Ready to celebrate the summer?
Charcoal grilling is here to makes your celebration complete.
Summer is here, and you aren’t firing up grills; it can’t just happen. Many of us think that gas grilling is easier than why so many efforts put in charcoal grilling? Well, it’s right that charcoal grilling is intimidating, but it’s also fun. If you know how to use a charcoal grill, the result is delicious and worth the effort.
Why is Charcoal Grilling Best?
I can guarantee that you won’t find the real flavor (juicy and smokey test) of food in any other cooking way. In charcoal grilling food, there is something special that too by spending less than gas counterparts. The prices are very affordable. You can find out the best charcoal grill under 200$.
Anyway, it’s not a matter of money, but about the taste; you won’t get that delicious hamburger, juicy sausages, and smokey chicken in gas grilling. Almost everyone claims that charcoal is best for outdoor cooking, as it gives you a natural experience of cooking with better taste results.
If you are new and don’t have any charcoal grilling experience, don’t worry. We have covered you from start to end. Read and follow the instruction; we hope you will cook the best delicious charcoal food for the first time.
How to Use a Charcoal Grill?
Charcoal is easy to light, inexpensive, stay steady, and burn for a longer time. If you want more smokey flavor than the natural charcoal flavor, you can go with hardwood, citrus woods, and fruitwoods. These woods are radiantly hot but burn out faster than others and gives you a smokey flavor that you want.
Before you start, you must remember that your vents need to be open before you light your grill. Because the fire will need some oxygen to sustain, after placing the charcoal in the grill, you can adjust the vents as per your need to control the internal cooking temperature. The wider the vents will be, the hotter flames and oxygen you will get, and the smaller means the cooking temperature is cold; if you want your food to cook correctly, never close the vents in all ways, as it will help all the flames go out.
How to Get your Charcoal Ready to Start Grilling:
Take a newspaper, dip it into vegetable oil, and place it at the chimney’s bottom point. Fill the chimney with charcoal to the point it can be filled out. Take a match long enough or stick, light it up and touch the newspaper with it. Let the coal burn for 20 minutes until they are gray-ashed over, and if you want high heat, then burn the coal for 5-10 minutes.
How to Prepare your Grill Perfectly:
Clean your grill first with a wet rag; it’s safe. Now wear grill gloves, hold the chimney properly, and put all the charcoal on the grill. Place the food over the charcoal when it’s hot. In this step, if you want to grill fast cooking food, then place it in the direct heat, or if you’re going to grill food that takes a long time, then place them in the side of the coal or indirect heat.
How to Cook your Food Over Charcoals:
Cover the grill with a paper towel that is soaked in vegetable oil or cooking oil and spread it over the grill if needed. This is the best trick to keep your food from sticking to the grill. Don’t open the towel often and let the heat come out if you want to cook something in lower heat. But if you want your food to cook fast, then open it and let the coal burn quickly with oxygen. You can use a temperature read thermometer to check the food if it is rightly cooked from inside or not. How to measure that? Let me tell you about the right temperature.
If your food temperature is 160f (71), then its right for porch, 165F (74 C) is for chicken pieces, and 170f (77 C) is for beef.
How to Light a Charcoal Grill
Before we dig into how to cook in a charcoal grill, we need to know how to light the charcoal grill. To cook in a charcoal grill, this is the problematic step freshers face. So I will tell you about some way you can follow to light the charcoal grill to get the perfect smokey taste.
Light Your Charcoal Grill with a Newspaper
Using the newspaper as a fire starter is the easiest way you can light your charcoal grill. In another way, it will be newspaper recycling. Rolled up the old newspaper, light it with the help of a match or lighter, and place it into the charcoal-grilled. This method works very fast if your newspaper is well lighted.
Light Your Charcoal Grill with a Charcoal Chimney
At first, fill the chimney with enough charcoal, keep holes between them too light up. Now take a long stick or newspaper, light it with fire and leave it in several chimney spots filled with charcoal. Gradually the newspaper or stick will burn, and the charcoal will also burn with them. Check if the charcoals are burning with the stick or not. If not, then burns another one with some cooking oil and leaves it in the chimney like before. When the coals will turn ashy, pour them onto the bottom grill, and spread it.
Light Your Charcoal Grill with an Electric Charcoal Starter
In this method, we will take the help of an electric device with a handle and a metal loop. Plug the electric device on an outdoor-rated extension cable. Load one layer of charcoal and keep them together near the center of the charcoal grill. Now place the metal element or heating element onto the center of the charcoal layer. Now put another layer of charcoal on the top of the electric device and the nearby charcoals. When the charcoal is well lighted, remove the electric charcoal starter. But this process a little time to ignite the coals than other methods, so if you want to use this method, you have to keep some patience in lighting the charcoals.
Light Your Charcoal Grill with a Lighter Fluid
This is the most tried method that works best to light the charcoals, but this process is risky. Any little mistake can turn into a big problem, so use it only when other failed methods.
Arrange the charcoals in a pyramid shape, add lighter fluid on the top of the pyramid, wait for 30 seconds and light the fluid immediately. Be careful never spray lighter onto hot charcoals. After the liquid is entirely burned, the coals’ side will turn deep ashy, and that’s when the charcoals are ready to use and spread out. This process is the fastest; you can light up your charcoals, and it will take only 15 minutes, but this process is risky. So, keep that in mind.
Conclusion
So, knowing how to use a charcoal grill and how to light your charcoal grill is must-have things you would wish.
Happy Grilling.