Barbeque has been a long standing method of cooking. The method of cooking has been around for centuries, rotisserie, pig roasts, or even charring some meat over a camp fire are closely related methods of cooking. However, only two of those three items are rightfully considered barbeque. Grilling is a term used for something that cooks quickly over a hot, close heat source. Barbeque on the other hand denotes a longer, slower cooking process that is measured in hours rather than minutes.

The newest innovations in the realm of outdoor cooking are infrared barbeques. They are barbeques that cook utilizing infrared radiant heat, rather than a flame heating air. They utilize a heat source, usually natural gas or propane, to heat a ceramic tile to a very high temperature. This tile then emits infrared radiation. It can also be seen glowing red in most infrared barbeques, but the real power of the cooking technique is in the radiation beyond the spectrum of human sight.

One of the biggest advantages of infrared over other heat sources such as propane or charcoal is a uniform heat source. The ceramic tile ensures that the heat is distributed evenly across the grilling surface. Anyone familiar with grilling knows how annoying hot spots on the grill are. You'll have one piece of meat charring while others are still raw. These hot spots are a weakness of most grills, but infrared barbeques have solved that particular issue.

The reason that an infrared barbeque has no hot spots like a typical grill is because it cooks the food in a fundamentally different way. Most grills use hot air to cook the food. So the flames heat the air, which transfers that heat to the food and cooks it. Thus your grill is always susceptible to air currents and gas pressure changes, which are the real reason behind hot spots. An infrared barbeque, on the other hand, bypasses the air to cook utilizing infrared radiation, which is part of the spectrum of light. It moves in wave form through the air, rather than transmitting its energy to the air around it. This means that the heat that your grill emits streams straight from the cooking surface to the meat, without being subjected to distortion or redirection. That is the real power behind infrared barbeques.

This technology was invented prior to the turn of the millennium, but it was under patent until shortly after that time. After the patent expired, a legal battle ensued that sought to decide who was legally allowed to manufacture these barbeques. The courts finally decided that the concept of cooking via infrared radiation was not limited to the previous patent holders, and market competition has sprung up in the years since that decision. This has resulted in a drastic lowering of prices as the market expanded, at one point it was impossible to find an infrared barbeque for less than $10,000, but now there are some models available for under $1,200.