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I was raised on charcoal, so I think I'm supposed to say charcoal.

I probably wouldn't be able to discern a huge difference.

I need two steaks to be cooked for me. One on gas and one on charcoal.

It's the only way for me to solve this mystery.

On anything that isn't going to get the long cook treatment(say, minimum cook time of 15-25 minutes or so), I really can't taste the difference as the flavor of the smoke is easily overpowered by the flavor of the meat and the seasonings, so really I don't see the point of using charcoal for something like a steak, burger, or other small piece of meat that's likely to be done in less that 10-12 minutes on the grill.

I'm with you on anything bigger, though, on a strictly flavor perspective, until you get to something big enough that it needs to be bathed in smoke for an extended period of time, at which point, it's time to go ceramic smoker, IMO.

prep and cleanup is longer, but is still only half the issue (less than half really). The bigger issue for most people is the time it takes to get the charcoal to the correct temperature point for even cooking. Depending on the size of the bed, it can easily take 30 minutes for the coals to be ready to cook over. For people who just want to put something on the grill and cook it, gas is much more quick and convenient. And if you're using marinade or rubs, you're going to get a great tasting steak without spending an hour to cook it.

Obviously, gas doesn't add the flavor of the coals to the meat. And as a couple of people have pointed out, if you really want to "do it right", you should use charcoal. But if you don't know what you're doing, you'll probably ***** up the charcoal cooking. I've seen some really bad examples. I never criticize someone feeding me steak, but I've had more than a few effectively ruined because the guy cooking it didn't let the coals settle properly. I suppose some people actually like their steaks burnt on the outside and raw on the inside, but I'm not one of them...

It's easier to cook a "good" steak over a gas grill. It's easier to cook a "bad" steak over charcoal. Obviously, if you're picking the type of grill, I'd hope you know your own skill level and will pick appropriately. But if you're not patient enough to cook over charcoal properly, do your guests a favor and buy a gas grill.

If done right a rare Pittsburgh is heaven on a plate. Most casual places can't cook it that way though and it's why I hardly ever order steak.

edit: I don't know why I even mentioned that in a thread about grills.

Edited, Aug 9th 2010 4:09pm by Kaain

In a large enough population someone's going to give name to someone else's bad cooking and insist that it's a "style". It doesn't make it good.

Now I feel like I have to apologize to Flea for calling her cooking "bad". I'm going to assume that she cooks it that way because some crazy person asks her too.

Any sane person knows that a steak should be cooked relatively evenly through. You can have variations of brown to pink (should in fact), but if the outer edge is crispy (not seared, or blackened, but with burnt flakes on it), you're doing something wrong.

Don't sweat it. The day I take steak advice from San Diego is the day I might as well give up eating steak ;)

I must ask for this next time at Outback.

They'll probably fail miserably at it. Don't bother asking for it unless you go to real steak house.

Crunchy on the outside, almost as chewy as squid on the inside?

Uck.