i know nothing about bbq's but i need to buy one soon. any recommendations? i'd rather not spend over 300 bucks.
You kinda have to decide what you want it for. If all you really want to do is apply heat to meat, gas or charcoal are essentially the same concept. Neither of them will be a first choice for smoking. Two different deals. Smoking and grilling that is. For cooking steaks or burgers or shikkens, etc. my opinion (and this has always been a controversial topic on Rusty's Grill) is that any way to apply heat to meat is essentially the same. The Weber kettle is really hard to beat for price and versatility in that regard, but for your price range you could get any number of appliances at your local Home Depot or Lowes. I personally would prefer one with a cast iron cooking grate as opposed to porcelain coated. I would not go for stailess steel grates as they don't seem to last very long or ever really get clean, but then it might very well be cheaper to just replace a stainless steel flimsy grate every couple of years. They don't give good sear marks on steaks if that is important to you. It seems today that most people want a good crust on a grilled item so you should look for something that will allow you to move the meat from really high temp to another temp. It's kinda hard to tell charcoal to stand down so lots of people prefer a charcoal grill with enough space to sear and then move to a less fiery zone. With a gas grill you can impose your will on the grill and easily just shut down a zone. It won't then make ice, but it will cool down enough to slow the cooking process so you don't eat shoe leather. Smokers, which I don't think you are talking about are typically pretty thick metal and are slow to heat up and slow to cool down. Here is where I will fade heat if anyone even reads this board anymore. There is virtually NO difference between the taste of an item grilled on either gas or coals. CERTAINLY not in your price range (and I believe you can serve up some really tasty stuff on a $200 grill). Meat does not accept smoke flavor except very slowly which means low heat and mosmoke. The faster the meat reaches "cooked", the less time to absorb smoke. Some believe that the flavor of the sear is variously affected by the combustion of either charcoal or gas or the "flare-up". I don't. My opinion. Many of the fancy steak places use cast iron griddles for the sear and then put them in an oven. They don't go out back and tend to either a charcoal or gas grill. Or gassy girl. So, after my extended and probably useless pontification, I will confess that for grilling I bought a Pauly Jr. flamethrower with cast iron grates from HD for around $120 and I really like it. I don't think it would be good for a big dinner party serving steaks, but for 8? max it is excellent. I can replace it almost three times for your budget. None of them are going to last as long as...a tattoo...a microwave...a cast iron griddle and and oven...a car stereo...a cell phone.
nd, i really appreciate your response. i guess then a charcoal/gas combo grill really doesn't make sense. i have been very intrigued with getting a smoker. i watched a few youtube vids of guys smoking brisket for 12 hours and it looked f'n awesome. so lowes or home depot are the places to buy grills?
No smokers at those places. You CAN cook a brisket on them, but it's kinda like the difference between hiring a hooker for a night or marrying a great woman. Both with get you off, but not all of them will make you happy for a lifetime and $300 will not last a lifetime for a hooker, a grill or a smoker so...
I have had a charcoal weber kettle and been happy with it & a WEber genesis silver B gas grill and been happy with it. You can grill on either. Right now, I have two Big Green Eggs, which can be used as both a smoker and a grill. It's outside the price limit you put out there, but I love them. I can cook briskets or pulled pork at 225 degrees for 18+ hours, steaks, and then do pizza at 900 degrees. Really versatile.
