We’ll start off with the one bit of advice that’s worth more than any other when it comes to buying a barbecue: you should have a realistic understanding of your own needs, personality and patience. That enormous six burner multi-tiered and hooded barbecue may look great in the store, but if you later find that you never use it because you think it’s too much effort to clean, you’ve wasted your money.
Likewise, if you buy a coal burning barbecue because you heard that’s what the “professionals” use, but later find that you don’t use it because heat and charcoal management is too laborious, then, again you’ve wasted your money. Without getting too Zen, knowing yourself is the key to getting to right barbecue.
here’s an ongoing (and unresolved) debate among barbecue enthusiasts about which tastes better:
food cooked on gas or food cooked on coal.
For some people, there’s nothing better than food cooked over a carefully controlled charcoal flame; barbecue cook-off contestants tend to swear by coal.
Others prefer the cleaner taste of food cooked over gas, or just couldn’t be bothered with the mess and smoke of coal.
It’s important, when choosing between a gas and coal barbecue (or electric, if that’s your thing), to have a realistic gauge of how often you plan on using the barbecue and your own level of patience. Coal barbecues are fun and can make great meals, but they do require a little more micro-management than gas and heat up times can take 30 minutes or more.
You may find yourself not using your barbecue as often as you’d like, simply because you couldn’t be bothered firing up the coals.
Excluding the fixed wood-burning barbecues, there are three main types of barbecues you will find in stores: coal, gas and electric. Coal and electric barbecues tend to be smaller and cheaper (and portable), while the gas barbecues are typically for more fixed settings.
A coal barbecue uses burning coal as the heat source, and tend to be cheap, portable and durable.
With a coal barbecue, there are few things to break:
no burners to rust away, electric starters to get clogged, gas tubes to melt or gas cylinders to decay. You don’t need to replace burners or lava rocks periodically.
In short, they’re simple and they make great food.
Typically, the coal is sold in the form of shaped briquettes, some of which can burn for four hours or more before needing to be topped up (and can be reused if extinguished before being burnt out).
Some hardcore barbecue enthusiasts prefer the harder-to-find lump charcoal (or even wood coals transferred from an open fire), which typically has a higher carbon content than the briquette.
Lump charcoal usually burns faster and hotter than briquettes, but also burns less evenly, requiring more management on the part of the cook. If, like most people, you intend to use briquettes, look for a brand of briquette that has at a high percentage of carbon content (65-70% is a good gauge) and low percentages of other individual components.
This will ensure that you get the smoky coal-cooked taste without the added taste of extra chemicals. If there are too many chemicals, or if you use too many firestarters or starter fluids (which tend to have kerosene or other highly flammable chemicals in them) it can affect the taste of your food.
Coal barbecues can be a lot of fun. A lot of people buy them simply because they like to indulge their pyromaniacal urges and play God Of The Coals.
Skilled operators can control heat very well and produce excellent barbecues with it. Unskilled operators can make a total hash of the meal.
It’s not all good with coal, however.
For a start, they require more work than gas. Ash removal, coal replacement and heat management are added cooking tasks.
You might have to wait 30 minutes for the coal to heat up before you can even start cooking.
It all might seem like good fun in the beginning, but it also can lead to a reluctance to use the barbecue for casual meals.
Coal also has environmental issues.
It can send up a lot of smoke, ash and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - and into your clothes, hair and other accoutrements.
It can also seriously annoy the neighbours (especially if you live in an apartment).
You pretty much have to use them outdoors, in well ventilated areas. Lump charcoal, and to a lesser extent briquettes, can also throw out sparks (a potential fire hazard), and its hotter temperatures may damage the sides and finish of the barbecue. Coal is rather more expensive to buy than gas, although it does typically produce more usable heat.
To get the best coal-burning barbecue, there are a few simple things to look out for.
In the shop, give the assembled barbecue a bit of a shake, to see if things start to rattle.
If the components don’t fit together well, you probably have a poorly made barbecue on your hands (This is actually a pretty good rule for all barbecues, not just coal-burning ones).
If you plan on getting a charcoal-burning barbecue, like the host of portable “kettle” barbecues, look for one that has a porcelain-coated (as opposed to painted) sides, lid and grille.
This will make the barbecue last much longer, and enable it to withstand high temperatures.
Otherwise, you may find yourself having to use tin foil to deflect heat and protect your barbecue.
Vents and handles should be made of materials that are as durable as the rest of the barbecue.
Aluminium vents, for example, won’t rust like steel ones.
A simple, removable and well-sealed ash catcher is also a good idea.
The catcher should be fully enclosed. It makes cleaning the barbecue so much easier, and can limit the amount of ash that can be blown about by the wind.
Gas barbecues are cleaner and faster to start than coal-burning ones, and they also tend to have larger cooking areas.
They burn either bottled or natural gas, can be as large or small as you want (as determined by the number of burners) and tend to be much easier to clean than coal.
Gas barbecues are often described by the number of burners they possess, which a rather imprecise measure of the size of the barbecue. (Barbecues can also be measured by the size, in square inches, of the cooking area.
300-400 square inches is enough to cook roughly 15-20 burgers at once.)
Most barbecues sold for home use are of the four-burner variety, which is easily enough to serve a family gathering.
Two and three burner models tend to be more portable, while six or more burners tend to have more industrial uses.
In terms of hot plates and grilles, it’s usually two burners to each plate.
A barbecue burner is typically a cast iron plate, roughly 30-50mm long with a set of small holes along the sides.
The holes spread the heat of the burning gas evenly along the length on the burner. Burners will have to be replaced periodically, so ask your barbecue salesperson about the expected lifespan of the burners and how much they cost to replace.
They’re typically not expensive to replace, but exotic shapes and types may be quite expensive.
The burners heat either a metal “flame tamer” or barbecue rocks.
The flame tamer or rocks act as a buffer between the open flame from the burner and the meat on the grill, diffusing the heat and generally making the gas barbecue act like a coal barbecue.
It’s not clear which is better (metal or rock), although barbecue aficionados often prefer rock - specifically volcanic rock (as opposed to ceramic briquettes).
The rocks act kind of like pseudo coals in the gas barbecue, convecting the heat and evaporated juices from the food on the barbecue.
Barbecue rocks will need to be replaced periodically, although they’re not expensive.
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