How to properly heat your coals in the BBQ grill.?
Monday, January 10th, 2011 at
2:25 pm
I’ve been BBQing on my own for a few months but it seems no matter what I do the coals just won’t keep hot long enough to cook a nice thick steak. I have a regular BBQ grill and use firestone coals and lighter fluid. Help a fellow BBQ lover out.
-X
Tagged with: bbq grill • coals • fellow • firestone • lighter fluid • thick steak
Filed under: BBQ Grills
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It sounds like your either not heating the coals long enough or not using enough coals.
1) Heat long enough: be sure to heat the coals until they are uniformly white/gray. You can use a chimney starter (recommended) or lighter fluid. Using a chimney starter is very simple: load the starter with coals, wad-up paper beneath the starter, light the paper, flame-on for ~10 mins, dump the hot coals into the grill, and cook. Lighter fluid requires a little more finesse: stack the coals into a pyramid in the middle of the grill, coat with fluid (remember – you’re going to EAT from this grill, so don’t hose the place down with volatile chemicals), light in multiple places until the stack is alight, walk-away for ~20 mins, observe the white/gray pile of coals, distribute the coals across the grate, and cook.
2) Not using enough coals: the goal is to sear the steak over a super-hot fire, so you want to be sure to use enough coals. Use enough coals to stack 2-coals-high under the steak (below the cooking surface), then a 1-coal-high height under the rest of the cooking surface. This is a two-stage fire, and is recommended for steaks.
Technique: sear the steak over the "hot" (2-high) coals, then move to the "cold" (1-high) coals to cook longer.
If you have a grill with an adjustable rack (not nearly as common as the classic Weber kettle) then you don’t need a two-stage fire, just get those steaks close to the coals for the sear, then most them up for the cook.
The best part of this kind of cooking is the discovery: you can eat steak after steak as you develop the perfect cooking technique.
Good luck!
soak your charcoal first with lighter fluid from the bottle. , let it sit for 10 minutes… then put a little more on the charcoals before you light them… let them burn for 5-10 minutes then put the lid on your grill with the air vent open a little… wait for the charcoal to turn mostly light grey before putting your steaks on…