Originally Posted by
November4
Went to a demonstration at my local garden centre by Weber the other week. They asked who prefered using gas or charcoal then said it makes no difference whatsoever. They both supply heat. The taste comes from the fat hitting the heat source producing smoke and the caramelising of the food. In fact most of their cooking was done using indirect heat effectivly making the BBQ an outdoor oven.
Arse!
Weber themselves sell the "Smokey (sic) Mountain" smoker. It runs on charcoal and is an indirect cooker rather than a direct one. The whole point of such things is to inflect a smoky flavor into the meat. The bog-standard Weber kettle that this thread was founded on is capable (but not very good at it) of the same thing.
Direct cooking, I agree that the heat source is not as much of an issue as the actual heat. But in the higher-end Weber gas models (i.e. not the Q series), they have "flavorizer bars", the point of which is to burn up the fat which drops onto it.
For a couple of bratties, it's a bit ridiculous to fire up a charcoal BBQ, especially a reasonably-sized one, and the Genesis on my back deck does a great job of those. But I wouldn't dream of putting ribs, a pork loin, or whole bird on it.