Compared to cooking on an electric or gas grill, using a charcoal grill is a bit trickier because it’s more “manual.” You have to put more effort into building, controlling and maintaining heat and fire. You also have to watch your food at all times. But if you can master a charcoal grill, using other types will be a piece of cake!
Follow these helpful tips for all charcoal grill users:
Use a chimney starter
Lighting a charcoal grill with lighter fluid is easy, but there is a high risk that the food will taste like kerosene. Instead, use a chimney starter: you’ll only need a sheet of paper and a match to light about 100 briquettes in less than 30 minutes.
Start with a 6-quart model that is readily available at most home and hardware stores.
Know how much charcoal to use
Once you are familiar with using a chimney starter, you will become more comfortable controlling the heat of your grill. Fill the starter with charcoal for high heat, fill it 1/2-3/4 full for medium heat, and 1/4 full for low heat, which is great for smoking and roasting whole poultry, large roasts, and spare ribs.
Control the temperature through the vents.
With electric and gas grills, you can easily adjust the grill temperature by turning the knobs. That’s not possible with a charcoal grill. However, you can help control how hot your coals will be by opening and closing the vents.
This will help you control the flow of oxygen – opening the vent allows for more oxygen, which means a hotter grill.
Dealing with breakouts
Most grills would use a spray bottle of water to treat flare-ups, but this will only throw ash onto the food. Flare-ups are usually caused by dripping fat or sauces on hot coals. Instead, move the meat to the indirect zone (no fire zone).
Use wood chips to enhance the flavor
This is one of the best parts of using a charcoal grill – you can add wood to enhance the flavor of whatever you’re cooking on the grill. Add a delicious smoky flavor to your food using fruity woods like apple and cherry or the classics, hickory and mesquite.
Charcoal grilling takes a lot of practice and patience! Follow and practice these helpful tips for charcoal grill users and you’ll be a certified grill master in no time!