by Todd Raubenolt

Created on: May 31, 2009

Gas grills have become the first choice of the backyard griller over the past few decades. The plethora of choices, optional equipment, and falling prices have had a lot to do with this. There is little doubt that for ease of use and speed to cook, gas grills win hands down over charcoal. But before you give the winning trophy over to propane, you need to consider the quality and variety of food you can cook, as well as safety. Here is where gas falls far short of good old charcoal and wood

A gas grill has some cooking limitations, especially when it comes to indirect cooking or barbecue. Many gas grills today come with multiple burner units that allow indirect cooking, however, you cannot take advantage of one of the primary reasons for cooking this way - adding that smoky flavor. Gas grills, by design, impart little to no flavor to your food. That is usually fine when you are cooking hot and fast; you really don't have the time on the grill to impart any flavor anyway, and the meat is seared so quickly that there is little chance for any smoke flavor to permeate the meat. Charcoal grills and wood smokers, on the other hand, are designed with smoke flavor in mind. Charcoal itself will impart some flavor to meats that spend significant time on cooking over them. Most barbecue fans will supplement this flavor with the addition of wood. With a charcoal grill, this wood can be tossed directly onto the coals where it smokes immediately. You can also add more wood as necessary to keep the smoke coming. To achieve the same effect in a gas grill is almost impossible. Some gas grills do accommodate wood chips through special wood chip drawers, but you have to invest in a high end grill for this option, and they are still far less effective than throwing chips directly on a bed of coals.

You also do not have the ability to cook directly on the heat source with a gas grill. A hot bed of coals is an even and well distributed heat source. You can wrap up a potato in foil and push it right into the bed of coals. The same can be done with a well-soaked ear of corn. If you tried the same trick with a gas grill, you would end up with incinerated food, and probably a damaged burner unit.

Gas grills also tend to dry out food more than food cooked on a charcoal grill. Once you have a coal bed established, you will ideally not see flames when cooking with charcoal. Gas, of course, has an open flame through the entire cooking session. This open flame moves

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