Gas Grills
Gas grills are very popular and with good reason. They are usually made to run on propane or natural gas. Gas grills do have certain advantages over charcoal and electric grills.
Heat is pretty much instant with a gas grill, in fact you can be eating your first steak before you can even begin cooking on a charcoal grill.
You can easily adjust the heat output of a gas grill and again the effect is pretty much instant, indeed, with many grills you can have different heat setting on different areas of the grill. You could have one very hot area and another at a much lower setting for different types of cooking.
Quite often side tables will be incorporated into the grill, allowing food waiting to be cooked to be easily at hand. Many grills have separate gas rings allowing you to use any conventional pans for frying or boiling food while you grill.
Many have the facility to smoke food by using a small metal box containing wood chips, the hood then being lowered to retain the smoke.
Many also have the facility of a rotisserie where a large piece of meat can be cooked by placing on a skewer which is slowly turned to cook the food on all sides. A recent trend for rotisserie cooking is an infrared burner at the back of the grill to provide a more even radiant heat for better cooking of large pieces of meat.
Another emerging trend is flattop grilling, where the food is not exposed to an open flame, this avoids the burning of food as so often happens when food is grilled, especially when fat drips through to the flames below. The flattops are often inclined slightly so that excess fat is drained away leaving healthier less fattier food. Indeed, many gas grills feature an area of grill open to the flames as well as a flattop area allowing different food items to be cooked in different ways.
The gas cylinder is usually integral with the grill, so it can be used anywhere convenient. most larger grills have wheels allowing them to be easily moved around. With electric grills, for example, you need access to a power source and cope with trailing power cables.
It has to be said that gas grills are probably are the most versatile of all grills. Depending upon the configuration of the grill, as well as conventional grilling it is possible to smoke food items, cook with a rotisserie, cook on conventional gas side burners and cook on a flattop grill.