As I said in the title, knowing how to start charcoal for the grill is something everyone should know. The method I will describe uses a chimney starter and works for both natural lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes - no lighter fluid involved!
So what do you need to get started? Well, you definitely need a charcoal grill. You can get a super nice one which will be sturdy and heavy duty but will also be very expensive. You can also get a more economical version (even dollar stores sell them) that will probably be smaller and less durable. There are even table top versions available! So, get yourself a charcoal grill as the first step.
The next item required is a charcoal chimney starter. They look like this. They are pretty reasonable in price, but you can also DIY one if you are so inclined.
Then the last three items are charcoal, paper and matches or a lighter.
Place your chimney starter in the bottom of your grill (if it fits) or on the ground where there is no risk of fire (so not in a dried up field or anything, okay?). Fill the bottom portion with a few pieces of crumpled paper (last week's newspaper works well, or junk mail that doesn't have plastic coating or plastic windows) and fill the top portion of the chimney with charcoal.
Use your matches or lighter to start the paper on fire. You may need to fan the bottom a little bit to get the paper going. The paper should catch the charcoal pretty quickly, not more than a couple of minutes. Now, don't touch it or mess with it, just let it catch fire. The flame will leap up over the top of the chimney, this is cool. The coals are ready when they have a coating of white ash and there is minimal white smoke. Dump them into your grill and spread them with a non-flammable item.
You are ready to grill using charcoal!
No comments:
Post a Comment