Many people are turned away from grilling with charcoal because of how difficult it seems to be to get a good bed of coals going to ensure that food it cooked properly and in a timely manner (for example, it shouldn't take two hours to grill brats!).
Our goal with this post isn't to convert the world to charcoal grilling, but rather to demystify the process so that your next grilling party can be a relaxing occasion rather than a searing headache. The advice given here comes from Chris' personal experience over years of successful grilling (as I, the wife of Chris Meis and recipient of many fine meals, will attest to!).
There are three basic items you need to start your charcoal grilling adventure: charcoal briquettes, lighter fluid, and a grill.
Before you begin, make sure that your grill has been emptied of ash from past grilling sessions. Fire needs oxygen, and if the bottom of your grill is thick with greasy ash, it cannot adequately draw air. If you have an adjustable lower damper, make sure it is open half way.
Pile your charcoal briquettes on one side of the grill. This is done to provide you with hot and warm sections of the grill; the hot section is where you will do your cooking, and the warm section is where you will keep the finished food warm while cooking the remainder of the food.
Not sure how many briquettes to use? Chris suggests 20-30 briquettes for cooking smaller items like brats and hot dogs, and a coffee can full to a can and a half for larger items like chicken and hamburgers.
Once your briquettes are set, soak liberally with lighter fluid, but avoid putting so much on that there is standing fluid in the bottom of the grill.
Let the fluid soak in for about a minute before lighting. If you light it too soon, the fuel will simply burn away at the surface and not actually catch the briquettes. When you do light the briquettes, make sure to light in several places around the briquette pile.
The briquettes should blaze for a while. If there is a strong breeze, you can shield the flames by hanging the grill lid on windy side of the grill. Do not cover the grill at this point.
The fire will eventually die down, but if you had a good initial blaze, the briquettes will continue to burn. It is OK if you don't actually see any flame - the fire at this point is smoldering and turning the briquettes to coals. You can check that there is still life in the coals by blowing on them and seeing if they glow red.
Once the coals have turned white, they are ready for cooking. Using a grilling tool of your choice, knock the coals down so they spread out a bit more, but try to maintain your hot and warm zones of the grill.
If you need to cook quickly with high heat, place the grill cover on and leave the damper open. This will draw more oxygen and create a hotter bed of coals.
If you want to slow-cook your food, place the grill cover on and set the damper to mostly closed. This starves the oxygen, but still allows enough to filter in to feed the coals. Closing the damper completely could starve the coals too much and put them out.
We hope that this advice will help you at your next summer cook out! Happy grilling!
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