Chas, I know what you mean, but I have to say that this style of grilling brings out flavors I hadn’t noticed before. I could literally taste all the spices in the rub that was on the chicken and it made me think about being more careful with proportions in the future. There still plenty of of grill flavor from the smoke that falls on the infrared emitter but no scorchy parts. I think that it’s going to take a while, but I’m in a whole new phase here of grillin.’ I may get a Weber just for the occasional other style, I dunno. I’ve been without a Weber since divorce but had the gas one, so I just never got around to it. I have a water smoker as well for options.
Anyway, one of the main benefits is that it doesn’t dry out lean burger or skinless chicken. All of my beef comes from my Dad’s ranch and it’s grass-fed, so the burger doesn’t have the normal 80-20 ratio of meat to fat. In the past, I have dried out the burgers; this time, it didn’t happen. And those skinless thighs didn’t dry out either. That was pretty impressive.
We’ve had an Outback gas barbie for about five years, one that uses lava rock, not one of these new-fangled jobs with “flavoriser bars.” The cast-iron burners were dead from corrosion at least two years ago but I wouldn’t let ‘em lie down until now. I would say look out for, and avoid, BBQs with such rust-prone burners. I used charcoal barbies for donkeys’ years before that and I can tell all the theoreticians who insist on charcoal on flavour grounds that food cooked by gas is every bit as tasty as food cooked by charcoal. Gas is also much cheaper. This very day I have ordered a Weber Q220 with optional extra griddle (I like to fry eggs outdoors and to sear my steaks first). We’re supposed to be having a hot weekend, so maybe I’ll report back.
Yeah, flavoriser bars. What a crock. It’s just anti-flare-up and they rust like crazy where I live as do the old style burners, which look sorta like a long thin tank. The holes literally rust into each other, creating maws of fire.. This new contraption has some other kind of metal burner, not iron. int he shape of a tube, like fatter than a low D whistle.
I would have liked all stainless. Good luck, Steve. I had lamb chops and auxiliary ribs thawing but gave up today because of high winds and fog. Pot roast for us later… but that’s good too.
I am too lazy to use charcoal, and was even too lazy to refill the gas for my gas grill. I love my George Foreman electric grill.
I plug it in, I cook. I unplug it, wipe it down. Voila. Clean and waiting for the next grill out. Sure, it puts me in a tough spot during a power outage, but at that point, I take the family to a restaurant.
Another advantage with gas is that you turn it on and you’re cooking in ten minutes. I’ve incurred the wrath of my starving family many times by failing to have the charcoal glowing within an hour and a quarter of ignition. You end up eating in the chill of the gloaming with the midges a-biting. Disorganised, moi?
I’m another fan of charcoal – but not briquets; I use hardwood chunk charcoal which is now a lot easier to find and cheaper than it used to be. I use a chimney starter…paper in the bottom, charcoal in the top, and the coals are ready in about 20 minutes. No need for lighter fluid. My $40 grill has lasted me 12 years so far with no sign of rust, and it lives outside all summer with no cover. You get a bit of smoke at the beginning when the coals are starting to catch, but otherwise it’s not bad. I had a small Weber gas grill for a few years but it was never very reliable. The charcoal grill has never let me down.
I do have my eye on a new Weber charcoal grill that has a more finely adjustable grate; the one I have now just has two positions: very close to the coals or very far from the coals. Still, for under $200 you can get a top-of-the-line charcoal grill that can cook enough food for 10-12 people, which is a lot cheaper than a comparable gas grill. Plus charcoal has a lower carbon footprint than propane and the ashes can be composted. (I wouldn’t compost ashes from charcoal briquets, as there are lots of addititives).
Whenever I have the grill going, I roast red peppers and eggplant and use them later in salads and other recipes. It’s a great thing to do at the beginning before the coals turn white or after you’re done grilling your main dish; just slap on some peppers and eggplant (zucchini also grills well). I made a big batch of roasted red peppers the other day and turned them into a simple-yet-delicious sauce simply by putting them into the food processor along with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Fantastic…we had it in our bouillabaise last night
With my charcoal grill it takes about fifteen minutes to fire up 50-75 briquettes with the chimney starter. Thats usually enough time to get the pork tenderloins tied up and coated with a wet mop. Plus I always use soaked wood chips wrapped in foil that I place on the coals for more smoke. Can wood chips be used on a gas grill too? Some bottled smoke is actually pretty good but all I have ever seen in the market is hickory smoke and there are so many others.
You can use wood chips on gas grills that use lava rock. Dunno about the ones with flavoriser bars. I tend to not follow rules. I’ll let you know when I get my Weber.
My dad used to use an electric lighting iron for the charcoal grill, and later graduated to a chimney starter. This was pretty effective, but in the end he still switched to a gas grill because even a little trouble was worse than no trouble at all. His grill now looks pretty dinky in an age where gas grills have grown to resemble half your kitchen.
I just got a charcoal grill for the new house, with an attached smoke-box I have yet to try. You can buy fancy hardwood lump charcoal in the local grocery store, made over the border in Pennsyltuckey—for some reason the national chain out here only sells briquettes.
This new [grill] that I bought (actually I got a cheaper model than shown) - supposedly you can throw chips into the U shaped infrared emitter. The problem is, I use actual branches, cut in 6" lengths off of my apple tree for smoking, rather than (gasp) pay money for hardwood. I think however, the bark might do unpleasant things, not sure, so I may have to whittle 'em before I try it. The claim is that you can smoke in it, it has a lower heat setting, etc. My only experience smoking thus far has been the Brinkmann water smoker and it’s taken me a while to get good at that. So, back up the learning curve…
As I’m sure most folks know, or should know, in Wisconsin we like brats. A number of organizations make a good chunk of their fund raising goals selling brats during the summer. This has necessitated the use of small portable grills which actually can do a decent job.
The cast-iron burners were dead from corrosion at least two years ago but I wouldn’t let ‘em lie down until now. I would say look out for, and avoid, BBQs with such rust-prone burners. I used charcoal barbies for donkeys’ years before that and I can tell all the theoreticians who insist on charcoal on flavour grounds that food cooked by gas is every bit as tasty as food cooked by charcoal. Gas is also much cheaper. This very day I have ordered a Weber Q220 with optional extra griddle (I like to fry eggs outdoors and to sear my steaks first). We’re supposed to be having a hot weekend, so maybe I’ll report back. 
