Charcoal Grilling for Beginners

I’ve always been one to have big backyard barbecues all summer long. I never considered myself anything of a fantastic griller until I started noticing people asking me a lot of questions, especially about why I was using charcoal and not gas. And then it occurred to me not a lot of people really knew how to use charcoal. So I decided to make a how to guide for using a charcoal grill. Here’s my how-to guide:

Charcoal Grilling for Beginners: Learning how to grill over charcoal means that you have to learn how to start a charcoal grill, how to control heat, what to grill on what level of heat, how to maintain the charcoal grill itself, how to clean a charcoal grill, how to make your purchase, and many more. Don’t be afraid, charcoal grilling is worth the effort and you’ll be rewarded more if you’re patient enough to learn the art.

There’s actually nothing wrong with having a lot of culinary options and ambitions. Even with all these gastronomic possibilities, none can arguably be much better than portions of well-sourced meat grilled over charcoal! For those of us who are looking to scale the culinary heights, there’s no question that grilling over charcoal – a practice as old as civilization itself – is one of the best ways of attaining these dreams. But choosing to use charcoal means you have to commit to learning a very unique, specific, and intensive set of skills.

We have to admit that even lighting a charcoal grill can be intimidating if you are a beginner and don’t know how to do it. But because we’re charcoal cognoscenti, we believe that you can benefit from our wisdom and become a charcoal grill master in no time! In this article, we outline everything you need to know about grilling with charcoal as a beginner. With these easy steps, you’ll be able to grill anything over charcoal and be able to impress your friends and relatives with your newfound skill!

What to Look For When Purchasing a Charcoal Grill

Charcoal grills are available in all shapes and sizes and we’re not talking about some cheap tin that you’ll use once then discard. We’re talking about real charcoal grills. Whether you’re looking for a classic charcoal grill for backyard BBQs, kitschy shaped ones or high-tech charcoal wonders, you are spoilt for choice.

No matter the price, purchasing a suitable charcoal grill comes down to two vital features:

· Good Air Control – A good charcoal grill should have an exhaust at the top (to remove the smoke) and intake vents at the bottom to help promote airflow. Both should be adjustable to make it easy to control our heat.

· Enough Surface Area – This should be big enough to enable you to divide the grill into a two-zone cooking system. You need a hotter section for searing and a cooler part where you can do your slow cooking.

To help you make an informed decision on what Grill to get you can read my article on Picking The Right Size Grill for You.

Choosing Charcoal

There are generally two charcoal options to choose from: lump charcoal or briquettes. While your choice will most definitely depend on your preferences and the readily available option, it’s important to note that briquettes are much cheaper since they burn longer.

• Briquettes, however, contain additives such as borax and sawdust, which can affect the desired flavor of your food. Lighting briquettes is also a bit difficult and could take about 30 minutes, which is quite a long time if you’re so eager to start the actual grilling process. That being said, briquettes can be a great option if you’re on a tight budget but your food’s flavor may not be as organic as you’d want it.
• Lump charcoal is a cleaner and hotter option. It not only produces less ash but is also easier to light. More importantly, it gives you a more natural approach, which most grillers prefer.

There are lots of other charcoals from around the world we have a great article on this if you’d like to read it you can find it here. (What’s The Best Charcoal For Grilling)

Cleaning Your Charcoal Grill Before Starting

While most grillers assume this step, it’s one of the most vital first steps before you start your grilling. That’s because your health should be a priority and so you shouldn’t leave anything to chance. Make it a priority to empty the old ash on the bottom of the charcoal grill from your last cookout. Removing ash is essential in ensuring there’s no ash to block the air vents, which can make temperature control a lot harder.

You should also clean the grates (this is why you need the grill cleaning brush). Just make sure you remove all the particles from your last grilling mess.

Seasoning The Grill

A lot of people aren’t aware or not sure what seasoning a grill means. Seasoning is a process of oiling and heating the grates. Not only will it keep your grill operating at its prime, but it will also add a whole new depth of flavor to your grilling. Great flavor and good maintenance of your grill start right here. Not only is the oil protecting the grates from rust, but it makes them easier to clean.

You’re going to need some oil but not just any oil will do. You’re going to need a high heat cooking oil. Use an oil with a high smoke point – something around 400F.

Now you’re going to need to coat the grill or at least the cooking grates with whatever oil you’ve chosen to use. Add some of your oil to a paper towel and start rubbing it evenly over the grill until you’re satisfied that everything is nicely coated. I know it’s a nice, clean grill and now you’re going to cover it in oil. But it’s going to be worth it down the road.

Once you’re done coating it with the oil, you need to heat it up. So let’s get a fire going if you’re using charcoal. If you’re using gas, you’re just going to need to turn the grill to high. Now just let it go for about 15 to 30 minutes or so. That’s the basics of seasoning a grill. For more information, you can check out our article (What Does It Mean to Season a Grill).

Lighting the Charcoal Grill

This is where the real grilling begins. It’s unquestionable that lighting the charcoal grill can be nerve-racking, especially if you’re new to the charcoal grilling game. However, you shouldn’t be worried; lighting charcoal is much easier than most of us think!

First, remove the cooking grates. Now you’ll need to crumple up some paper and tuck it under the charcoal grate. After adding the paper, add charcoal to the middle of the charcoal grates, making sure they’re touching so they can light off each other. Go ahead and light your paper on fire and wait for the charcoal to have white ash over it. Your grill is now ready to cook on.

Now that we covered the traditional way for lighting charcoals, let’s talk about some other ways you can light them that will make things easier for your next cookout. Remember easier isn’t always better when it comes to good grilling. Sometimes the harder way produces the best results. For more information you should read my article (How to Light a Charcoal Grill).

Way’s Of Lighting Charcoal

• Using a Chimney Starter – This is an incredible appliance that makes lighting your charcoal a breeze. A chimney starter is essentially a metal tankard that allows you to easily light charcoal in double-quick time. With a chimney starter, you’ll be ready to start grilling in about 15 minutes. The best part about using a chimney starter is that you don’t need lighter fluid, which produces fumes that can find their way into your food. These fumes can give your food some weird chemical taste while affecting the desired flavor. A chimney starter will only set you back about $20 and will save you the money that you would have otherwise spent on lighter fluid.

• Lighter Fluid – While lighter fluid is commonly used to light charcoals, it does add unnecessary chemicals into your grilling process and could add unwanted flavors to your food.

• 100% Natural Charcoal Starters – Charcoal starters are a great option for lighting your charcoal and work even better when used with a chimney starter. Whether you use them on there own or under your chimney starter in place of paper there sure to make your life easier.

• Match Light Charcoal – Will Matchlight or Instant light charcoal may seem like a good option its nothing more then briquets that are infused with lighter fluid and other additives. If you are to go with this option then please make sure you let them burn long enough to burn off all the unnecessary chemicals. Otherwise, it going to add chemical taste to your food.

• Electric Charcoal Starter – One excellent choice for a charcoal starter is the electric charcoal starter. This is an excellent choice, like the chimney starter, because it does not require the use of chemicals to get your coal going quickly! These are relatively inexpensive and really get your charcoal going fast.

Spreading the Coals and Preheating the Cooking Grates

Regardless of the ignition method you use, it’s imperative to wait for the charcoal to smolder and spread it evenly. In other words, you shouldn’t start cooking until there’s a white layer of ash around the charcoal. This is essential in burning off all the impurities but you have to be patient.

At this point, you should appropriately arrange your coal. The best way to arguably achieve a top-notch charcoal grilling experience is by creating a two zone grilling system.

• Direct Heat Zone – This should be a thick layer of coal. It’s excellent for foods that cook quickly such as veggies, hot dogs, burgers, and all types of seafood.
• Indirect Heat Zone – This zone is perfect for cooking food more slowly and gentler and should be used for foods such as large pieces of meat, ribs, pork chops, and chicken.

As you can see, these zones give you the best of both worlds. You can put your steak over direct heat and move it to the indirect zone to finish cooking. Again, you can have a coal basket to hold your lit coal so that moving it from direct to indirect zone becomes easy and safe.

What to Grill on What Level of Heat

While there’s no exact science on the timing of your grilling process, our experience tells us that different types of foods will cook at different heat levels. With that in mind, let’s look at what you can grill on high heat and what to grill on medium heat.

What to grill on Direct Heat – If you want to get a perfect sear on the outside while keeping the inside juicy, grilling on high heat is the way to go. Again, you can grill steak, burgers, corns, onions, and other dense vegetables as well as seafood on high heat as they can perfectly handle such type of heat. The rule of thumb is that anything that can cook for less than half an hour should be grilled on high heat.

What to grill on Indirect Heat – Keep in mind a lot of protein-based foods such as pork chops, chicken, large pieces of meat, eggplant, and many more generally require marinades and can burn off on high heat. They also need to be thoroughly cooked and that’s why they need to be grilled on indirect heat.

It’s always advisable to marinate these foods overnight. The main reason to marinate is that it tenderizes your food and adds a whole new depth of flavor. But if you’re short on time and can’t marinate overnight, consider increasing things like salt, soy sauce, and citrus to allow heat to quickly penetrate the food. This is vital if you want to reduce the grilling time.

How to Control Heat

If the temperature is too hot, you can decrease it by closing the air vent. Make sure that you don’t close it completely as this can put out the fire. On the other hand, you can increase the temperature by opening the air vents. Remember – when it comes to charcoal, it’s all about patience. Don’t expect to see an immediate temperature change – this will take a few minutes.

Depending on the type of food that you’re grilling, you can choose to shut the lid up top with the exhaust and it will turn your grill into some sort of an oven. You’ll, however, have to keep an eye on the process so that the grill doesn’t turn to an incinerator. This is where the thermostat comes in handy.

How to Clean Your Charcoal Grill

It’s fundamental that you clean your charcoal grill if you’re done with the grilling. You certainly do not want your lovely grill to be coated with impurities that would pollute future cookouts just because you can’t spare a few minutes to clean the charcoal grill. Put on a glove and clean the charcoal grill right after cooking when it’s still hot.

A grill cleaning brush can do wonders. Just make sure that you don’t go for cheaper versions that could shed wire that can end up in your steak during your next cookout. You can get a step by step guide on cleaning a charcoal grill by clicking here.

How to Make Your Charcoal Grill Last Longer

In addition to the normal care and maintenance that you should offer to a charcoal grill, do not get impatient and drench a super-hot charcoal grill with cold water. Remember, patience is one of the most important aspects of the charcoal grilling game.

The best thing you could do is move it indoors After it’s cooled off of course so no moisture can get into it. If you can, move it into your garage or shed. If that’s not an option, be sure to cover it with a vinyl or nylon cover. In fact, you should cover your grill even if you take it inside, just to be extra safe.

If you live in an area with lots of snow, heavy rain, or high levels of humidity, make sure to move your grill indoors. Humidity and moisture will surely cause rust if you don’t do anything about it. If you live near an ocean, the salty air could also lead to corrosion, so be extra careful with that.

Why Charcoal Grilling?

Whether you love camping trips or spending your weekends at the beach, a great outdoor adventure cannot be complete without grilling. But why would you choose to grill with charcoal instead of gas? Well, we have to admit that there’s an inordinate feeling of triumph that comes with firing up a charcoal grill and producing a sumptuous food from it!

More importantly, there’s nothing like the smell of charcoal floating through the neighborhood on a warm summer afternoon. The enchanting smoky aroma of food cooking on a charcoal grill is one of those few summer pleasures we always look forward to all year long.

In addition to being an efficient and great fuel choice, charcoal is well-regarded for its high, meat-searing temperatures. Again, it may be an old way of grilling foods, but it will give your grilled foods smoky and sumptuous flavor. Grilling with charcoal also offers impeccable flexibility as you can either grill or smoke almost any type of food with it.

Much better is the fact that grilling with charcoal offers some sort of a learning curve, especially if you want to quench your curiosity by learning something this summer! Unlike gas grills, a charcoal grill does not have knobs, buttons, and other settings that you can simply press and wait. Instead, you have to do everything manually, which needs you to learn a couple of things such as how to light a charcoal grill. You shouldn’t, however, be scared by the effort required. Well, that’s because you’ll be rewarded with delicious grilled food cooked to precision if you do it right.

Charcoal Grilling Drawbacks

One noticeable caveat with charcoal grilling is that you must watch your food closely lest it becomes incinerated. Again, the ease of lighting can be discouraging but it shouldn’t be a problem if you have a chimney starter. It could also be argued that the ease to control temperature is thrown out of the window in charcoal grilling given that it requires more attention than just turning a knob or pressing a button.

But even with these drawbacks and advancement in the gas grill industry, we can bet that a charcoal grill still gives a much better flavor than a gas grill!

Accessories for Your Charcoal Grilling Escapades

Although you do not need a whole ton of accessories to make your charcoal grilling easier and wonderful, you don’t have to face the charcoal flame with a mere table fork as your only armory. Needless to say, having these basic tools gives you total control of what happens on your charcoal grill.

• Chimney Starter – As I mentioned earlier this makes lighting your charcoal grill much easier while discarding the need for lighter fluid. This used along with Natural Charcoal Starters is my preferred option for lighting charcoal.

• Grill Tongs – These are essential for keeping your hands at a safer distance from the heat. You can’t use a spatula to do everything and that’s where a good set of tongs come in.

• Long-handed Spatula – A good spatula is a must have when grilling and when your dealing with the risk of flareups your not going to want to get to close. This spatula is long enough to keep you safe and it can open your beer as well.

• Grill Fork – Is perfect for piercing food without wastefully shredding any piece (you certainly don’t want to waste your yummy steak)!

• Instant-read Thermometer – While this is not a must-have, it can be vital in ensuring that you do not undercook or overcook your foods. Again, acquiring a food thermometer shouldn’t be much of a problem because we’re in 2019. In short, digital thermometers for food are readily available and will only set you back around $30!

• Basting Brush –Your going to need a basting brush to spread sauces and marinades onto your chicken or ribs. Just like with all grilling accessories your going to need a brush that lets you keep your distance from the heat.

• Wire Basket – A basket like this comes in handy when your grilling fish and vegetables. It keeps them from falling through the grates and into the coals. You can also take this with you if your going to be using a grill in a public park that might be rusty. This way your food won’t have to go directly on the rusty grates.

• Grill Cleaning Brush – Your going to need a good cleaning brush to clean up after your done grilling. It doesn’t matter how careful you are your going to get some sauce on the grates or some burned on food. If you don’t clean if off then the next time you grill it’s going to affect the taste of your food.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that we all love a sumptuous BBQ and most of us are coveting for the title of the master backyard chef on the block. Whether you’re looking to please your dad or your friends with your newfound skill, charcoal grilling should be on top of your list. So as you begin on your charcoal grilling journey, cut yourself some slack and take the learning curve naturally since experience is the best teacher. Just be patient and with time, you will be a master.

As Always, Happy Grilling!!