Well this is really up to you but please allow us to answer this question by providing a bit more back ground info’s as follows:

  • Charcoal was the most popular heat source for outdoor cooking in the past and was overtaken by gas with the gas grills for convenience and speed in our industrialisation
  • Charcoal is a derivat of wood
  • There are many different charcoal qualities on the market
  • As this is a volume product and many mass retailers use charcoal as a frequency transporter especially that the husband comes shopping in the store and therefore it is very price driven
  • Anything that is price driven usually looses quality aspects for the product which comes with this strategy by nature
  • Good Charcoal is hard wood junk charcaol pieces so something big and with real some wood elements in it
  • The more expensive the Charcoal is the better is usally the quality
  • So any bag under 10€/Sfr/$ what ever size is not really recommendable
  • Charcoal does not provide much or most time no taste at all only provides heat and fire and flames (flames should be avoided for the nutrution as they only destroy you need only the heat)
  • Buy if you buy charcoal best quality charcoal
  • Now why using charcoal if you could use wood ?
  • There is only price and easyness of the supply which could bring you towards charcoal
  • Only wood has all the needed and wanted humidity and much higher temperature as charcoal and most importantly much more flavour
  • Now the selection of the wood makes all the differences in flavor and aroma
  • Especially a tree which did carry an eatable or even an uneatable fruit usually has a lot of flavour and this is what we want when we cook/grill or BBQ especially large pieces and for a longer cooking time (so Barbecueing)
  • Please note many grills especially the thin gage grills and even most inexpensive thin wall stone Fire places/Cheminees can not use wood as they would crack and bend and get distroyed this is why they recommend to use charcoal because of the quality of the Grill – so thickness of the steel or stone plates and the quality is everything.
  • Only with 3 mm upwards or even better with our standard thickness of 6,5 mm with the 16″ BBQ’s or with over 7 mm with the 70″ BBQ’s you can relaxed use wood and add all humidity of the air and the wood and last but not least all the flavour
  • A wood fire burns as fast or even faster than firing up charcoal and by cooking inderect (Fire in the Firebox and cooking in the main chamber) you can start to cook in 5 – 10 min on a smoker so faster than any charcoal direct grill technology where you should minimal wate 20 min or more till you have the glow and no flames (most people do not wait that long with a charcoal grill this is why they struggly then with the meat or fish or the vegetables over the fire on a charcoal grill!
  • If a good and dear friend asks me this question – i would answer thim like this: if you want no flavour from the heat source then use Charcoal – so charcoal is also good and usable if you want to cook very long extended BBQ and you do not need or want to add aditional flavour to the food (the first World BBQ Champion a top Restaurant cook told me over 25 years ago this and first i stumbled but then i got it )