Charcoal Sucks

[cairns]

OK let's fire up a real debate.....

Grilling Over Gas Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Charcoal
By Mark McClusky

Grilling on a holiday like the Fourth of July, when you’ve got the day off, is easy. You can take your time; pull out your artisanal hardwood charcoal; light it in your chimney starter; build a perfect two-level fire; and lovingly tend your rib-eye, or your chicken breasts, or your pork ribs.

Fourth of July is hobby grilling.

But what about the 22nd of June, or the 12th of August — when temps are in the 80s and all you want is to be in your backyard with a beer and a hunk of meat to cook? Instead, it’s 6 p.m., you’re at the office, the kids need to eat by 7, and you still have to go to the store.

This, my friend, is why a gas grill rules.

Charcoal purists will tell you their preferred fuel leads to better flavor. This is nonsense. Look, I like cooking on charcoal too — it has one indisputable advantage over gas: It gets much hotter. Glowing coals are at a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit; while gas burns at around 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, there’s very little radiant heat from the flames.

And radiant heat is what’s really cooking your food on a grill. That’s why gas grills use some sort of surface to create radiation, whether it’s lava rocks or ceramic plates or the “Flavorizer Bars” on my Weber. These surfaces are heated by the gas flame, creating the radiant heat generated naturally by charcoal.

Charcoal purists will try and tell you that their preferred fuel leads to better flavor. This is, well, nonsense.

Your food doesn’t know what’s creating the heat below it, and once charcoal is hot, there aren’t any aromatic compounds left in the coals. According to the food science bible Modernist Cuisine, “Carbon is carbon; as it burns, it imparts no flavor of its own to the food being grilled.”

The characteristic flavor of grilled food comes from the drippings, not the fuel. When those drippings hit the heat source below, the oils, sugars, and proteins burst into smoke and flame. That heat creates new complex molecules that rise in the smoke and warm air to coat the food you’re grilling.

The real debate should be whether charcoal is necessary at all. Nothing in that process relies on charcoal.

Intellectual Ventures founder, former Microsoft CTO, and barbecue world championship-winning chef Nathan Myhrvold has spent millions trying to understand the science of food and cooking. He’s serious about his meat, and as he argues in Modernist Cuisine, the real debate among the faithful “shouldn’t be about which charcoal is best. It should be about whether charcoal is necessary at all.”

Still not convinced? Know what’s worse than grilling on gas, you snob?

Not grilling at all.

I can walk in my door with a bag of groceries at 6:30, and have grilled chicken on the table at 7, a happy family praising a delicious dinner. The most precious commodity in the world, the one resource that none of us has enough of, that’s constantly dwindling until we die, is time.

A gas grill claws back time for you every time you use it. Grill three times a week over the course of a summer, and you’ll have saved yourself a full day. A day! Think of what you can do with an extra day, provided to you by your gas grill.

[DanielDudley]

Ahh, purists. Sometimes they even get good results.

[flipper35]

They posted the other argument today. I don't get the gas grill time savings. I light the chimney starter and then go about prepping the food. I can tell the difference in taste vs gas as well.

If they are taking 30 minutes from walking in the door to eating, they could just use a stove top griddle/grate to do the same thing.

[gacook]

I've been using gas for YEARS. Quick, easy and delicious. I see no benefit to charcoal using charcoal over gas.

[gordner]

I use a weber on coal with a chimney to start as well, and it is hot and ready to go almost as quick as a gas Q anyway. At the end of the day, science or no science, charcoal grilling tastes better to me.

[Jim Bremner]

Cooked grassfed ribeyes over seasoned orangewood lit bt propane torch while the wood was getting hot I was prepping the meat and side dishes. Cooking with gass? Why not use your oven

[flipper35]

Grilling Over Charcoal Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Gas | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Cooked grassfed ribeyes over seasoned orangewood lit bt propane torch while the wood was getting hot I was prepping the meat and side dishes. Cooking with gass? Why not use your oven

+1
Gas is for girls.

[aigel]

What a bunch of BS on the time savings. The whole point of BBQ is that you get time to unwind while you cook. It is a ritual. 30 minute BBQ chicken rushed on a weekday is NOT what it is about. And the time you spend cooking is NOT lost time, it is time spent in a meditative / relaxed state where your family usually leaves you alone. It is an excuse for guys to stand in the yard and do nothing but hold on to a cold drink. You smell the wood smoke, stare at the burning coal, something very deep inside is turned on, probably from 50k years ago ...

G

[oldE]

"According to the food science bible Modernist Cuisine, “Carbon is carbon; as it burns, it imparts no flavor of its own to the food being grilled.”

This line jumped out at me.

I don't think charcoal briquettes are pure carbon. There are by-products there. Take a sniff.

Happy cooking, whatever you use.

Best
Les

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by aigel

What a bunch of BS on the time savings. The whole point of BBQ is that you get time to unwind while you cook. It is a ritual. 30 minute BBQ chicken rushed on a weekday is NOT what it is about. And the time you spend cooking is NOT lost time, it is time spent in a meditative / relaxed state where your family usually leaves you alone. It is an excuse for guys to stand in the yard and do nothing but hold on to a cold drink. You smell the wood smoke, stare at the burning coal, something very deep inside is turned on, probably from 50k years ago ...
G

Then you probably think that the automobile is a bunch of bull. We should all be riding on the back of a horse in a meditative state... But hey, you may have time to sit and study your navel all day. The rest of us in the real world don't. Without a gas grill, I do 80% less grilling. I find that keeping the lid closed traps more of the smoky flavor I'm looking for. Want even more wood smoke flavor? Put some water soaked wood chips (in the flavor of your choice) in tinfoil and let them smoke while cooking.

[widebody911]

[widebody911]

[aigel]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

Then you probably think that the automobile is a bunch of bull. We should all be riding on the back of a horse in a meditative state...

There is no requirement to eat BBQ 5 times a week. It is however required you get to work 5x a week. Sometimes it is not in walking or biking distance. So that's not a good comparison.

I have had a gas grill and the problem was indeed that I would BBQ 3+ times a week. If my waistline was a good indicator, that was NOT a good idea.

G

[Cajundaddy]

This debate has gone on for 30 years. A while ago we did a double blind taste test among friends so our golden-tongued BBQers could demonstrate to all the world the superiority of charcoal over gas grilling. They were unfortunately unable to correctly identify the magnificent tri-tip cooked over charcoal from the nasty tasting gas grilled tri-tip. The results were inconclusive and most admitted that they didn't taste much difference at all.

Grills are just tools. Use the one you like.

[aigel]

I actually believe there may be little taste difference if any at all, especially on a good gas grill with a radiant source and wood smoke.

My complaint is more about the fact that people think BBQ is a daily meal option.

G

[mikesride]

Charcoal does instill a different taste...one I really enjoy.
A gas grill is ready to go at the push of a button, I won't be giving my gas grill up anytime soon.
My rule is...Charcoal at the lake, Gas Grill at home!!!
(I would like to invest in a wood pellet smoker/grill as well!)

[gordner]

why is BBQ not a daily meal option? I BBQ at least a few times a week in the summer, and it is not inherently unhealthy food simply by virtue of being grillable. I cook fish and vegetables on there as well, and cannot for the life of me see a reason to think a BBQ is not a viable daily option.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by aigel

What a bunch of BS on the time savings. The whole point of BBQ is that you get time to unwind while you cook. It is a ritual. 30 minute BBQ chicken rushed on a weekday is NOT what it is about. And the time you spend cooking is NOT lost time, it is time spent in a meditative / relaxed state where your family usually leaves you alone. It is an excuse for guys to stand in the yard and do nothing but hold on to a cold drink. You smell the wood smoke, stare at the burning coal, something very deep inside is turned on, probably from 50k years ago ...

G

Not to mention that using gas around here can be hazardous to one's health. Some foks might just take offense

ps: I know this thread was charcoal vs gas, but when it comes to hickory smoked barbeque...there is no substitute. I will NOT enter a joint that uses gas (and many new joints do)...heretics going to the devil I tell ya

[flipper35]

Pet peeve: When people say BBQ when they mean grill. Not meant to flame anyone here, but I this thread reminded me of our office manager where I worked in california. She always BBQ'd steaks for 8-10 minutes.