Everybody who truly loves to cook outdoors and to eat barbecue struggles from time to time with the question of deciding if gas is better than cooking with charcoal and wood. In case you do not know, charcoal and wood are best. However, there is a lot to be said for an infrared gas grill that will grill at temperatures above 1000 degrees within a minute of igniting the grill burners. Moisture stays locked inside food grilled at such high temperatures and both the texture and the flavor of food grilled over one-thousand degrees is amazing. However, slow and low barbecue is also awesome. A slow smoke in a kamado egg-shaped barbeque is so heavy the heat and smoke is locked inside the cooking area. As the low heat causes the food to sweat or drip moisture the flavor in the air is absorbed in the food for all kinds of mixtures using various smoking wood and charcoals.
This second island is also a design where the client was not willing to sacrifice gas for charcoal. Most of us sacrifice flavor for convienence when we switch from charcoal to gas but most gas barbecues are not very good for flavor. Charcoal and wood cooking appliances are Great for adding flavor and texture to cooked food but cooking with charcoal and wood involves a lengthy commitment. With Gas we can push a button and the barbecue is ready to cook.
The flavor is generally worth the work and charcoal cooking is always going to produce an amazing, distinct flavor. The only exception to the natural supeiority of natural fuels is the infrared gas grill. Infrared built in barbecue grills will grill over one-thousnad degrees to lock moisture in the food. The island above has an OCI charcoal barbecue and a Solaire infrared grill. We also built a bar top at bar height so diners will face the lake in the center of the community unstead of staring at the house. This homeowner thought-out their design well in advance and has a perfect compliment to their backyard entertaining tools.