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By Root 990 0

the egg-shaped kamado has a tight lid. The charcoal and heat-retaining clay in a tandoor generate intense heat (up to 700°F) that quickly sears food. In a kamado, the heat-retentive property of the clay and the lid are used for slowly roasting food at low temperatures (as low as 200°F). Modern versions of these charcoal grill-ovens are made of thick, heavy ceramic and are shaped like an egg, similar to the kamado. The heat-retentive ceramic makes an efficient slow-cooker, allowing you to use very few coals and generating low heat for long periods of time. The airtight lid traps heat and moisture, creating exceptionally juicy whole birds and roasts. Add wood as fuel, and these cookers become efficient smokers. Ceramic grills usually have a cooking area of 10 to 20 inches in diameter, but vertical space allows you to add a second grill grate below the first. Two popular brands are Primo and Big Green Egg.

08. Pit Grill or Smoker

Notice that our description of various wood and charcoal cookers has progressed from “grill” to “grill-oven” to “grill or smoker.” There’s a big gray area between grilling and smoking, but here’s the primary difference: Grills cook food quickly, using relatively high, direct heat, and smokers cook food slowly, using relatively low, indirect heat and lots of wood smoke. A pit grill or smoker is expressly designed for smoking (or barbecuing), in which food is cooked not so much by the radiant heat of the coals as by the relatively cool heat of the wood smoke generated by those coals. To achieve this, the firebox on a pit grill or smoker is often located in a separate chamber offset from the cooking chamber. The cooking chamber is often shaped like a horizontal barrel, as these cookers were originally made (and continue to be made) from steel barrels. But any deep shape (pit) that allows heat to circulate around the food can be used as a smoker.

Some pit grills and front-loading grills allow for both grilling over direct heat and smoking via indirect heat. The available cooking space on these grill-smokers usually hovers between 500 and 800 square inches, but barbecue caterers may use huge rigs with three to four times that much cooking space. A typical backyard steel-barrel smoker burns charcoal or wood, costs $200 to $500, and has enough grill space for several beef briskets or racks of pork ribs or a whole suckling pig. As on a kettle grill, heat is adjusted with the lid and air vents. We should mention here that some water smokers not meant for grilling can be fired by electricity instead of wood or charcoal. These dedicated smokers are usually manufactured in a vertical cylindrical shape and include a water pan for keeping food moist as it smokes.

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BTUs

A single BTU, or British thermal unit, is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water (about 2 cups) by 1 degree Fahrenheit. But the BTU rating on a gas grill doesn’t necessarily measure how hot the grill gets. Most gas grills don’t get hotter than 500° to 600°F. In truth, the BTU rating is a measure of how much gas it takes per hour to fire up all the burners. Larger grills require more BTUs per hour because they have more burners and a larger cooking area.

A typical gas burner requires 9,000 to 12,000 BTUs per hour, so a small two-burner grill needs approximately 22,000 BTUs to fire up its burners to high each hour. But a large six-burner grill needs about 60,000 BTUs. Bottom line: Don’t buy a grill by its BTU rating alone. If you really want a grill that burns hotter, you need gas pipes with a large diameter and burners that require more BTUs. Some very expensive grills are manufactured with burners that accept up to 25,000 BTUs per hour and will burn hotter than the average backyard gas grill.

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09. Gas Grill

A single feature distinguishes gas grills from all other types: the fuel. Gas ignites instantly, emits a clean flame (no smoke or ashes), maintains a consistent yet variable temperature, and can be shut down easily. These conveniences have made gas grills the most popular grills