Propane Grills Are Convenient But Have One Major Downside

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Grillers tend to fall into two camps: Team Charcoal or Team Propane. Propane grills are certainly convenient and easy, since cooking over them is kind of like using a gas stove outdoors. Propane is also considered healthier than charcoal, since breathing in the smoke that the latter produces may be harmful. This same smoke, however, is part of what makes char-grilled food so flavorful, and it's something propane just doesn't have. No lesser authority than Grill King Bobby Flay has declared charcoal-cooked food to be tastier, and Scott Thomas of The Grillin' Fools tends to agree. "A lot of charcoal snobs look down their noses at gas grills. I was one of them," he admits.

The flavor, however, depends on what type of charcoal is used. As Thomas explains, "Charcoal briquettes use petroleum products to press bits of charcoal together into [a] briquette. The chemicals do not help the flavor of food, which is why lump charcoal is a much better fuel source than briquettes." Lump charcoal, he says, has had at least 90% of its impurities cooked out of the wood from which it's made. "The higher the percentage, the better," he advises, and you may be able to find 100% hardwood lump charcoal at your local grocery store during grilling season.

Of course, this doesn't help if you only have a gas grill. Fortunately, Thomas says it's not difficult to amp up the flavor of food cooked over propane: "The best way to improve the sterile flavor coming from gas — it is really flavorless — is to use smoke wood somehow," he advises.

Transforming your grill into a smoker is almost too easy. Sure, it's simpler to do this with a charcoal grill, since all you need to do is place soaked wood chips right on top of the coals. If you're cooking with propane, though, you'll need an extra accessory. As Scott Thomas notes, "There are metal boxes that can attach to the burners or just sit on top of the grill grates." (An example of the latter type is the stainless steel BBQCuker Smoker Box.)

The way to smoke meat on a propane grill is to light the burners on one side only, thus creating an indirect heat zone. Put the smoker box over the lit burners, then hold a few pieces of smoke wood over the flames. (You'll need tongs for this.) When the wood starts smoldering, put it in the box. You'll cook the meat over the unlit burners, which means it will take longer than if you were grilling it over the fire. As Thomas tells us, "That gas grill is now a smoker. The meat will cook indirect[ly and] smoke by being near the hot burners, but not be directly over the hot burners."