What About Natural Gas Grills?

So what's the deal with a natural gas grill?" someone asked me the other day. I had to admit that I'm not much of an authority when it comes to smoking meat and natural gas. I use it to cook on at home on my stove, but I've always been more in the traditional camp when it comes to BBQ. I feel that the meat just tastes better when there is a lot of labor involved. I'm not so closed minded as to believe that this is anything more than a psychological device I use to endear myself to a particular style over another, but I like the history and tradition of BBQ.

That being said, I still believe that all the different methods of preparing smoked meat have their place, even if I have a favorite method. There are some similarities between the propane grill and the natural gas grill. In my last post I discussed some of the the advantages of having a propane grill. Most of these are the same advantages one would have with a natural gas grill. The one exception is that natural gas is not as common to find as a fuel as propane typically is found to be. Other than that there are many upsides to having one. Portability, ease of use, consistent cooking temperature, ease of clean up, and time efficiency all go in the plus column for this model. The drawbacks are very similar to my feelings that I expressed at the beginning of this article. It isn't really traditional. For some folks that is just fine. They are very solid grills that produce great flavor and last for a log time if properly taken care of over the life of the grill. These days you can even get flavor chips to add to your gas grill to induce a very similar flavor that would be found in the more traditional wood smokers (some would argue that the flavor produced by the chips is the same, but I'm not really in that camp. You still get a great flavor, but it isn't exactly what you get out of 6 to 10 hours on a wood smoke pit).

If you have a busy lifestyle and can't afford to spend hours and hours getting a wood pit temperature "just right" or you feel that you won't compromise on flavor in any discernible way, then the natural gas grill might be a wonderful choice for you. I would probably get one just to play with it and really test its limits. Just to see how much performance I could get out of it and, of course, compare it to my favorite smoker and grills. Until I did that I would have a tough time trading it in for a more traditional model - well, I don't ever trade in any BBQ smoker, I like to collect them.