Charcoal Grilling 101 - Can Charcoal Grilling be as Convenient as Gas Grilling?

Most people agree that grilling with charcoal produces better-tasting food than grilling with gas. The theories on why this difference exists are numerous, and some even question whether scientifically there is a real basis for this difference. But whatever the reason, most people, even gas grill owners, agree that all things being equal, charcoal grilled food tastes better than gas grilled food.

So why do gas grills outsell charcoal grills? One word: convenience. There is a perception that charcoal grills are messier, more temperamental, and require more time in preparation and cleanup than gas grills. And its true. However, this convenience gap can be significantly narrowed by choosing wisely when buying a charcoal grill, because just a few key features can have a substantial effect on how time-consuming and difficult your grilling experience will be.

When shopping for your next charcoal grill, be sure to look for the following features:

Ash cleaning system. The term messy often comes up when people complain about charcoal grilling. One of the messiest things about charcoal is cleaning out the ashes.Some cheaper charcoal grills have to be turned over and dumped to empty the ashes, or you have to shovel the ashes out. Better grills have a system where the ashes can be brushed through an opening in the bottom and discarded. Other grills have an ash pan that holds the charcoal, and the ashes are easily emptied by lifting the pan of ashes out of the grill and dumping them. Either mechanism is fine and will greatly decrease your clean-up time.

Adjustably fire control. With a gas grill, you control the heat of a flame with the turn of a knob for instantaneous adjustment. While advanced grillers can control the heat of a charcoal fire by manipulating the air intake from the vents, with many charcoal grills, you are pretty much stuck with the heat of the fire you built. However, many of the better charcoal grills allow for quick heat adjustment, and this is another must-have feature. Like the ash cleaning systems, there are two main methodologies. Either the grill allows the food grate to be lowered or lifted to a choice of heights above the fire, or the charcoal pan can be adjusted closer or further away from the food. Both work the same way, by adjusting how close your food is to the charcoal.

Charcoal adding/rearranging options. No matter how well you plan, there are going to be times when you need more fire than you originally thought, or you need the fire in a different part of the grill. Thats easy to manage with a gas grill, simply by turning the various burners on or off to rearrange the fire. When it comes to charcoal grilling, adding charcoal to meal in progress can be tricky. Most of the time the grate you need to lift in order to add or move charcoal just happens to be full of food. That means it has to be emptied first, or you risk the dreaded hot dog roll-off. Keep an eye out for grill grates that are hinged, which allow you to lift the part of the grate not holding food. In other grills, the grate area is made up of more than one smaller grate that sit side by side. This way you can remove a single section while your food rests on the others. Finally, some premium grills have an opening on the side from which you can add more charcoal without disturbing your food at all.

Choosing a grill with these three features will eliminate most of the hassle attributed to charcoal grilling, and significantly reduce the convenience gap between charcoal and gas.

My site http://www.charcoalgrilling101.com has plenty of information for beginning grillers. For more tips on choosing a grill, please check out http://www.charcoalgrilling101.com/grillcomparison.html

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