Types of Grills and Barbecues

Types of Barbecue Grills
Barbecuing seems to have become the national pastime. The humble charcoal grill has blossomed into the complete outdoor kitchen with running water, warming drawers, oven and refrigerator. The choices are myriad. BBQs are built-in or portable. Some grill masters prefer gas grills others choose charcoal.

Permanent or Nearly So
BBQs are built-in and made of brick, stainless steel or porcelain. Some grills have wheels so they can be pushed into place but aren't meant to be portable. Once they're set up they're stationary. Grills range from the simple kettle grill with a cooking space for four or five steaks to grills with several cooking stations and enough space to cook a number of racks of ribs as well as vegetables.

Heat Source
Barbecue is cooking over a heat source. That source is gas, electric or charcoal briquettes. Wood burnt down to charcoal is used as well. Wood chunks are used to produce smoke more for flavoring rather than cooking the food by smoking, although that's possible too. Gas barbeques need a source for the gas, either the neighborhood is piped for gas or the gas is purchased in containers. The container is then attached to the grill. If the source is electric then an outlet needs to be nearby.

Convenience
Gas grills have temperatures controls. The BBQ area is filled with lava rocks. The gas heats the rocks and the food is cooked on the grill tray above the rocks. When the gas is lowered or turned off, the heat dissipates rather quickly. Charcoal grills use either briquettes or charcoal chunks. The heat is controlled by how much charcoal is used, how much it's spread out and how long the charcoal has been burning. The only way to turn the heat off is to wait for the charcoal to burn down completely which takes hours.

Costs
Two costs are involved: the cost of the grill itself and the cost of the heat source. The grills run from around $ 100 for a plain kettle charcoal grill as of 2011 to about $ 250 for a modest gas grill. The sky's the limit on the upscale end of grilling with some monster grills costing thousands of dollars.

Portable
While most backyard grills are meant to stay in the backyard, some grills take to traveling. A charcoal tabletop grill cooks two steaks or six hamburgers. An electric grill goes where ever there's electricity. Hibachi is a table top grill made of cast iron and used with charcoal briquettes. Stove top grill pans give the grill marks to the food but not the real flavor of a barbecue since it's placed on the stove.

Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction business books. She writes on the topics of how to reduce credit card debt and how to how to get out of debt

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