Charcoal or Gas? or Wood?

Charcoal has the advantage of burning hotter and drier than propane, so you can’t beat it for searing meats, seafood, and vegetables. It’s also easy to smoke on a charcoal grill and virtually impossible to really smoke on a gas grill. But charcoal—at least charcoal that’s been properly lit—imparts no intrinsic flavor. (That’s not to be confused with the half-lit charcoal soaked with lighter fluid we cooked over when I was growing up. For many people raised in the 1950s and ’60s, that’s the taste we associate with barbecue. Happily, times have changed.)