Gas Grills

The ideal cook-out is an hours-long affair, with drinks and family and games and, of course, lots of meat to cook over the fire. But let’s be honest: for most of us, this kind of celebration comes about twice or three times a year at most. More often, on beautiful afternoons we have to drive home from work, pick up the kids from school, grab some steaks from the grocery store, and have supper ready by 7:00. With this kind of schedule, the last thing most people would like to do is spend another hour or more just preparing and cleaning up after charcoal grills.

Gas grills, on the other hand, are perfectly suited for cooking outside on a whim. With the flip of a switch the flame is going strong, and within minutes your gas grill is heated and ready for use. Afterwards, just clean the cooking surface and store your grill when cool. Easy peasy.

Charcoal generates lots of radiant heat, which penetrates and cooks food to its core rather than just searing the surface, while gas flames do not. Quality gas grills, like those sold by the manufacturers below, solve this problem by including ceramic or metal plates that turn raw heat into radiant heat. These devices create the same effect as charcoal, but in a more easily controlled environment.

Once the temperature is up, it needs to come back down. Charcoal takes a very long time to completely cool, as anybody who has discovered hot cinders in ashes knows. Once gas grills are off, multiple safety features are in place to ensure that everything stays off – meaning that things cool down in a hurry, and without any nasty surprises.

Charcoal heads will inevitably bring up the old argument that charcoal somehow imparts additional flavor to meat. Although taste is a subjective thing, there is objectively no reason why charcoal would add flavor. Burning charcoal releases carbon, and unless you’re adding lighting fluid (ugh) then it shouldn’t affect taste at all. As for flavors imparted by oil drippings? The same thing happens with gas grills.

If anything, food from gas grills should taste better than food from charcoal. When you have fine control over temperature, flame height, and heat concentration, you can manage the cooking process that much more effectively. And when you bring in the speed, convenience, and cleanliness of gas grilling, it is clear that gas grills are the superior option.