Before you can become a weekend grill master or barbecue warrior, you will need to know how to properly build a fire.
Hopefully, you’ve already figured out that the fire is the beginning of the grilling process. Without a proper fire, you can expect to be the frustrated person who wished to have just used the George Foreman Cooker.
Don’t get us wrong, even if you use a gas grill or a commercial grade hickory smoker like we do, it is an important skill that will make you a better griller.
Building your charcoal fire is more than just opening up the bag, dumping in the charcoal, dousing them with lighter fluid and throwing on a match, although that is how our son’s do it.
We’ve seen our oldest son wait for 5-10 minutes then shake the grill to settle the coals and go to grilling. Do it this way and you will probably end up with burned burgers or raw chicken, but sometimes you might get lucky and your food will turn out okay.
Wouldn’t it be better to know that you will get good food every time?
The key to good grilling is to have an even fire.
The only time you should have any variation in heat is when you plan for it, but we know you don’t. Haven’t you noticed, that if you just dump your coals in randomly you have hot and cool spots and you have to pile the food in the middle to the rack.
If you evenly distribute the coals you can minimize those hot/cool spots and get good, even grilling. This is very important when you are cooking a large amount of food on the grill.
The number of charcoal briquettes you use will depend on the size of your grill, the amount of food you will be cooking, weather conditions and cooking time.
As a general rule of thumb, plan on using about 30 briquettes to cook 1 pound of meat.
A standard five-pound bag contains 75 to 90 briquettes. You want to make sure that you have enough briquettes to cover the grills pan in a single layer and extending out about 2″ beyond the area of the food on the grill.
Place the briquettes in the grills pan to determine the quantity and then stack them up in a rough pyramid shape to light.
Soak the briquettes with approximately 1/2 cup of lighter fluid, and don’t be such in a rush to start the fire, let it set for a few minutes before lighting.
After the coals have begun to burn and ash starts to form, you will need to arrange them with long handled tongs into a single layer.
Once you have mastered even heating its time to step up to the professional level.
Exceeding Expectations,
Kendall E. Matthews, The Barbecue Apostle
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