Charcoal is fine as long as you don't use lighter fluid to start the coals. I use a chimney. It you use lighter fluid there that nasty smell then transfers as a bad taste to your food. For grilling many things, propane or NG is great.
I bought charcoal till I got a stick burning smoker. From that point on, I haven’t. It’s either that, propane gas grill or firepit.
I've cooked over pine when camping. Pine really doesn't coal all that well so grilling without a pan can have the results you might expect from cooking in a flame. I've made my share of scorched toast. Flame broiled burgers and linguica can be pretty good. I used to like charcoal briquettes but cooking for just one now they are a bit time consuming and kinda wasteful.
You mean you don’t like the Kingsford match light that is coated/smothered/infused with lighter fluid ??? My wife bought some of that garbage, it works great for starting brush piles & burning stumps but is useless for cooking food unless you usually have a bottle of lighter fluid on the table as a condiment.
In my opinion it 100 percent depends on size and style of smoker…running a weber kettle grill charcoal is a must…also charcoal is free at self checkout line
It's literally the worst. I take over so many tailgate parties or backyard grilling duties because that crap is nasty
Let me guess....alcohol is always involved? I don't know how lighter fluid would saturate the taste of food....unless way way t0o much is used. I use sparingly and with a chimney starter and never had problems or complaints.
Lol, one friend is always preoccupied with conversing with friends when they have people over. So his wife just always has me do the grilling so the food doesn't get burned. Even the slightest amount of lighter fluid used on charcoal and most people can taste it in the food that was cooked with that charcoal. If you have a chimney starter and your using any lighter fluid, you're doing it wrong. Just use some newspaper and it lights right up.
Maybe most people have a more developed palate than yoopers? Must be all those brats down there! Like I say, we can't taster the lighter fluid and haven't ever had any mention of it from guests over the decades of using it. I used to use the newspaper routine but I guess graduated from it. Can't argue with success.
It's a pretty pronounced smell that transfers to the food. I wouldn't call using lighter fluid graduating, now if you want to graduate, then use a blowtorch