Charcoal

I'm with these fellows. For me, grilling outside means charcoal or stove-wood, split fine and allowed to burn into hardwood coals. There is a place for propane, if you are frying fish or making moonshine, but you don't need propane for that, either. A gas burner is just damned convenient. Now, Char-broil is coming out with an infrared grill, and I think that smacks of heresy. Have they no shame?

For the pure flavor of barbeque, you need real fire and real smoke, and you can't get that with propane, or with infrared. There is art and science to outdoor cooking.

If you want real down-home ribs, or chicken, or pork, or beef cooked as barbeque, you gotta get out the wood, or just be a poser. If you don't have the time to do it yourself, hells bells, guys, there is a rib joint just down the street.

My sisters will put my slow grilled chicken against any in the world, and my brisket is locally famous. I haven't had a failed brisket in the last ten years.

Hell, if you want to use propane, or gas or anything else, why not just go inside and crank up the stove?

Done properly, you can cook just about anything on a fire, including bread. I'm talking about starting with flour and using a dutch oven, and in a couple of hours having fresh bread. I've cooked entire meals on flame, and my charcoal grill outside is just a convenient extension of a campfire. It keeps me from bending over to cook. There is nothing better than a big Dutch oven filled with biscuits, with bacon and eggs cooked over a wood fire, washed down with boiled coffee, but I digress.

Barbeque on anything but charcoal or hardwood is just heresy. It smacks of domestic beer. It's like kissing thru a screen door. It's like taking your cousin to the prom. There are some things you just shouldn't do.