Mr C and I are contemplating making our first ever BBQ purchase now the garden is done. We would probably usually be cooking just for the two of us, but we would probably shove a fair bit of stuff on there as we are both pigs! :laugh:

But we don't know what type to get! Some people say the gas type ones don't give the meat a nice flavour like real charcoal.

If you have a BBQ, can you recommend what is best in terms of taste, convenience, easy to clean etc?

I always turned my nose up at gas barbecues -but now I reckon they are great. Can't detect any difference in taste; none of that hanging round waiting for the coals to be ready, and no more difficult to clean than any other. Plus there's no charcoal to be got rid of after.

Go gas!

Well what a timely thread Ceri! I've just done my first BBQ of the season ... and jolly lovely it was too!


I've got a gas BBQ and it is so easy, a real pleasure to use. I like the ordinary ones but as a mere female I'm not sure I would be able to light it properly! ... neither would I be fagged to use it so often.

I'm with fee ... go gas!

Me and Mr G got a little (charcoal) BBQ set last summer, and have still not used it. Maybe one day - but we don't want to rudh in to anything! :D

I have never done a BBQ.

I bought one of those disposable ones last year and never got round to using it.
Then today I thought Oooh I'll do a Barbie today.
I love the smell of a barbie going and the taste of the food.

But to be honest I can't be bothered with all the mess and fuss of it all, so we had an indoor barbie, in the oven.:laugh:

Mr A. doesn't like barbies either, thinks he's gonna get food poisining from it.

Sorry Ceri, I'm not really helping much with your question am I?
But I wouldn't have a clue anyway:w00t:

Ceri - we have always had a charcoal one, and it is a bit knackered and old now. But given the choice if I was going to buy one - I reckon I would get a gas one. I cannot tell the difference in taste - and the gas ones are easier to clean and can do far more fandangled things nowadays!!


But you could always settle for a tin bin lid over some charcoal - works great for mussels!!:pimp:

Barbecues always seem to be a bit of a man thing they stand there doing all the meat cooking and taking all the praise forgettting that we have done the shopping for it, part cooked the food for safetys sake and prepared all the salad etc to go with it. Not to mention the cleaning up afterwardswhen they decide they have worn themselves out with all that cooking.


I can't taste any difference between food cooked on gas ones or charcoal so would go for the easier gas option.

Definitely go gas Ceri. For speed and convenience and it tastes no different. Believe me, Mr P is a fussy beggar and he swears by it.

I would NEVER buy gas BBQ. We have tonnes of BBQ's and i luv em. I really do think charcoal ones make the meat taste nicer. My parents have a gas one, and i dont enjoy their meals half as much as ours.

I think the eating / cooking outside should be about trying something different. If i wanted to cook by gas i would go inside and turn the oven on. I want to be a cave woman and stoke up the charcoal and slap half a cow on it. Fan-bluddy-tastic.

But Bonnie - the gas ones do have charcoal (well. lava rocks) - so all the gas does is heat them up. And you can still put hickory chips and so on on top.

End result's still the same - incinerated on the outside, raw in the middle and pizza in the oven.

:laugh:

I think the eating / cooking outside should be about trying something different. If i wanted to cook by gas i would go inside and turn the oven on. I want to be a cave woman and stoke up the charcoal and slap half a cow on it. Fan-bluddy-tastic.

Surely eating outside IS something different.

But Bonnie - the gas ones do have charcoal (well. lava rocks) - so all the gas does is heat them up. And you can still put hickory chips and so on on top.

End result's still the same - incinerated on the outside, raw in the middle and pizza in the oven.

:laugh:

Nah its not the same. You have to WORK at the perfect BBQ ... not just flick a swich. I like the smell of burnt flesh as you desperately get the charcoal lit, and then it explodes like a volcano and takes your eye brows with it. Bliss *Bonnie goes into a dream like state thinking of last years run of BBQ's*

Exactement. You still have to pre-cook your chicken too. Just means you don't get quite so pi55ed whilst you're waiting for the blummin thing to get hot enough.

You can get the same effect by turning on, but not igniting, the gas.

Don't try this at home kids :fireman:

I'm like Andrea and have never had a bbq. To be honest I have put off by the mess of the charcoal etc, but after reading this thread I think I might be tempted by a gas one!

Ils, honest the gas ones are great for precisely that reason. We are the worst for laziness and we have at least one a week at the weekends in the summer. They're so easy. The kids love it too. Youngest master P eats more this way.

I bet a gas one would save countless arguements in our house too.

It is obvious that the cooking domain is mine - but the BBQ domain is his - there we have a HUGE clash of dominance and personalities. And quite often the charcoal misbehaves and he cannot light it - and when I have timed marinades and defrosting and guests for a certain time and he cannot light the blinkin thing - if I say things are fraught, then I am telling huge porkies - I am ready to commit murder.

Gas has got to be the best and easiest, and more importantly the most reliable.

Save Your Marriage Buy Gas!! - a great catchphrase for the gas barbie maufacturers!!

My mum and dad bought a gas BBQ a few years ago and we've used it twice. If we're having a BBQ we usually just use the little disposable ones. Cannae beat them!

We did our garden over three years ago - got rid of all those nasty plants and stuff - decked over every bit of green we could. We bought a **** off Australian gas barbeque complete with hot plates etc. Okay lava rock doesn't have the smell of charcoal but it does maintain a good heat. If you need to smell the barbeque then do what I do, throw a few dried herbs, rosemary or basil onto the rocks a few minutes before cooking; I don't know if it improves the food but it smells lovely.

The secret of barbeque cooking is to do it as slowly as possible - don't cook on a high heat, use the stored heat int he charcoal/lava to cook the food, always use a barbeque sauce, preferably your own, there are loads of recipes out there, try fish, in foil, try vegetable and fruits in foils, pineapple in an orange caramel sauce is to die for.....

If you want to try something different, invite the mother in law over and barbeque her.

If you want to try something different, invite the mother in law over and barbeque her.

LOL - mine would be a bit tough - bit of an old bird - and really she is quite lovely, and would rather her have her in technicolour than in shades of brown!!

Has anyone ever tried a banana split in half slotted with chocolate buttons and then barbied - yummy!!

Has anyone ever tried a banana split in half slotted with chocolate buttons and then barbied - yummy!!

you can guarantee when my dad does a bbq, he'll sit there at the end, mellow from too much beer and insist on putting bananas onthe bbq ... although he tends to drizzle brandy over them ... personally I think chocolate buttons sounds much nicer.