The debate has raged on, but one thing I have always had trouble finding is a definitive answer as to is there a true difference between gas and charcoal. I watched gugafoods attempt to provide an answer, but unfortunately, he did not use a seasoned gas grill, one that has been used a while to get the drippings on the ceramic charcoal so that the smoke from the drippings and fire could smoke the meat.
And after reading this review, maybe you too will think I’ve done something wrong and that your gas grill or charcoal grill is better than mine so that you will disagree with my results. Fair enough. If you are in this boat, then I would absolutely implore you to do the comparison yourself.
Being a seasoned griller who has used both charcoal and gas for more than 30 years, I have fallen in love with my gas grill. The convenience of turning it on and having it ready in 5 minutes along with a larger grilling surface has made it my go to grill that has produced wonderful results for the past 10 years. The results are so good that my family has always praised the flavor that comes from the gas grill and will look forward to the next cook out.
But still, I’ve had this nagging question in my mind, is the gas grill flavor just as good as the charcoal flavor that people seem to say is better? Do I give up flavor for convenience? Well, it’s time to put it to the test. So I took 4 bone-in ribeye steaks, seasoned them both the same with one of our favorite Cajun seasonings, heated up both the charcoal and gas grills, cooked them at the same time to very closely to the same doneness and sliced them up separately so that we could honestly and truly compare for ourselves to see if the charcoal grill – which I hadn’t used in over 8 years – provides a better flavor than our gas counterpart.
Now the reason why I think the gas grill can produce great results is because of the ceramic coals that are on the grill. They catch the fat drippings from the steak and create smoke that allows the steaks to be flavored through the fat drippings. In addition, the grills that have been used almost weekly have remnants of multiple passed barbeques that will also impart their own flavor onto the steaks I’m preparing. But as the steaks were cooking, it was quite obvious that the charcoal produced much more smoke during the cooking process. There was some smoke in the gas grill as well as some fire flare-ups, but would that be enough to trump the extra smoke I saw form the charcoal grill.
Having taken both steaks off at about the same time and cutting up the gas one first to not cross contaminate and get some charcoal flavor onto the gas steak, I set the pieces on two plates and asked my kids to do a blind taste test to see which one they like better. My daughter definitively chose the charcoal and my son also chose the charcoal but believed the flavors of the two steaks was comparable.
Then I took my turn at tasting first the gas grilled steak and then the charcoal grilled steak, and man was I disappointed. I had been using the gas grill exclusively and have been missing out on embedding the smoky charcoal goodness onto the meat for about 8 years. Not only could I tell the difference, it was quite obvious which steak had a better flavor.
So now, when I’m ready to barbeque, I make sure to start a little earlier preparing the food as I know I’m going to be firing up the coals for that fantastic smoky flavor that cannot be replaced by a gas grill. But don’t take my word for it, take a couple of steaks, hamburgers, chicken, or whatever you like to barbecue most and try one over coals and the other over gas and see which one you like better.
