No offense meant to anyone but in our family we always maintain that barbequing is man cooking for men with man fire and man tools. In consequence Alison and I play no part in this activity, instead young Shaun, or failing Shaun, one of our many male friends, will officiate.

As to whether they use propane or charcoal, I would not dare interfere. 

charcoal snob

Quotebarbequing is man cooking for men with man fire and man tools

OMG your right! Now what am I going to do? 

Quote from: rejennyrated on February 06, 2011, 06:15:11 PM
barbequing is man cooking for men with man fire and man tools.

What? It's 2011 dear... I am woman, watch me cook while you drool and your stomach roars for more   

Im a Charcoal guy.  when i was a kid its what we used and If you use it right it cooks through perfectly. We had propane for the house and I had to fill them as a teenager, that stuff stinks to high heaven. Probibly why i dont want to cook with the stuff.

Charcoal from wood burned down in an open pit. Different woods, different flavors.
Joelene

First of all, I have to take issue with Jenny. "barbequing is man cooking for men " That's kinda what my dad said when I told him I was Trans. He said with a big sad face, But I thought you liked to barbeque??"
"Yes dad I do because I just love to cook, didn't you notice at the family get-togethers I did the barbequing as well as all the other cooking, the bread the night before and even the pies for desert??"

A girl has got to be well versed in all types of cooking if she is going to please the company she keeps.

  Now as for Charcoal on gas? There is no harm in being a "Bi-quer" or trans-a-que. First of all it depends on the season.  In the winter months I still like to grill, so gas is a no brainer. It is usually too cold and wet out to tend a fire.  All the other season I use a combination of wood and charcoal, but not those charcoal brickettes ( those are horrible).  But don't forget we are talking "Grilling" here. I think most people don't even know how to barbeque or even that barbeque is not the same as grilling. Because (and I am not being snobby here,) it is impossible to barbeque with charcoal or gas, alone. So as far as real barbequing, there is only one way, WOOD.

(Oh and Jenny, I was just kidding, you know I love you)

  Hugs from  grill-mistress, Roxy

electric    just turn on, work instant and havent to worry about out of gas or charcoal 

but wood make better taste

I do the wood thing up at the cabin. At home it is the briquettes in the old Weber, but with no lighter fluid.  I use fire-log starters, which are wood chips pressed in a wax. These comes in blocks that are soft and pliable. I tear off pieces of this and put them in the pile of briquettes, they light up easy. I then put another layer of briquettes on top, wait till they turn white. This puts a neutral, non-lighter fluid taste on the food, but adding your favorite wood chips (hickory, mesquite, etc.) soaked in water on the ready coals will give you the extra flavor.
Joelene

Which do you prefer:  charcoal, propane, wood, electricity, pellets, etc. for use to cook food using outdoor grills?

For at-home grilling, I prefer propane. Easy cleanup.

For camping, gotta be a wood fire. Nothing beats breakfast cooked on a wood fire with percolated coffee on a cold morning in the forest.

Quote from: Medusa on February 25, 2011, 03:27:07 AMelectric    just turn on, work instant and havent to worry about out of gas or charcoal 

but wood make better taste

Electric smoker with woods chips, or propane grill.

On my most recent visits to a certain African national park, although firewood and charcoal were for sale, there were signs encouraging people to use propane as it is more eco-friendly.  (They actually needed to cut down on firewood use because they had agreed to supply local communities with large amounts of firewood.) However, one of my happiest memories of my mother is cooking with her over a wood fire in that national park, the wood having been brought to us routinely and without charge by a rest camp caretaker.

Propane may be more eco-friendly but for feeling close to nature, wood or charcoal are best.  I don't hunt but around the fire I have dined with hunters eating meat without hypocrisy while other predators whooped, roared and giggled.  Although some hunters do like to hold "records", I believe that all hunters are just trying to be part of nature rather than just voyeurs.  The wood fires, and the horns and antlers on the walls, are ways of bringing nature into otherwise tame and sterile homes.  I think that it is spiritual, shamanic even. 

That was certainly true around a fire in the Kalahari around which a Bushman community were dancing and singing.  I wanted to get get up and join them but I felt too "relaxed".  I later learned that it was because they had added wild cannabis to the fire.

(I know that some people find the term "Bushmen" offensive but the alternative terms "San" or Khoisan were derogatory terms used by KhoiKhoi people.  Nobody who admires bushcraft uses "Bushman" as an insult.)

I recently got converted to Propane!..

as Hank says 'Taste the meat, not the heat'

Neither. I don't cook food outdoors, lol. I live in Britain. The only time we cook outside is on a campfire. If we aren't trying to impress the neighbours by giving them salmonella. I haven't had that for so long. This one dude I used to know, would literally heat up a rock and cook on it. I swear he was a druid or something. That natural cooking was awesome.

Quote from: Sephirah on November 08, 2024, 11:18:41 PMwould literally heat up a rock and cook on it.

Some Mongolian Barbecues do that. If you have never been, it is worth the show. The place I would go to had three chefs working at once, walking in circles around this giant round (flat) rock. You pick your ingredients, and they move them around the rock, scooping and flipping stuff around, then scrape it off into your bowl perfectly cooked.

It is SO good.

Some places have a round metal grill. Same show just not as impressive as cooking on a rock. 

Quote from: Lori Dee on November 08, 2024, 11:25:07 PMSome Mongolian Barbecues do that. If you have never been, it is worth the show. The place I would go to had three chefs working at once, walking in circles around this giant round (flat) rock. You pick your ingredients, and they move them around the rock, scooping and flipping stuff around, then scrape it off into your bowl perfectly cooked.

It is SO good.

Some places have a round metal grill. Same show just not as impressive as cooking on a rock. 

Natural is best! It just adds something to the food. Maybe it's all in the mind, but having a bacon sandwich off a rock during my Navy days was like, one of the highlights of my life lmao. Probably tapped into some primal urge or something. I dunno. I think people around the world have some amazing ways of preparing food.  Stuff you wouldn't believe until you tried it. That's kind of what I love about our planet, the wealth of knowledge we can all share with each other.