The Opposing Sides In The Gas V Coals Argument Are As Irreconcilable As Israel And Palestine But They Both Despise The Third Party With Equal Ferocity
Here we are, another Monday and the end of a barbeque weekend. And again the debates will have raged above the grills as to whether superior results come from a gas barbeque or a charcoal barbeque.
Both varieties have their fans and die hard supporters, and of course many people take a ractical approach and choose the machine best equipped for the matter at hand. Let’s examine the facts in detail.
In the red corner is the gas barbeque. The pro points in its favour will be mostly to do with handiness of use and cleanliness. Since the only requirement is to be able to light the gas, it can be lit in all situations and is instantly available. It heats up very quickly and when the cookery is over, it can be turned off and forgotten about. And of course there are no mucky coals and ash to sweep up and throw away. They are probably more economical as well as a large gas bottle will last for the summer, often more depending on how many times it’s used and how many people it is cooking for.
In the blue corner, the charcoal barbeque sits waiting, the customary method of cooking a barbeque down the generations. Advocates will point to the proper smoke generated, getting into the meat and giving the proper flavour of the barbeque without needing to resort to sauces to substitute for it. They will also have pride in the art of getting a Charcoal barbeque lit, keeping it smouldering and dealing with it when it goes out and cools down.
Yelps of derision from the reds will claim that getting the barbeque lit is normally the problem because the materials utilised such as firelighters, liquids and gels used as accelerants (even petrol and paraffin I’ve seen before) are harsh and stay in the coals tainting the food and cancelling out the smoky tang.
The blue team then huffs and puffs and makes clear that if done properly, using old papers or twigs as kindling is equally good and easy if not better plus you can also find coals contained in paper bags that you put into the fire pit and light to fuel itself and so you get the taste that you can’t achieve with a gas barbeque.
The red team splutters on it’s Pimms and comes back that, yes when new and for a little while that may be true, but after a while the fats and oils from the food that drips down onto the burners or lava rocks, mingle together and eventually create their own plumes of smoke which is just as effective in pumping in the flavour.
But what about portability Blue wants to know, hand on forehead in despair? It’s hard to haul a dirty great gas bottle over the moors or the dunes when you’re having a day out whereas the kettle charcoal barbeque is light, doesn’t take up a lot of space and often folds down into a handy carrying case arrangement. The reds laugh at this and point out that there are various sizes of bottle and they aren’t all bulky, and the gas barbeque itself can be small and easily carried.
All of this is of course grist to the mill of the neutral group who will incur the derisive stares of both of the other teams by pointing out that surely it’s simpler to have one of each type and then use the one best suited to the job at hand.
And so the row continues ad nauseum ad infinitum.
