal Webber kettle finally died (really just the movable part to the vents on the bottom of the kettle rusted) I went with a good gas grill. Just like every gas grill I have used, I get flare up if I try to go to high heat - that’s what I liked about my Webber - open vents on the bottom closed on top = lots of heat with NO flare up.
What are you doing to keep the fire at bay when on high?
I have perfected my method of using a gas grill with wood chunks to get the best of both worlds. I grill 4 or 5 times a week, all year long, and I would never do that if I had to wait for charcoal to get going.
I have a CharBroil grill with front and back burners, and a lower grill just over the burners that is covered with ceramic briquettes. The wood chunks go over ceramic briquettes on the front burner (medium flame), and the food goes over the back part of the grill, cooked with a low flame. I keep the cover closed, so it’s more like roasting/smoking. A chimney effect is created as the heat and smoke from the wood travel over the food and out the back cover opening.
I wind up with the convenience of gas grill cooking, but with plenty of smokey flavor. When I open the cover to turn the food, I keep a spray bottle handy when the wood chunks flare up.
BBQ-ing is so different now. People look down their noses at me in my current ‘neighborhood’ , because if you don’t have at least a $2500 stainless steel unit, then you just can’t ‘entertain’ anyone.
I think I liked life alot better when I was a poor slob who was happy to eat the food my mom or dad grilled up on a little Hibachi. I’m kind of tearied eyed just thinking about our little postage stamp yard in Philadelphia and the distinctive smell of charcoal out back. Heck, we had to go downstairs into the basement to get out back, and I remember we just seemed to have the time to do it.
:sigh:
I had a similar experience last Thanksgiving. My sister had 32 of us over for dinner. I offered to cook the Turkeys. I borrowed one Weber Charcoal kettle, and my sister borrowed another. I did 2 20lb birds. During the preperation several people told me how their gas grills would do a better job (while looking down said noses)
Then I pulled the birds off the grill and they ate. No more comments about how their gas grills were better. Just comments that these were the best turkeys that they had ever eaten.
Its funny how I hear all the time that gas grills are just as good as charcoal, but I never hear a person that uses charcoal say that it is just as good as gas. 
But we’re not discussing smokey flavor, we’re discussing charcoal flaver verses gas flavor. To say that gas with woodchips is better than charcoal without woodchips is not a valid comparison, you have to rework your arguement to show that:
- smoked burgers/steaks (which is really what you’re doing here) taste better than grilled burgers/steaks, and
- Gas is better for smoking than charcoal.
-lv
Well actually I don’t try to control it, I let it happen. I only sear for 15-20 seconds a side, and the flare up creates more heat for the sear actually I put a thin layer of oil on and expect it to burn. Then I turn down and slow cook with flare ups being a problem.
I’m a little confused. What difference between charcoal and gas, that is not smoke flavor are you refering too. basically gas gives the meat no flavor, and charcoal give the meat a smoky grilled flavor. The objection that I have heard from everyone who complains about gas is that there is no smoked flavor, and I was talking about a way to get much more yummysmoky flavor using gas.
without flare ups being a problem. :smack:
It’s got nothing to do with the unit you choose to Grill on, it has everything to do with the unit doing the grilling. I too, love to reminisce about when I was a lad grilling on the back porch of our little raised ranch in CT…No gas until I was almost old enough to be out of the house. We had the same black weber bucker nearly my entire life until I was 18.
We should all have a Grill-Fest…I’d host if it could be in CT on the beach…
urgh…thats black weber bucket! :smack:
Black Weber Bucker has a nice ring to it.
I use gas because that’s what I have and my wife prefers it.
I like the flavor of charcoal better.
But to tell you the truth, the only things I like grilled are steaks, ribs and hamburgers. Chicken and pork gets too dry if you grill it.
Wood is good for hot dogs or cans of beans or spaghettios.
I recall that Charcoal has something to do with Henry Ford and that charcoal is wood.
Thought I’d toss that out there.