At present, the mainstream barbecue is still based on charcoal, but more and more people are starting to use gas grills. Today we will summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the two to help you make choices.

The advantages of charcoal grilling:

A loyal fan of charcoal grills, they will not choose gas grills. They do have their reason: the charcoal grill can reach a violent 482 degrees Celsius on the surface of the meat, which is much hotter than a standard gas grill without infrared burners. With such a high temperature, the skin of steak and lamb chops can be turned into our favorite pastry, while keeping the red and pink inside of the meat.

Another major advantage of charcoal grilling is smoke, which is an interesting byproduct of burning. The smoke produced by charcoal contains a wide range of flavor molecules, especially when it starts to ignite. Gas fuel is just simple molecules (CH4 is natural gas, C3H8 is liquid propane). If they burn completely, there is only water and carbon dioxide, no flavor. To produce smoke in a gas oven, wood must be added. When the fat and juice of food drip onto the burning charcoal, a lot of smoke will be produced. If only a brief encounter with smoke, smoke will not significantly change the flavor of fast-cooked foods such as hot dogs, beef burgers, or even lean steaks. In thick steak and chicken cuts, the flavor produced by the smoke can be clearly perceived. If you use your grill for a long, low-temperature smoky grill, there is a clear difference in flavor. The flavor of the smoke produced by the gas oven is very single.

Disadvantages of charcoal grilling:

After talking about the two main advantages, let's take a look at the disadvantages. The risk of charcoal is relatively high. Many residential buildings and fire stations will restrict the use of charcoal grills on the balcony. Carbon and sparks can escape from the outlet on the grill or the smoke vent. The gas grill can be turned off immediately by turning the button.

In addition, charcoal will be dirty; it is difficult to ignite, and it usually takes 15 minutes or more to reach the ideal temperature; it will catch fire and scorch food. The heat of charcoal grilling is more difficult to measure and control; it may lose heat slowly during long grilling. And the temperature cannot drop quickly; there will be dust, which must be cleaned up. Furthermore, charcoal grills rarely rotate barbecue grills and so on.

It seems that there are a lot of problems. However, most of these problems can also be solved. For example, use gloves, shovel, and pliers carefully to reduce confusion and risk. If you use the smoke vent and keep the charcoal dry, it is not difficult to keep the charcoal hot. And if you put charcoal on the side of the grill to create a dual-zone grill setting, the fat of the meat will not drip onto the carbon and cause a fire. Even if there is fire, the water gun can destroy them. In addition, if there is an ashtray that can be removed, cleaning up can be much easier.

That's right, charcoal grilling requires more practice than gas grilling. But if you have mastered these techniques, there are few things that charcoal grilling cannot do.

The advantages of gas grills

After talking about charcoal grills, let's take a look at the advantages of gas grills. The gas oven is more convenient and easy to control, and it is easy to start, and it can be heated up in 10 to 15 minutes. It is easy to maintain a stable temperature, heating or cooling is also easy. If there are 2 or more burners, you can easily build a dual-zone grill. Temperature control is very important for good grilling, and it is very easy to implement on a gas grill. Gas grills are also easier to clean, and are generally allowed to be used on the balcony.

How does the gas grill taste? To many people's surprise, about 90% of the best BBQ restaurants in the world use gas to heat their stoves, and then use wood to enhance the flavor. At a similar ratio, the most expensive steakhouses in the world use gas to grill their premium steaks.

BBQ restaurants choose gas grills and family barbecues for the same reasons: convenience and control. Steak restaurants use gas grilling because they need a dark surface, which can be heated from above and below through a special heater, which can get particularly high heat, and the temperature can reach between 426.7 and 648.8 degrees Celsius.

Unfortunately, an ordinary courtyard gas oven does not generate such a large amount of heat. With a dedicated burner, it may be possible to reach 482 degrees Celsius on a small portion of the food. However, the temperature of most gas ovens is between 232.2 and 260. If you buy a new one, I strongly recommend a dedicated burner, especially if you often grill steaks.

Although gas ovens are slightly better at maintaining a stable temperature, they are not perfect. The medium on the controller may be 148.8 degrees Celsius in a hot day, and in 21 degrees Celsius weather, it may be 135 degrees Celsius, or even on a cool, windy or rainy day, it will be 107 degrees Celsius. But if you are familiar with your grill, it will be easy to control the temperature. On a grill with three burners, you might use one hot area for grilling, a medium heat area for grilling vegetables, and another low area for placing grilled food. The heat diffuser works well to prevent flames on the burner.

Gas grills are easier to clean. Most of them have oil pans, which are easy to clean. Therefore, the daily maintenance is to scrape off the grill.

Another advantage of gas grills is that they usually have a wider range of accessories. Most of them have rotating grills, which are highly recommended. Some have side burners, which are also recommended to keep the sauce hot or grill side dishes. You can also have night lights, side tables and spice racks, storage drawers, bottle openers-some gas grills even have Bluetooth. Barbecue grills can be added to most gas grills, which can greatly improve the quality of grilling by amplifying the heat, prevent flames from rising, and allow you to put wood on the grills under the food.

Disadvantages of gas grills

Some high-precision gas grills have smoking boxes for sawdust, but most require you to make or place the wood plate under the grilling grill and close to the flame. In order to prevent fires and safety considerations, most gas ovens have poorly sealed lids, so smoke will leak out, and more wood is required than required. If not handled properly, the gas may explode. But in general, the gas oven is relatively safer. If you encounter problems, you can directly turn off the switch.

Water can become condensed and can organize in extremely cold weather. Grease will push under the burner, and if you don’t clean it, it may catch fire. This kind of fire would be very difficult to extinguish without a fire extinguisher suitable for grease fire. Gas ovens are generally more expensive because the mechanism is more complicated and the assembly is more complicated. Having more accessories will break and need to be replaced. Another problem is that it is difficult to judge whether the gas will be burned out. Many gas grills do not have particularly strong burners, or are small, and can only grill one or two steaks at a time. This is perfect for a family of two, but if you hold a graduation party, you will need more infrared burners.

The cost of charcoal and gas is similar, and there may be promotions for charcoal. But compared with food, these costs are nothing.

How to choose?

If you just want to go out, there is no accident, no confusion, and a very simple barbecue. It is recommended to buy a gas oven with infrared burner. If you like the red meat and the smoky taste, there is no doubt that buy charcoal. If taste is the most important consideration, then buy charcoal.

If you have a budget and have space, it is recommended to buy one of both. In this way, poultry, fish, vegetables, pizza, bread and fast-cooking food are grilled on the gas grill, and all the red meat is grilled in the charcoal grill.

Some new grills will have gas on one side and charcoal on one side. Very good idea, but most of the products on the market with this combination have certain problems, so that the advantages of the two barbecue methods can not be used.