Summer wouldn’t be summer without a nice garden to enjoy the long evening sun light. Some nights you can stay in the garden in almost the perfect temperature until 9 p.m. What would the garden be without a nice barbecue to see you through those lovely long evenings. In this article I am going to go through the various types of barbecue and what you should pick to make sure you match your own personal requirements exactly.
Charcoal Barbecue
Charcoal Barbecue
Let’s be honest, a charcoal barbecue is unravelled in flavour and authenticity. If you use a decent lump wood charcoal, not the chemically bound together junk, then you’ll infuse a wonderful smokey flame grilled flavour that is rarely rivalled, especially on a yummy chicken. This is particularly important if you like traditional cooking. Many that use a charcoal barbecue do so because they believe a gas grill is just that, an extension of the indoor gas top and more of a fancy gimmick than good old barbecue flavour. Another great reason to use coal is that it is almost all renewable energy now. It’s not dark mined coal that would of powered your steam train, it’s far nicer coal made from slowly cooking wood. It’s pretty much the same thing as a tree, just dried and burnt ready for the barbecue. In terms of cost, it’s not the cheapest but it definitely offer the best flatter if you’re skilled.
Gas Barbecue
Gas Barbecue
As we just mentioned, a gas barbecue is potentially seen to some die hard enthusiast as a gimmick and not something that really deserves to be considered a true outdoor cooking experience. Personally, I have to agree with this, I believe that the best cooking is on charcoal but gas does have some benefits. Firstly, gas is super easy and take no preparation time at all. Unlike charcoal barbecues which take 20 minutes to get going and notoriously difficult to do naturally unless you have plenty of kindling wood. All you’ll need is an electric wood splitter and you’ll be golden, but they aren’t cheap. You literally turn that gas barbecue on and with the flick of gas and a flame your ‘barbecuing’. Well technically we call it a barbecue or a griddle at least, don’t get me wrong, this is ultra popular and for me, I like it too, if it were appropriately branded cooking outdoors then I would absolutely love the concept. Instead, it’s promoted as a barbecue and really shouldn’t be so. Either way, it cooks food just as lovely as the griddle indoors and is certain to make any summer evening a joy with a beer and a lovely bit of barbecue chicken or belly pork.
Outdoor heating
Outdoor Heating
The great thing about a barbecue that’s not often considered is the fact that as an evening draws to an end it starts to get cold. This cold is often forgotten when around a nice barbecue fire or griddle. The heat emission is very similar to that of an outdoor heater, this really means why bother investing in one? You simply keep things comfortable with the use of one toy. I don’t dislike outdoor heaters but it does kind of annoy me that we worry about global warming but on the other foot we then go ahead and just literally burn gas to heat the outside. It has a very negative feeling for me, whereas cooking dinner is a necessity and can’t be put in the same draw.
Summary of barbecues
If I really wanted to be a purist and enjoy outdoor life for real, it’s a charcoal barbecue all day long for me, if not, and I wanted convenience, I would most definitely go for a gas barbecue.
