system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does cooking things using different sources of heat (i.e. pan seared, grilled, smoked, oven roasted, etc.) produce different tastes?

I've noticed that people always say the food tastes better, or at least different when cooked (grilled) outside or when camping (over an open flame), and I agree, but I don't why it that's true. Does it have to do with what is being burned to create heat, radiated vs conducted heat, temperature, or something else entirely?
gpt
There are two classes of reason. In the first case, of which smoking meat is the best example, *material from the heat source winds up in the food.* Barbecue contains smoke-stuff, and that smoke-stuff has a distinctive taste.

In the other, it all comes down to just how hot the food gets, and how long it stays that hot. Food cooked right on top of charcoal, will have parts that get *really, really hot,* at least where it was right up against the coal. Food cooked in a 400-degree oven, though, won't have any parts that got hotter than 400°.

Naturally, there are combinations of this; fried food has a distinctive flavor that comes from the oil, but also a particular pattern of how it took on heat from the oil. And different kinds of charcoal- some people swear- give different flavors to the meat they cook.