Your fuel choice

The 4 fuels

If you take your barbecue seriously, then you will know that the question of  what fuel you choose is a fundamental issue in everything you will do in Grilling.

Apart from the more exotic, there are only 4 fuels to consider: Wood, Charcoal, Gas and Electric - in order of age.

Since this is a blog devoted to wood fire barbecuing, I guess I will be bias, but if I admit it from the start, then you have nothing to complain about I guess.

The subject of fuel preference is very controversial to serious grillers. Once settled on their favorite, they will argue and defend their choice until blue in the face.

I'd like to stand apart from this argument and take a look at some facts.

I read a study which showed that back in 2005, Gas grills had taken over from Charcoal grills in sales volume in the US, with that trend going further. How accurate that study was I have no idea, but considering that generally speaking, Gas grills are more expensive that Charcoal grills, this represents a big shift in the market.

Wood

The original fuel. Man kind mastered wood as a cooking fuel about 1,000,000 years ago.

Barbecue firewood

Considering that this was the only fuel used by man until only a few hundred years ago, it has an amazingly deep history.

I think the main reason most do not consider wood as a fuel when barbecue shopping is convenience, or lack of it with regards to wood.

Wood is the most difficult of all the fuels to start. It takes the longest time to be ready for cooking, and it is the most difficult to control.

Since everything in our lives is now push button, a grill with no button to start, and no knob to control it is just not considered.

Convenience vs taste

I owned a gas grill for a time, and I admit, turning the knob and pressing to light it is quite convenient. It was a pain in the neck to clean, and being spontaneous backfired several times when I ran out of gas, but apart from that it was a reasonable barbecue.

But lets be honest here. Cooking with gas is just missing something essential about barbecue. It is like going out for the day and forgetting your underwear.


I have since gone back to wood and love the intimate feel. Seems that the less tech between me and my meat, the better the taste.

Charcoal

BBQ charcoal

Before the rise of the Gas grill, this was fuel the fuel of choice. Charcoal is basically wood that has been heated in an oxygen free environment. This process has concentrated the combustable properties of the wood making it more convenient to transport and use. Charcoal has the great quality of smoldering for a long time without giving off much smoke.

Charcoal has the disadvantage of needing some effort to startup, though this can be overcome with the use of a chimney starter or some lighterfluid.

Even though many will claim otherwise, blind taste tests have been inconclusive in proving the superior taste results of charcoal grills over gas and electric grills. But then so many variables are in play that proof either way is disputable.

Nice thing about charcoal is it is very easy to add some aromatic wood chips to your pile of coals to get that unmistakable wood fire taste to your grill.

Gas

Looking for gas

Seems that if gas were not the fuel of choice for grilling, then it would be able to claim the crown in shear choice of grills available. Despite this plethora of choice, seems that there is not much separating different models and makers of gas grillers.

They seem to all be in a race for either ease of use or in shear size. Some of these barbecues are truly monstrous in size. A bit of a 'mine is bigger than yours' race out there.

Gas barbecues are spit into the bottle models and the mains gas versions. I think that this is in fact an interchangeable option. Would like to know if the actual gas would be different in either case, if there is anyone who can shed some light on this.

Gas in general is a very convenient, and this is what it comes down to.

Gas grillers will swear by their gas barbecues mainly on the point of convenience. The turn button control over heat is undeniably attractive in a world of complexity. The true barbecue taste is what  the gas griller has sacrificed for his convenience.

Electric

Electricity

Anyone worth his barbecue salt, would not credit an electric grill with the name barbecue, but lets take a look at it for a second.

Electric barbecues are not much different to gas barbecues. They push the convenience an extra step, but give up some aspects of the gas griller that probably leaves the equation deficient.

Electric cannot match gas for speed and temperature control. Where electric grills make up for it is in compact size. Both feature the same push button convenience otherwise.

Depending on models and design, I may venture to say that electric barbecues are easier to clean.

Conclusion

In the end barbecue is about cooking with your loved ones in the outdoors. Bonding with your friends and family around a meal is such a vital part of what makes us human that keeping this process as simple as possible has its merits. For this then go gas and electric barbecues.

If you really want to explore what barbecue tastes like, then the solid fuels: charcoal and wood are your bet. They need not be less convenient, especially when you factor in the cost of the equipment, and the cleaning overhead. It is the taste that is really the winner.

In this regard then wood is king, just as I always believed. And as with everything, practice has taught me to tame this fuel and get it to cook exactly the way I want. A good firepit, a nice heavy slab of steel to cook on, and off you go.