When I was a kid, I had this idea of what a man was. It was pretty simple. A man always had a knife. Always. A man could tie knots. All kinds of knots. And a man grills on charcoal, not gas.
My dad is a man like that. The dude always has a knife on him, and looks for any chance to whip the thing out. If there’s a stick to whittle, or a birthday present to slice open, he’s your guy, and he makes a big deal out of it, shouting “KNIFE’S OUT!” so nobody rushes him and accidentally gets stabled. Seriously. This is the sort of role model I’m dealing with here.
The man can tie knots, too. Like, all the knots. I’d name them, but I don’t know their names because I can’t tie knots. My dad has tried to teach me over the years, but I just can’t retain the knowledge. On average, there are two occasions each year when I have to tie a tie, and each time I have to look up how to do it on Youtube.
Thank god for the internet.
So you’d probably guess that I don’t cook on charcoal either, and you’d be right. I cook on gas. And I’m acutely aware that there’s a robust and ongoing debate about which grilling method is better. Most high-end restaurants use gas grills, most dudes who carry pocket knives and tie knots use charcoal. Like the great Tupac vs. Biggie debate, people typically land firmly on one side or the other, gas or charcoal, and they do not stray from their chosen side.
My problem is, I truly believe charcoal is the superior method, but I only cook on gas, because gas is so much more convenient. I cook everything on the grill—carrots, fish, burgers, dogs, watermelon…Who the hell has 10 minutes to wait for the charcoal to reach cooking temps when they’re trying to get dinner on the table every night?
Maybe it’s my inner caveman, some primal instinct that can’t be squelched regardless of how much time I spend in my minivan, but I truly believe that cooking for my family on an open flame is one of life’s beautiful moments. My kids being born is another one. The first time I dunked a basketball, that was a beautiful moment. My first beer. The time my wife and I drank straight from a coconut that I busted open on a rock, while sitting on a secluded beach after hiking miles through the jungle…that was a beautiful moment.
Standing with a beer in my hand, cooking steaks over an open flame while my kids play basketball on the driveway is a beautiful moment I get to enjoy day after day. It’s the closest I get to recreating some of the best memories of my childhood, when I’d play catch with my dad while he cooked his specialty, lemon chicken. I might not be able to tie knots, but I can sear a damn piece of meat with the best of them.
So yeah, grilling is important to me. And while gas is the right choice for me most of the time, there are occasions when I wish I could fire up some charcoal and linger as the coals turn red hot, then settle into a chalky, white mound of heat. Special occasions, like big family dinners, or neighborhood block parties when you’re spending hours drinking and turning dogs and burgers over a hot flame.
But that would require two grills, a gas grill for everyday cooking and a charcoal grill for special occasions. I don’t have the space in my garage for that. Plus, having two grills is a bit excessive. Enter the Char-Broil Gas2Coal, a propane grill that converts into a charcoal grill in about a minute. This isn’t the first grill to combine gas and charcoal into one package, but it is the most compact and seamless combo grill I’ve ever used. Most gas/charcoal combos are massive, side by side units with your gas option on one side, and a charcoal grill on the other. Basically, they’re two grills welded together. But the Gas2Coal is a single, standard size three-burner grill that converts from gas to charcoal and back like a damned Transformer. Use the grill as a standard gas setup with three burners, 40,000 BTUs and an electric ignition, or slip the stainless steel tray between the burners and the grate, load it with coals and you can use the same surface as a charcoal grill.
The best part? You can light the charcoal with your gas burners and electric starter. Once the coals are hot, cut the gas and let the bricks do the work.
I had the chance to spend some time cooking on the Gas2Coal, using it in both capacities for a number of meals. Most of the time, I ran gas because it’s faster. And the Gas2Coal is truly quick. The ignition process is flawless and the grill heats up to 550 in about 75 seconds—way faster than most other grills I’ve had the chance to use. Getting the grill so hot, so fast makes it easy to sear meat at high temps, but it’s also simple to back the heat down on this thing when I want to put veggies or fruit on the grill. And that’s the real beauty of cooking with gas. Screw convenience, gas gives you easy temperature control.
But charcoal…charcoal gives you smoky flavor. And converting the grill to charcoal proved to be as easy as advertised. I pulled the grates off, slid the steel plate in place, loaded it with charcoal and it was good to go. It literally took about a minute. And then I almost burned my house down.
Apparently, you need to be really careful about how much coal you put into the tray. I loaded the thing up, lit the coal with the gas burner, then watched as the flames grew feet above the grill. I shut the lid and the temperature gauge climbed to 900 and beyond. It looked like the needle was about to break off. Call it user error. I should’ve lined the grate with a single layer of coals, evenly spaced apart to control the heat. Lesson learned.
After things calmed down, the grill performed beautifully in its charcoal state. I knocked out a multi-family cookout of burgers, brats, corn and avocados like a champ. The burgers were juicy, the brats were smoky. It was a hell of a Sunday. Another beautiful moment. And Monday, I went back to being the lazy, no-knot-tying man that I am and cooked dinner on gas. Because it’s easy. And I like easy.
Charcoal and gas in the same grill. It’s mind-blowing. Maybe it’s time to reassess my notions about manhood.
Graham Averill is Paste’s Drink editor. You can follow his drinking antics on twitter or his blog, Daddy Drinks.