“Give me two bricks and an oven rack and some wood, and I’ll cook you a better steak than any expensive gas grill, hands down. It might look good in your garden, it might be more convenient, it might impress your friends, but it’s not going to cook you a better steak.”
-Chris Schlesinger, Owner, East Coast Grill, Cambridge, MA
I take a pretty hard line when it comes to the debate of charcoal versus gas for grilling. When someone tries to extol the benefits of gas to me I usually reply with a comment along the lines of “If I wanted to cook with gas, I’d stay in my kitchen” I took a class with Chris Schlesinger once, who, when asked about cooking times for a gas grill on whatever he was making replied: “I don’t know. I don’t cook with gas.”
When I lived in an apartment and gas was all I could get away with, I used gas. But ever since we moved into our current house, I have sneered at the gas-aholics whenever the subject came up.
Until a few summers ago. That’s when after years of toiling in our non-centrally-air-conditioned kitchen I hit upon the idea of usuing a gas grill as a sort of “outdoor oven” to keep the heat down in the kitchen. With a company awarded gift certificate we aquired a cheap s*#t gas model from Sears. Since then we’ve baked bread, tarts, crumbles and roasted oven-dried tomatoes in the damn thing. Between the heretic gas grill and the BGE, we rarely turn the kitchen oven on at all during July and August.
Memorial Day weekend traditionally kicks off the summer grilling season, so I ask you, loyal readers to weigh in. The gloves are off. Which do you prefer?
4 Comments so far
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JerzeeTomato 
Gas? I already have an oven. Get the BGE fired up, keep it to 200 degreees for 18 hours for a brisket or 800 degrees for a bone-in ribeye sear.
Gas…..pffffffffffffffffffft
Comment by Killer May 22, 2009 @ 4:56 pmThe Principessa weighs in with charcoal…unless we’re making Steingarten’s no-knead bread or Segundo’s birthday cake. Then I’m all about flatulence.
Comment by The Principessa May 22, 2009 @ 5:18 pmYUM…I would just like to be a guest!
Comment by Kathleen Kraft June 20, 2009 @ 1:19 pmI would prefer gas in the kitchen so I can roast a marshmallow in the winter, but for grilling outside, charcoal please. Nothing beats the taste of charcoal grilled food. Love smokers too, with hickory and apple wood, put the meat in and leave it all day. Just can’t beat it.
Comment by AngieG9 September 19, 2013 @ 1:31 pm