Grills & Smokers.

The propane or natural-gas grill that runs most American backyards — burners under the grate, a temperature knob, and push-button ignition. Built for convenience and weeknight speed; the tradeoff is less smoke flavor than live fire.

The flat-top — a solid steel cooking surface over gas burners, the Blackstone that took over backyards. No grates and no flame on the food: just a big, even, screaming-hot plate for smash burgers, breakfast, and everything that would fall through a grill.

The thick-walled ceramic cooker — the Big Green Egg and its kin — that holds heat like a kiln. One rig that smokes low and slow, grills screaming hot, and bakes pizza, sipping charcoal and barely needing to be tended.

The round, domed-lid charcoal grill that became the default American backyard cooker. Cheap, nearly indestructible, and versatile enough to sear, roast two-zone, and even smoke low-and-slow on a single rig.

The horizontal wood smoker with a separate side firebox — the rig behind Central Texas brisket. Fire burns off to the side; heat and smoke draft through the cooking chamber and out the stack, cooking low and slow on pure indirect heat and hardwood smoke.

Cooking on a live wood fire with almost no equipment — a grate over a fire pit, an adjustable Santa Maria rig, an Argentine parrilla, or food laid straight on the coals. The oldest way to cook, and still the one with the most flavor and the least control.

The set-and-forget wood smoker — a hopper of compressed-wood pellets, an auger, and a thermostat that holds your target temperature automatically. Real wood smoke with oven-like convenience; the tradeoff is a lighter smoke flavor than a stick burner.

The upright smoker family — bullet water smokers like the Weber Smokey Mountain, ugly drum smokers, and gas or electric cabinets. Fire at the bottom, food stacked above, and a small footprint that holds low-and-slow temps for hours on cheap fuel.