light your grill sustainably
I know it's obvious to veteran charcoal grill-masters, but I'm consistently shocked by people who ask: "what is that metal thing?"
I'll keep this short: avoid the use of nasty charcoal fluid. It smells awful and isn't good for your food or body. Instead, purchase an inexpensive chimney-starter (pictured), which uses old newspaper to start coals for cooking. Enough said.
There are several schools of thought debating the correct way to use this device, but here's a process that works for me every time:
- locate two full pages from your daily newspaper (or your neighbor's)
- crumple up one sheet and place it in the underside of your starter
- fill the top with charcoal, place on grill grate
- light paper and let it burn off completely
- load the second piece of newspaper into the bottom
- light paper and let it burn off - your coals should be emitting some smoke and heat at this point
- drink 1-3 beers while waiting for coals to heat up (15-30 minutes, depending on the weather and amount of charcoal used)
2 comments:
Not that taking time to drink 1-3 beers is bad.. but if you want to speed up the process, put your crumpled paper in a bowl and lightly sprinkle a vegtable oil in it before putting it into the chimney and lighting. The paper will burn hotter and longer.
this is a great tip. it warms my heart to think of your entire family huddled around the screen to type that response.
Post a Comment