Thread: How to start a charcoal grill

It's funny but the chimney starters have been around for decades. I only started using them in the early 90's when I had my first webber grill and my sister bought me a chimney for a house warming. We used that thing until it rusted out.

These days I just use propane.

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I just read the thread starter.

Charcoal grilling is a bit of an art. You need the chinmey to get the "initial" coals going so they're ashed over and glowing red.

You dump the hot coals onto the lower grill and depending upon how "hot" you want your grill to get, you may need to add more on "top" of the starter coals. The key is how "close" you get your meat of choice, to the charcoal. If your chimney is a smaller one, all you get is probably 2 dozen briquettes that's still 6" too far from the meat. You want it closer. This is where the "art" comes in. Too close and you'll have blackened steak, in the wrong manner. You want to pile it high enough to sear the steak or chicken so it locks in the juices.

From there, you can shovel the meat around for indirect heat (put meat away from the charcoal) and allow the heat inside the webber to cook away. Ideally then, you want like 2-3 layers of briquettes covring only 1/2 the lower grill. If you want, you can layer the entire bottom initially during the searing part, then shovel the coals themselves to one side.

This is why they have temp gauges on the covers. If you can keep it at 350-400 deg. F., then you'll have a good steak in about 15 minutes after initial searing on both sides. Time vary's with how thick your steak or chicken is. You'll eventually get used to it. Another trick is to be sure that whatever meat you're planning to cook, is out of the fridge (not frozen hopefully) and left at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes.